Thread: 1970s lever guns 336 vs W94.

Looked at a mates Marlin 336 from the early 70s today at and was astonished at how tight and smooth and well engineered the action was and how crisp the trigger was too. It seriously left me wanting and I already have a straight stock Texan in the same cal. The walnut on this 336 was very good.

I have a nice 70s 94 top eject which is an amazing looking and balanced rifle but mechanically I'm starting to turn to Marlins and you can scope them. Good for aging eyes.

Lever afficianados.

1. What's the value these 1970s in good condition please?
Thus one has a couple of wee chips in the stock

2. What's your preference between the 70s 336s and 94s if you've had experience? I've found 94s not as crisp or good in the trigger dept.

3. What's a good 70s 94 going for these days?

As you can probably tell, I'm weighing up the marlin.
I'm a sucker for earlier levers both shooting and carrying.
The 94 is definitely classic. Inner debate gone public.

Is it Marlin or Winchester for you?

winchester all day long...the marlins in 30/30 at least are diferent ammunition wise,pretty certain they prefer it shorter. mate has one of that vintage and its feeding of rounds is piggy compared to winchester...I used 94 for couple of years and could shoot very well with it... scopes are great,unless its pissing down with rain,or need to dro prifle to grab leg of pig,or bounce around on deck of truck,if your eyes can still handle open sights,embrace them.
have used a few rossi levers too,pretty sure they copy of the earlier 92 action,very smooth.

I think everyone knows I am a Marlin fan .
Nothing wrong with Winchester but I prefer the side eject , and the Marlins are easier to strip and maintain imo .
I think smoothness of action is as much about maintenance and amount of use than action design . A loose well used rifle will be smoother than a less used in either action .
The Marlins do seem to be fussy with ammunition as Micky said .

I have 3 Marlins , but no longer own any Winchester style actions

Should be able to pick up a 336 of that vintage for around $700 in good condition. IMO the 336 is superior for the reasons you've already stated, smoother, better trigger and more versatile. Downside is the microgroove barrels don't like cast lead if that's your thing. The Winchesters are still good but do hold their value and are obviously a bit more expensive.

Originally Posted by mawzer308

Downside is the microgroove barrels don't like cast lead if that's your thing.

microgroove are very good with cast bullets . . . no better or worse than conventional rifling, for an experienced caster or someone willing to learn.
As always those without the skills or a good attitude will have trouble.

I have a .375 Win 94 top eject that is mounted with a scope on a side mounted plate...there was a time when they made such things...I had a .375 Win 94 AE, sold that...had a 356 Win 94 AE, sold that after having my arm twisted by a collector of Win 94's who will never shoot it.

Hi, I have a Marlin 336 Microgroove in 30-30 made in 1984 and apparently a rare beast for that date being a 18.5" barrel. It shoots cast lead 150gn HP Gas Checked just fine. Its tight and smooth. I've had it since 1988. In 1998 I bought a Winchester while living in the US and brought it home, eventually sold it. It was of the stamped rather than machined parts variety. No problems with function and shot well but I never really liked it for the top eject or the rattle of the lever assembly when carrying it. Impossible to be quiet. I've since got into Rossi Puma 92s and have them in 4 calibres. Fantastic rifles. The Marlin gets little use these days as I'm more sensitive to carry weight and the Rossi is a lot lighter. The Marlin is factory drilled and tapped to take a rail and conventional scope with conventional eye relief. I bought my last Puma in Hunting & Fishing at an excellent used price. An older dude had bought it for a pig gun. He couldn't see well enough with iron sights so sought a optical solution. Plugged a sling mount into the firearm to mount a laser sight underneath. UGHH! He could not get that to work. Why try? H&F told him because the Puma is top eject it could not take Optics so sold him a Pomba single shot or somesuch. Guess they did not know about the factory drilled and tapped holes exposed by removal of the rear sight. I took a lovely 44-40 home at a steal price and it now wears a Vortex Crossfire 2-7x32 Scout scope and is a joy to shoot and carry with my old eyes. The positioning of the mounting holes down the barrel on the Rossi allows a Red Dot or Scout scope with long eye relief to be mounted forward of the top ejection port. I imported Pearson rails which work really well. Rossi make a short stainless red dot style rail that are as rare as Rocking Horse.... I have one of those but the Pearson is better value IMO.

So if you have to have Walnut then Winchester or Marlin. If you want optics then horrible side mount for Winchester or traditional over the bolt setup for Marlin. If you want accurate, light and reasonably priced (stainless or blue) with great optics, then Rossi Puma with a Pearson rail and either a red dot or scout scope. The wood is hardwood but of the Sth American variety.

Have fun

Further to the above. If you save brass to reload it is a lot easier to capture a spent shell with my left (off) hand at the top of the ejection port with a top eject than a side eject. With practice you do it without thinking. Saves hunting the grass.

Second, while I aspire to pigs and deer reality for me is mostly goats. This will be heresy to those of you who love your factory boat tail bonded expanding tip $2 a-pop projectiles but most of my goat kills are with coated lead round nose flatpoints such as the HRBC TargetHawkes from Delta Mike. 158gn 357 flat points have taken a lot of goats for me out to 130m. Occasionally to 200. A 240gn 44mag, 44-40 or 45 Colt pill will, I venture to suggest, kill anything you can hit in the right place at those ranges.

357 158gn TargetHawkes or equivalent run at around 22c each, 240gn up around the 30c. Bought in lots of 400 to 1000 that's a lot of cheap shooting. Can't see why you would need anything else for a bailed pig or a bush deer out to 100m. At 1400-1600fps they are hitting very hard indeed. For 40c you can buy gas checked cast hollowpoints which are nice but not as consistently accurate for me. But then I'm no expert....

Side mounts are not pretty, but do the job

Out of those two an early 80s angle eject Winchester before the cross bolt safety would be my choice.

But once you get past a trapper length into a 20 inch barrel lever that you want to scope the BLR in 308 is the go. It weighs less than the Marlin or the Winchester, can pack more punch out of the box or load down to 30-30 levels. It also all being equal will be more accurate.

Actually don't you have one already?

Originally Posted by Got-ya

Out of those two an early 80s angle eject Winchester before the cross bolt safety would be my choice.

But once you get past a trapper length into a 20 inch barrel lever that you want to scope the BLR in 308 is the go. It weighs less than the Marlin or the Winchester, can pack more punch out of the box or load down to 30-30 levels. It also all being equal will be more accurate.

Actually don't you have one already?

Hi Got-ya,
A lightning 7m08. valid points about weight and knock down power of the blr, I'd hazard a guess my blr is lighter than the 336 which has a 20# brl.
I must weight it.

Never owned an AE but that is on the wish list. Good examples hold premium value. Had a look at a new 94 top eject model - out of Japan, nice, great wood, slightly tighter action, trigger ( av ) and was surprised at the weight of it. My early 94 is significantly lighter.

Your Lightning is an alloy reciever which will go 6.5 lbs bare. A Marlin with 20 inch barrel is 7 lbs from memory. Winchesters are about the same maybe just under 7lbs?. So many different models of both it is hard to nail down exactly.

They are all great guns but as boring as this advise is, what you have is hard to go past.

Mate had a 336 in thutty thutty around the 70s. Very nice rifle. It was the sort of rifle you would put a scope on (he didnt) and would carefully slip in and out of a gun bag.
The 94 would not have a gun bag, would be slipped across the floor in the ute amongst all the mud and shit. Would never miss a beat when asked to perform.

IIRC mate's one had the microgroove rifling which developed a rep for premature wearing out using Norma?? ammo of the day. Mate's one never had any issues.

It must be time to bring this thread back to life...
https://www.nzhuntingandshooting.co....-thread-44138/