UPS returmed my '51 336 30-30 that Bose's Guns (http://bosesofnebraska.com/main.html) of Emerson, NE refurbished and rechambered. The rifle was pretty ratty but a great shooter and now it looks as good as it shoots. I had them parkerize it and apply their Hunter Finish (hand oil) to the stocks. The pictures really don't do it the job credit because it is quite a pretty sight!

Michael

Ranch Dog,

GTood looking gun.
When you begin your fireforming of brass dont overlook the 110 grain .30 carbine bullets. they are accurate in my Marlin and frorm brass on the cheap.

Thanks for the info. I've got plenty of those bullets on hand as I have a carbine. I think that I will end up shooting just cast bullets out of the rifle though... at least that is my eventual plan.

Michael

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm

Dont forget Greg data. It is very interesting and will imporve your bench technique!

Greg has some interesting data but the loads are shot at extremely low velocities and are not adequate for hunting.

Michael

RD, that's one handsome 336A. I've been tempted to have mine rechambered to .30-30 Ackley Improved. Let us know how yours shoots.

I really like that Parkerized finish. Looks good!

What kind of oil did they use for the wood stock? I'd like to try using it on a 22 rifle stock I have.

It will be interesting to see how the loading gate finish holds up to all the cartridges you are going to stuff in it. :p

RDog,

Nice job. I have a 336/35 Rem. that has a scabby blue job. A previous owner must have left it in a zip up case when it was wet or had sweated in the case.

It's a shooter and I was thinking of sending it to Marlin. But what you have shown us has given me another option to consider.

Thanks for sharing.

The parkerizing isn't for everybody because it isn't a particularly pretty finish. Just not the mirror blue of the production rifles. It is a very durable, non-reflective finish that is perfect for a close up hunter like myself.

I had sent this rifle back to Marlin to get blued and they sent it back as they only work on current production rifles, or so they told me. Actually, I was told different every time I talked to a different person. They've got some consistancy problems with customer contacts but that is another story.

Michael

Looks good. Think I'll have to send my Turk up there if I can't find someone in the central Texas area to parkerize it.

Have you ever heard of anyone Parkerizing a scope?

No, I haven't.

Michael

Real Nice Rifle RD..

Sidespin-

The heat involved in parkerizing or phosphatizing would not do the seals on the scope any good, so that's one reason that you can't parkerize an existing scope. You can however find some older USMC Unertl scopes that have been parkerized from the factory, but plan to pay a pretty penny. Since most scopes nowadays have aluminum tubes, there is not the corrosion problem that you had with steel tubed scopes, so almost any good quality Leupold, Burris, Zeiss etc. in a matte finish will accomplish the same thing, i.e. low reflectivity and anti corrosion.

UPS returmed my '51 336 30-30 that Bose's Guns (http://bosesofnebraska.com/main.html) of Emerson, NE refurbished and rechambered. The rifle was pretty ratty but a great shooter and now it looks as good as it shoots. I had them parkerize it and apply their Hunter Finish (hand oil) to the stocks. The pictures really don't do it the job credit because it is quite a pretty sight!

Michael

I really like the look that the parkerizing procedure did on your gun. I have an old 30/30 that I reblued a few years ago myself, but was never really happy with the job. It is better than it was because most of the original blue was worn off. I am really interested in the parkerizing though.

If you don't mind tellin, how much did the job cost you? I just might have to check it out.

Thanks for the post.

If you don't mind tellin, how much did the job cost you? I just might have to check it out.

VABB...

Don't mind at all. The parkerizing is $135... you pay shipping to NE and he ships it back. The Gun Shop side of their web site has all the prices posted.

Just got a lot of brass set up along with BTB's 160-grain FNGCs and after working out at the ranch tomorrow, will head to the bench for some serious shooting with the rifle. I've got a ton of straight 30-30 ammo that I will never use so I'm going to start cycling it through the chamber to fire form the brass.

Michael

Well guys... put the old 30-30 IMP through it's paces yesterday evening. We had a line of thunderstorms move through and drop the temperature about 20 degrees so my son in law and I headed for the woods.

After getting my SIL setup, I took the Jeep back up the road and left it in the care of the Ranch Dog. I got fully camo'd... face paint, everything and moved off on the edge of the brush about 30 yards and sat down. After about 30 minutes some deer moved between me and the Jeep so I figured everything had gotten pretty quite and back to normal with the woods and critters.

I had only gone about 30 yards when a saw a tiger striped hog cross the trail about 60 yards ahead of me. I dropped into the weeds and put the sneak on the critter. I had closed up to about 35 yards and had gotten into a prone position for the shot when a train blew it's horn up at the front of the property... the hog took off like it had been shot. What luck! I figured the hog liked whatever it had been after in the trail but would come back out 50 to 70 further upwind. I ran up another 50 yard and sat down on the edge of the road and weeds. In about a shake of a dogs tail it steped out and I shot it as it was quartering away. It ran towards an open field.

I eased up on the field and heard the hog in the weeds... I figured it would be waiting for me. I plucked the barbed wire and the hog tried to get up from about 20 yards and lunge towards me. I shot it in the head.

At the shot, five other hogs broke cover and ran from the same area in the field. At about 90 yards I shot one and it rolled to a stop.

I went back to the Jeep and got the Ranch Dog and she went out in the field to make sure things were dead quite. She gave me the high sign and I went out and pulled them back. I had shot two tiger striped/spotted hogs almost identical in color, the first about twice as large as the second!

I used the Hornady 170-grain FP.

Good shooting Michael. Two more notches in the stock of the old Marlin! Do you butcher your own animals or send them to a processor? My son & I do our own and we even have access to a walk-in cooler if the weather is too warm.

I haven't read all the threads on your 30-30 AI but am now wondering what the velocity improvement was over the standard chambering. In my standard-chambered 336A I get 2200 fps with the 170 Speer.

Our early muzzleloader season begins in mid October so we have a long time to wait for opening day. We're almost out of venison and I wish we had the opportunity to hunt some pork here. I can almost taste the grilled loins!!

PM II is almost ended and you'll have more free time to get out hunting.

What color does your cactus change to in October?

I'm trying to attach a photo of my beagle. He'll be out with me this week, trying to find a few doves.

Nice looking dog Steelbanger!!!

I do some of my own butchering, I cut these hogs up myself. A lot of the pork I've shot over the summer went to the guys that work on my place.

I haven't chrongraphed the rifle yet, the pocket full of rounds I had set aside for this was used on the pigs! I will give a report next week when I accomplish that step. I had a pretty good load based on the 170-grain Hornady and Reloder 15. I simply worked up an additional 10% above that so that I could compare the velocity of a known load (2201 FPS).

The rifle has not suffered any loss of accuracy shooting standard 30-30 cartridges. The best 5-shot group I had with it prior to the conversion was .817". There is no doubt that the rifle is still capable of that with or without the fireformed brass.

All the hog hunting I've done this year has interfered with my participation in PMII. I've got a couple of months of idle time before deer season starts and I've got to do some serious load work!

The cactus is always green!

Michael

Hello Michael,

Just curious what you thought the effectiveness of the lead 30 bullet was as compared to the Hornady. Always figured lead was best off in a big bore.

Congratulations...again, RD! Thanks for including pictures. With the hogs being camo and the hunter wearing camo, I am assuming the one hanging head down is the hunter?! ;-)

I have a 336/35 Rem. with scabby bluing and seeing your parkerized rifle is giving me the itch to send mine in for the treatment.

Just curious what you thought the effectiveness of the lead 30 bullet was as compared to the Hornady. Always figured lead was best off in a big bore.

Dr. A...

I'm just getting into 30 caliber lead bullets and to be honest, I'm a bit worried about the killing authority of such. I have killed hundreds of hogs with this Hornady bullet over the years and have a lot of confidence in it but it doesn't always punch through the shield on a large hog during exit. No exit, no blood trail.

I'm NOT a fan of head shots. Anybody that thinks they are 100% kills just hasn't shot enough hogs. Unless they are sleeping, hogs are never not moving and it is extremely easy for a hog to take a glancing blow. I will take a head shot but I'm very selective about it. Out of the 10 or 12 hogs I killed this spring and summer, two where head shots. I had one get up after a square frontal hit with a .43 325-grain cast from the Lee C430-310-RF. It was an extremely large hog shot at 50-yards with my 444. I lost the hog and NEVER saw any evidence that it died... NONE.

I lost a large boar last Thursday, after a chest cavity quartering away shot with my 375 Win. I haven't worked enough with the rifle and on that evening wasn't sure what happened. I could smell evidence of a kill yesterday, but my dog and I could not locate the remains. After the 50-yard shot, the 250-grain lead bullet just did not exit. The hogs reaction to the hit was exactly the same as the large hog I shot with the 30-30 IMP, the brush was just denser and the tracking near impossible. My dog even tried, but without blood she just can't follow. I know she started off on the right track as she was sniffing brush about a foot off the ground but soon lost the trail.

MikeG hunted with us a couple days later and we discussed this over a burger and the best shot might be a square shoulder shot as you would use with a hardcast bullet of any type (breaking down the skeletal structure). A hog's spine takes a large dip down in this area and both of us have seen instant kills because it was severed.

It's hard to beat a chest cavity shot from the 444 (and I assume the 45-70 and 450 Marlin). It has the energy to push on through and all the blood trails have been easy.

Michael

Congratulations...again, RD! Thanks for including pictures. With the hogs being camo and the hunter wearing camo, I am assuming the one hanging head down is the hunter?! ;-)

I have a 336/35 Rem. with scabby bluing and seeing your parkerized rifle is giving me the itch to send mine in for the treatment.

Naumann...

Thanks... The finish is really great and that includes the oiled stock. That is how it's supposed to be! The wood on ALL my Marlins will get this treatment except for the 336D and 444P as those are my grandson's guns and must be kept original. I hate that plastic looking finish.

Michael