Hi everyone. I'm new not only to your forum here but to guns in general. I have inherited my fathers guns and have a few questions about two of them. The first is a 1971 Marlin 336 chambered in .35 Remington. The second is a Savage 99F chambered in .308 Winchester s/n 916xxx. It has been over 20 years since either has been fired and visibly, they are in great shape, both scoped. I have fired both, but it was many years ago. My first question is: What should I do, if anything, before firing these weapons? I have no idea about cleaning or dismantling either one. Should I find a gunsmith to take a look at them or just find a shop I feel I can trust? Secondly, I also recieved a fair amount of ammo to go with them, not sure if it's factory ammo or reloads as he did do some reloading as well. Any problems that I should know about concerning this ammo, age etc... Thanks for all help and replies!

They don't degrade with age, unless it's rust. Clean the bores and enjoy.

There's quite a bit on the Marlin in this thread.
http://www.shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=14346

There's several Savage shooters here who can help you, but I'm not really familar with them. Ammo that's stored in a cool dry location lasts a long time. I recently chronographed some WW II .303 British ammo that was right up to snuff and faster than most new factory stuff. As for the handloaded stuff, it's your judgement.

Bye
Jack

Welcome to the board - hope you'll join us in all the other forums here.

The Marlin 336 is fairly simple to remove the lever/bolt and that pesky little ejector. With them removed, you have a straight shot to clean from the breech end (proper way). To do this, open the bolt/lever about halfway. There is a hinge pin screw on the bottom of the frame that holds the lever to the frame. Take the screw out and the lever will slip out from the bottom of the bolt. Grasp the rear end of the bolt and gently slide it to the rear of the receiver and it will come free. The ejector and leaf spring are in a milled recess inside the left side of the receiver as you look from the rear end. If it will stay in place while you run your cleaning rod with brush and patches, so much the better. Usually, it falls out and you have to jiggle it back in place after cleaning and prior to replacing the bolt.

If your Dad left you the firearms, surely he has a cleaning kit handy to go with them.

On your Savage, wouldn't recommend you try to disassemble it. Get a tapered bushing of some type that has a center hole large enough to accomodate your cleaning rod, yet with a small enough taper to fit inside the bore at the muzzle. Open the action and with care, you can clean the bore from the muzzle end. Just try not to let the rod ride on the muzzle crown or bang into it with the rod tip.

The use of a padded vice or a cleaning stand will aid greatly in holding the rifles while you clean them.

The ammo is either factory and OK, or if your father reloaded them for the individual firearms, you will be the judge of how well he may have assembled them. If in doubt, soak them in a container of solvent for a week or so, then bury them in the yard where there is plenty of moisture. Ammo can be loaded for a long time and still be useable, providing it remained in a cool, dry place. I've got some .22LR ammo that gets shot occassionaly that is over 40 years old.

This is IF you wish to disassemble your rifle.

Marlin 336/1895 Disassembly/Assembly Instructions
NOTES:
--Don't assume that any two screws in this dissassembly process are identical. Make sure you keep track of where you got the screws. Assume that they are all different lengths, diameters, etc.
--Front is toward muzzle. Back is toward Buttstock.

1. Disassemble as shown in manual.

2. Remove screw from tang which holds buttstock in place. This is the screw behind the hammer on top of the buttstock--next to the serial number on the non-Cowboy models.

3. Remove buttstock, take gun off safe.

4. While holding hammer, depress the small protrusion behind the trigger (on the underside of the receiver). While protrusion is depressed, pull the trigger and allow the hammer to move SLOWLY to the full forward position. DO NOT ALLOW THE HAMMER TO SNAP FORWARD UNCONTROLLED WHILE THE GUN IS NOT FULLY ASSEMBLED.

5. Push the top of the mainspring keeper toward the right side of the rifle and out of contact with the tang of the receiver and the trigger guard plate. NOTE: The spring is still under tension, be sure to control the spring and keeper as the mainspring keeper slides out of its track.

6. Remove large screw (hammer screw) from right side plate. Press trigger slightly and remove hammer out the top of the receiver. Don't release the trigger until the hammer is all the way out of the receiver. If you let up on the trigger before you get the hammer pulled all the way out, the hammer gets in sort of a bind. If this happens, don't panic, just keep fiddling around and it will eventually pull out.

7. Remove large screw from the left sideplate. Remove large screw from the bottom front of the trigger guard plate. (THESE TWO SCREWS ARE SHORT BUT NOT THE SAME. THE LONGER ONE GOES IN THE BOTTOM FRONT OF THE TRIGGER GUARD PLATE. REMOVE THIS ONE LAST AND HAVE THE GUN UPSIDE DOWN DURING THIS OPERATION. KEEP IT THERE UNTIL YOU REINSTALL THE TRIGGER PLATE)

8. Gently tap the trigger guard plate downward out of the receiver. Remove the bolt locking block from the bottom of the receiver. NOTE: During reassembly, the forked portion of the locking block points upward, and the "hook" at the bottom of the block points toward the butt of the gun.

9. Remove the screw on the right sideplate immediately forward of the safety button. Remove shell carrier from the bottom of the receiver.

Reassemble in reverse order.

NOTE: When installing hammer, position hammer in the fully rearward (cocked) postion, press the trigger to the rear and align hammer with screw channel then insert screw.

NOTE: When installing mainspring keeper, install mainspring in its forward engagement with hammer then push mainspring keeper in from the rear until the bottom of the keeper snaps into the groove in the triggerguard plate--the spring pressure will hold it in place. The hammer must be forward for this operation.

This is the procedure to remove the forearm from a Guide Gun. Part names are from Model 1895G Owner's Manual. Submitted by Mark (tcmkj) with a reassembly note from Marko (Starrbow)

1. Unload the rifle. Visually and physically inspect the chamber to ensure that the rifle is unloaded. While the action is open ensure that you can see the magazine follower and that no rounds are in the magazine tube.

2. Place the receiver in a vice or have someone hold the rifle so that you have access to the forearm. Pad the vice to keep from marring the bluing.

3. Remove the magazine plug screw.

4. Remove both of the forearm tip tenon screws. Leave the forearm tip on the forearm.

5. The magazine tube and the forearm separate from the barrel as a unit. Hold the magazine plug firmly in place as the follower spring pushes against the plug. Separate the barrel and the magazine tube until the magazine tube is just free of the stud(about 3/8 of an inch). The forearm required some force and came loose suddenly. The forearm tip will prevent the tube and barrel from separating much further.

6. Carefully remove the magazine tube plug while keeping your hand wrapped around the magazine tube. When the plug clears the magazine tube the spring will snake out of the tube. The spring is not difficult to contain if you are prepared.

7. You should now hold the magazine tube plug and the follower spring with no pressure on the uncoiled spring. If the follower spring looped back on itself while uncoiling, carefully untangle the spring. Remove the spring from the magazine tube.

8. Carefully slide the forearm tip off of the forearm and off of the magazine tube.

9. Pull the magazine tube and the forearm forward and away from the barrel until completely separated. The forearm fits tightly to the receiver and may take a little pressure.

9. Remove the magazine tube from the forearm. Turn the tube until the bulge at the back of the tube is clear of the forearm. Pull the tube either forward or backwards out of the forearm.

10. The magazine tube follower may have remained in the receiver or it may still be in the magazine tube. In either case the follower slides out easily.

NOTE: To reinstall forearm and mag tube, put the mag tube in the forearm and at a 45degree angle insert both at the same time into the receiver, if you have a 444/45-70 , insure the bulge on the mag tube is lined up with the recess of the forearm. Do not force it--move it around a bit and things will slip into place.

Reverse the procedure to reassemble the rifle.

Here is a pic for you:

http://www.urban-armory.com/diagrams/marlin33.htm

Dave :)

Thanks for all of the replies. It looks like I've certainly found a place with some people willing to help (have posted other places and gotten nothing). Please bear with me if I ask some silly or no brainer questions, after all, I am new to this. I'll probably run into some of you in other forums as well as I received some other firearms besides the ones listed above.

I am looking forward to learning how to take proper care of these as well as trying to become proficient at shooting them. Heck, who knows, maybe if I can find someone in my area willing to show a new guy some things, I'll try a little hunting as well.

Yep, pull up a chair and don't be afraid to ask questions!