Slicking up the Marlin

[Brad]

Shooting the Marlin 1894 in 44 mag made me realize how slick the actions on my other Marlins were in comparison. I decided that this rifle needed some work to get it up to snuff.
First thing to do was tear it completely down. Thankfully these are simple acting and easy to take down.


I polished up the bolt. It was rough as hell. I use a 1/2" square India stone and some oil. The ejector slot was cleaned up with 400 grit paper and a share needle file. The file was wrapped in the paper to get the entire slot.

I then turned to the loading port and the burrs on the opening.

That shiny edge is the front of the loading port. The inner edge had a burr that made loading a bit rough. It was also hard on the fingers when pushing the last round in. A little piece of 400 grit paper and my little finger quickly removed the burrs and smoothed the inner surface. The outside was not touched as it wasn't an issue.

The next offending part addressed was the loading gate. It too had some burrs on the I some edge. A finger wrapped in 400 grit paper quickly smoothed those edges.

 

[Brad]

I did some reading in McPherson's "Accurizing the Factory Rifle" and decided that some bedding of the butt would help. I removed a little wood in the inlets for both the upper and lower tang. I also removed a little wood on the inner surfaces that butt up against the rear of the action.

I then mixed some Acraglass gel and had at it. I did not add any due so the bedding will be visible. It doesn't bother me any and it is less unsightly than the gap that existed there before.


Some glass went under each tang at the rear. This will seal the wood and ensure they seat tightly.

Once the glass hardens a bit more I will remove the wood. Later in the week I will start the big project. A thru bolt will be made. I will drill a hole from the bottom of the butt to the areas between the tangs. A bolt will be made that goes around the tang bolt. The other end is snugged up with a washer and nut under the butt plate. That gives a very rigid fit between butt stock and action. McPherson states it makes a big difference in accuracy potential.

 

[JWFilips]

Brad,
I just had to laugh! That first photo looks like something from e-Bay listing "assorted gun parts" "Not sure what I have here!"
Jim

 

[Brad]

Jim, that isn't far from the truth. Sadly I am starting to actually understand how those parts all work together. I have torn these rifles down so many times I can do it in my sleep.
This is the first that was this rough. It isn't a new rifle other. An online search based on serial number tells me it was made in 1978. Bet it was never fired much. Maybe a few hundred rounds. That is gonna change.

 

[Ben]

Knowing you Brad, I just bet this puppy shoots much better when you're finished with your work.

Ben

 

[JWFilips]

Ben,
I'm sure it will!

 

[Brad]

Put things back together to check on the action. So much smoother.

I did notice that the magazine tube is under a hell of a lot of tension. It is bent a little under the forces placed upon it.

The forearm is going to need a bunch of work to allow the magazine tube to ride free. The cap on the end of the forearm also is pressing extremely hard on the barrel.

With all the forces put on various parts of the barrel it is a miracle this rifle can shoot at all.

Now I have to go find a front sight screw that hit the floor......

 

[Pistolero]

If it shoots well now, MAYBE it shoots well BECAUSE of the preload on the barrel........

I really hate to fix stuff that isn't broken.

Just sayin'.

Bill

 

[Brad]

True, but what if we make the preload more consistent?
The rifle drifts right as the group develops. That tells me something, somewhere is rubbing.
I will leave some preload on the barrel but want to make it happen in a controlled manner. Rather than steel on steel I will use a little RTV silicone to cushion the mating of the parts. The forearm cap requires ungodly force to get in place. I needed a small clamp to get it back on. I just can't see that as a good thing.

Good points Bill. In this case the forearm and barrel hangers are a known issue.

 

[quicksylver]

Brad ....I am amazed that Marlin has not offered you money to NOT post this.

Great work, just think we should not have to do things like this to get our guns to work.

Might be my imagination but I think things went South with the advent of SASS,
accuracy for sure and then the manufacture felt that everyone was going to modify their guns anyways
so why bother with quality.

I would like to think that your piece made in '78 was a little smother than the new ones.

Again Brad....good work and informative.

BTW... I remember back in the late 60's acquiring a pre '64 Winchester 94, it was in the box , unfired with hang tag.
It just about took two men with block and tackle to drop the lever.

 

[Pistolero]

Brad - I agree totally that you should not need to use a clamp to assemble the gun, but some bedding concepts
are for a tight (but consistent) fit between the barrel and stock to help dampen barrel movements. Not sure I buy
the whole deal, but it apparently has worked for some (many?) at various times.

I've been fooling around with a Win 94 lately. Does not shoot particularly good groups with Jbullets or
cast. All seems well with the bbl as far as interior, not too old, post-64 but pre-Angle Eject, no
crossbolt safety.

Today I tried an experiment today. Pulled the barrel bands, entire magazine and forend from the gun
and fired 6 different 5 shot groups with loads which had shown some promise, or had been recommended as good
loads, with the naked barrel hanging out there, resting the front of the receiver on a sandbag rest.

No big improvement at all. In fact, one new load did an entirely new trick (and only that one load) by starting
nicely centered 1" above the point of aim and having each succeeding shot hit about 2-3" higher until the
last shot was 12" above the first. Geeze Louise, what the heck is THAT all about, with a 100% free floated
barrel, and none of the other loads showing any bit of this effect. That is 12" vertical at 50 yds!

I will recut the crown next.


Bill

 

[Ian]

Bill, removing all that mass from the front of the rifle really exaggerates muzzle rise and the effect of a load which is burning inconsistently.

Brad, I had good results fully-floating the forearm and all hardware on a Marlin and then bedding the tube to the forearm AND the receiver with RTV silicone. I used Permatex Ultra Copper, it's more firm than the black but that's what I wanted for the tube-to-receiver connection to prevent it being metal-to-metal. Relieve the bind and pressure and secure everything in place with flexible RTV and you're good to go. If your magazine tube is as tight as you describe, you might shorten it a little and bevel the end that goes in the receiver. You do NOT want that tube putting longitudinal pressure on the front band.

Please post pics of the tang bolt job and the parts you make for it, that's something I haven't done yet, though I do bed my tangs with a hardened steel sleeve through the wrist to prevent them crushing together or flexing.

 

[Brad]

Will do Ian. I need to get a few things in order then get started. The metal working part is easy, it is drilling the stock I need to get a handle on. Will likely go to my fathers and use his drill press. With a nail in a board I can center the exit hole pretty well for the drill. Drill from the butt with a Forstner bit to leave a flat bottomed hole. The thru hole isn't as bad, just need it big enough to have no binding on the bolt.

The rear is snugged with a nut and washer. The front end will screw into a piece that captures the tang bolt. I may make a new tang bolt from O1 so it will be a little less likely to bend. By pulling the tang bolt to the rear the entire action is tensioned into the stock.

 

[fiver]

focus on only one end of the rifle at a time.
you'll wanna do like Ian say's about the mag tube they need to be in there but not tight enough to cause tension on the frame.
floating the fore-arm is a little bit of magic in it's own right.
double checking the barrel cap [and bands if you have any] is gonna pay off as much as all that other work.

I had a model 71 someone tried floating the mag tube forearm screw by opening the dove-tail slot where the screw went in.
it just banged back and forth and caused me no end of anguish until I push a piece of brass under it [the dove-tail] and a washer between the screw and the angled piece that fit in the dovetail.
this allowed me to float everything under the dove-tail but keep it all in one place.

super simple fix made difficult by someone not thinking.
and on a pristine 4 digit model 71 deluxe model.

 

[Brad]

No photos right now but spent a couple more hours on the front end. The magazine tube was very tight against the front of the barrel, between muzzle and front barrel band. I filed the top of the tub down to a point that daylight can be seen between the magazine tube and barrel.
The front band was lightly polished inside and marked for consistent placement.
The forearm cap needed a bunch of work. It was too snig to easily replace. I cleaned up the hole for the magazine tube in the lathe. Centering the hole tok a few minutes but removing .015 all around went quite fast and I know the hole is round. I used a file to remove metal anywhere that touched the barrel. The can now easily goes on with no forcing anywhere.
The forearm got wood removed along the barrel channel.
The barrel and magazine tube got a healthy coat of paste wax. The barrel channel in the forearm was covered in Permatex RTV silicone, black, and then it was all assembled. In about 1.5 hours the silicone will be set enough for me to remove the forearm and make sure nothing was glued together.
The silicone dampens vibrating between forearm and barrel.

 

[freebullet]

Need to smooth out my 336w. I know it could be better.
The info here will help. I think overtravel & rough cycling are my biggest complaints with mine and, the side of the loading gate splits my thumb nail it's so sharp.

I usually go up to at least 800 grit then polish. Any reason you didn't go past 400?

When I did the gp100 -took it to 3k grit then polished inside and out. It's like buttered glass now. I think that smoothness forces me to a finer grit with polishing afterward on any I do.

 

[Brad]

I stopped at 400 as I didn't want to remove more metal. At this point the action is smooth enough to easily cycle. After another 1000 rounds it will be even better.

 

[Brad]

Here is the forearm after the silicone has set overnight. Rather than use paste wax as a release agent I decided to wrap the barrel wth waxed paper and smear the waxed paper with paste wax. Worked great! The small gap left won't be an issue, the goal was to reduce vibration via a rubber surface coating.


You can see the faint black line that is the rubber surface. Not very thick at all.

Here is the surface under the rear of the barrel after peeling the waxed paper. Notice the very thin rubber layer on top of the magazine tube? That tells me the tube and barrel are not making contact in the region. Very desirable.

 

[Rick]

Now for the pictures of the one hole groups.

 

[Brad]

I shoot those all day long. Pretty easy firing a single shot!

Time will tell Rick. I can't imagine it will shoot worse. If I can eliminate the walking to the right during a string then I will be happy. Hard to shoot small groups with a walking point of impact.