M14 Forum

straight shooter · October 18th, 2011, 05:53 AM

Ive owned TWO Marlin 336's.
With a simple 3X9 scope, both of these rifles would shoot a 3 shot cloverleaf
at 100 yards. This was with 150gr. Remington ammo.
The 180 grains were only slightly less accurate.
Believe it, or not.
Also, my personal experiance with these two, and several others, plus a few Winchester
94's, is I have not seen a Winchester that was more accurate than a Marlin.
I like the Marlin ergonomics far more than the Winchester.
This is my experiance/opinion.

casebro · October 18th, 2011, 08:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by casebro

... Another idea I toy with is to pull the barrel from an old bolt action .410 in my closet, and fit it to the '94. I don't think any other mods would be needed. 2 1/2" shells only, buck, slug, shot. I haven't found any parts list that shows different parts for the 9410. Anybody know ? Barrel only difference?

No go on the .410 conversion. I tried a 2 1/2" shell in the action. Won't enter the through the loading gate, and rim is too big to fit between the shell guides. 30-30 guides might be able to get get modified, but that is only half the battle. Maybe the 'big bore' models would have a larger feed system? Didn't the 'big bore' model come out before the 9410? And is the probably direct ancestor?

bigkicks · October 18th, 2011, 09:50 AM

i have my dad's old marlin, bought a scope from cabelas, think it was calleda lever action scope for about 1oo bucks. combined it with hornady leverevolution ammo and shot 2" groups with it. i was shocked!! prior to that i cudnt hit a barn door with that rifle..

RichRoy · October 23rd, 2011, 11:44 AM

When I was a kid (early 1960's) I was at the range with my Dad. He was sighting in his scoped model 70 .270. He finished and just for kicks he grabbed the open sight model 94 and fired a round at a 200 yard gong the range had. GONG!

buchkshot · October 23rd, 2011, 02:18 PM

The Winchester 94 carbine is notorius for erratic accuracy. Unscrew the front band screw a tad and that might help - it did for me. Generally, it prefers heavier bullets over lighter bullets. I started loading 170 grain soft points and was experiencing good accuracy but changed course and commenced using the 160 grain Hornady LeveRevolution rounds, immediately after they were introduced to the market, and grouping sizes were halved. HTH

NE450N02 · October 24th, 2011, 07:03 PM

I have shot several lever action 30/30's over the years.

All of them would shoot under 3" at 100 yards, 5 shot groups, with factory ammo.
And this is with iron sights.

This includes a couple of Winchester Trappers.

MesaRifle · November 1st, 2011, 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bmcgilvray

"My Grandmother thought there was a difference..."

There is a great whopping difference.

I once tested the notion of the .32 Winchester being considered more powerful than the .30-30 by many old-timers and a real step up in performance. Both my .32 Winchester and .30-30 were made by Winchester pre-World War II, sport 20-inch barrels with sparkling bright bores and were fired over the chronograph with factory fresh Winchester ammunition featuring 170 grain bullets for both cartridges.

Muzzle velocity for the .30-30 was 2104 fps.

Muzzle velocity for the .32 Winchester Special was 2114 fps.

I like the .32 Winchester even if it is redundant and effectively obsolete on the market. It's fun because it's just a bit different. I've taken a few deer with the .32 Winchester out to a paced 90 yards and it worked absolutely great; just as fine as the few deer I've taken with the .30-30.

Was once given a re-bbl'd Savage 99. Actually the owner had shot out the original 30-30 bore, and then had the one-common rebore job out to to .32 Special. Unfortunately, the 'smith set the twist @ a staggeringly slow 1:30". It would have done so much better @, oh let's say, 1:18 or so.

Anyhow, it was spectacularly inaccurate! 5 shots into 6 - 8" @ 80 yds! Minute of Cat D-9 at best (not that I've EVER shot at them...)

The .32 SPl gained that rep once it was shot out even a little bit, again due to that über-slow rifling. Otherwise, no reason it or the .30-30 should not be capable of excellent hunting type lever-rifle accuracy (as in: 3 shots into 2" @ 100 yds, max.) in a good rifle bore and all the rest of the necessities of accuracy.

Whatsinaname181 · November 1st, 2011, 12:16 PM

I saw a guy, a gun magazine writer i think, come out to the range and shoot some leverloution ammo through his and he was shooting around 1 MOA at 100 M. had to see it to believe it.

Charlene32 · November 1st, 2011, 02:17 PM

i think the 30-30 can be very accurate at 100yds. after that, i dont know....ive never tried. i have a Marlin 336 and i love it. it is my short range deer slayer when i'm driving.

Bamban · November 1st, 2011, 03:43 PM

How accurate can a 30-30 be? Answer - Benchrest accurate.

One of the accomplished benchrest shooters and gunsmiths in Central Texas, built his bench gun in 30-30 just to prove the old cartridge can. He dominated the Hunter Benchrest for awhile and won his share of group shooting till he quit the game for personal reasons. That was the time I wanted to build a reduced course match rifle in 30-30 just to be different.

FYI, one of the old rules in Hunter Benchrest, the cartridge must have the case capacity of 30-30. Why that, I don't know. Maybe as a tribute to old hunter the 30-30 is.