Rebarreling my Marlin

[Hickory]

I have a marlin 336 with micro-groove barrel and would like to have it rebarreled with the deeper ballard rifling.
Is there anyone out there who can do this?

[DaveD]

Sure, but why do you want to do that?

[KCSO]

When you are done send me the old barrel!

Now if you are SURE this is what you want to do this isn't a real hard task. If you have a modicum of smarts and a few tools you just might be able to do it at home. You can rent the gauges and a reamer if needed. Most of these jobs the headspace is so close you really don't need to do anything but screw out and screw in, not to be confused with screw up.

[EDK]

I have a marlin 336 with micro-groove barrel and would like to have it rebarreled with the deeper ballard rifling.
Is there anyone out there who can do this?

Go over to marlinowners.com for more information. I, like a lot of others, am waiting until July (per MARLIN's repair shop conversation) to send them a RC in 30/30 to be converted to a 24 inch octagon barrel Cowboy rifle with Ballard type rifling. I bought a 30/30 Cowboy rifle off gunbroker last month and really like it; especially with the 311041 PB group buy mould I bought from Garandsrus (Thanks again sir!)

The RC has original (read d--- near useless!) sights and a micro-groove barrel, but is fairly accurate with .311 boolits of water cooled wheel weights at about 15 BH. The mould is as cast at .313+....tempting to try as cast and LLA or lap the die out to .312.

You might want to go to RANCH DOG's web site and read what he has to say about MARLINS, micro groove barrels and cast boolits. Unfortunately, it will be a while until his 30 caliber mould will be available again.

www.gmdr.com/lever/options has data on reduced loads with cast boolits and pistol powder that you might also find interesting.

[1950Target]

I like the Ballard Rifled Marlins too! I just watch the AUCTIONS and buy em when I can, I've got 336 SC and ADLs in .30-30, .32 WIN and .35 REM all early 1950s late 40s Ballard rifled, I also have a 1972 production 1895 with 8 groove Ballard and frankly its my favorite rifle.

With whatmit will cost to rebarrel you can probably get an original, and then sell your current one to cover most of the cost. Just be sure to ask questions before bidding about non-factory holes drilled in the reciever, some people went NUTS with those damned side-mounts years ago!

I have not scoped any of my Marlins, everyone wears williams reciever sights with the aperature removed to dunction like a ghost ring, I like it that way.

But as I posted in another thread, I mhave a MicroGroove 336Y in .44 MAG which is the first Marlin I ever owned. Ive. shot between 1k and 2k cast boolits through it with nairy a problem all these years, cast 'em hard and use gas checks. I also have a '94 in .357 and have NEVER shot a jacketed boolit through it and really, never a problem, CAST 'EM HARD AND USE GAS CHECKS, microgroove is no problem with cast boolits!

If you find a really good ballard barrel maker though let me know. UPS broke the stock on a .20-20 ADL I bought and I want to do either a .38-55 or .25-35 neither of which Marlin ever did in the 336 until recently the .38-55 in the "COWBOY" (I don't care for the checkering, I like my Marlin's stocks smooth.)

[Four Fingers of Death]

I had a microgroove 444S and considered re=barrelling, but did a bit of research and found the tricks to making the MG Bbl work. Lo and behold, a NIB 444 with Ballard rifling landed on the rack at the local gunshop, I liked the checkered stock (with real nice wood) a lot better, so I bought it and held out for a good price on my old one. Change ove worked out a bit over $200. I'm happy, got the Bbl I wanted andf a nice stock for way less than rebarrelling.

Doing up your gun has merit because it will become a one off, made especially for you. Your the one paying the bills, it's up to you.

[BABore]

The new Marlin Ballard rifling is no deeper than the microgroove. This is based on actually bore slugs. They both run 0.0030 to 0.0035" deep. Period. The only difference is in the number of grooves. Both barrels commonly have bore constrictions at the bbl threads, roll markings, and dovetails (which are stamped in instead of machine cut). MicroGroove rifled bbls thrive on oversized boolits and many like them harder too (narrow lands and shallow grooves). They also benefit from lapping to smooth them up (fouling in narrow, shallow grooves). The Ballard rifled bbls. are a bit more forgiving on how much bigger the boolits are and foul a little less. My MicroGoove barreled guns shoot just as accurate as my new Ballards.

Unless your going full custom barrel, where you can dictate the rifling, or come acrossed an original Ballard rifled barrel, your likely to be just your wasting money.
Slug your bore, full length, and also do a muzzle slug so you can determine if you have bore constrictions. The muzzle slug should be the smaller of the two. Measure a fired case and size your boolits so they just slip fit into them. Adjust your expander to give about 0.002" of neck tension and try them. Adjust boolit hardness as needed. The only way I would consider a bbl replacement is if the chamber wouldn't allow a big enough boolit, or if the throat was out of wack.