Stopped by the local pawn shop this afternoon to browse the wares and low and behold I spot a very old and neglected looking lever gun on the rack. I ask to see it and discover that it is none other than a 1951 Marlin 336 SC in 35 Rem. We haggled over the price and I walked OTD for $250.

Took it home and spent the better part of the evening disassembling it and giving it a much needed cleaning, and it turned out fantastic. The wood looks gorgeous, its very dark, with barely any marks at all(just one small dent on the forend and another small mark on the stock). If I had to guess, I'd say that I doubt this rifle ever saw a day in the woods, and doesn't appear to have been shot much either. Looks like someone put a handful of rounds through it over the years and then its sat in someones closet for the last decade if I had to guess. Very good looking internals with not much wear and a spotless and very shiny bore, just everything was dusty!

Right now the plan is to find a box of ammo for it to do a short function test and then put it up for trade(I really have no interest in35 Rem, just saw it knew it was a great gun with a little elbow grease)

I'll have some better after pics tomorrow, but for now here are some of the "before" pics.

Awesome score. You could easily clean that up and double your investment, but I hope you have other plans


Where are the "after" pics?

Great gun. Nice find!

Pawn shops are good for lever guns lately.

Well, it didn't turn out quite as well as I expected. Turns out I need to get a better light in my gun room. There's a decent amount of light surface rust on one side of the receiver and the lever. I took some CLP and 0000 steel wool to it lightly but not much came off and I didn't want to push too hard.

The bore and chamber are indeed bright and shiny and gorgeous though, as well as the internals, just the receiver and barrel have light rust on them.

Pics inbound as soon as they finish uploading.

Someone recommended I try some Oxpho Blue with some steel wool for rust removal. Two thumbs up, saved my ass on an old shotgun.

Pics:

Nice!!! I love .35s

Good Score, OP. Lever Guns are always a treat.

Thanks! I've been looking for something better than oil+steel wool.

Just be careful, as cold blues will remove bluing to different extents, depending on the product (and do bad things to your skin as well). Oxpho Blue will sometimes change the colour or sheen of the bluing you are putting it over, but usually works well. Just don't run out and try this with just any cold blue product.





Sometimes, pretty ugly looking surface rust will come off with very fine steel wool and oil and leave the original blue looking completely intact. Other times it will leave bare speckles and spots.

 

HISTORY!.....nice old gun!

Very nice!
.35 is such a great caliber, and the 336 is such a great gun.

Nice serial number!

Nice find

I would be tempted to take it apart, steel wool all the rust off all the parts, bolt, barrel, mag tube, trigger, lever, hammer, polish all the rough areas, hangers everything then take it to your local smith for a re-blue.

Tried 0000 steel wool and it did help a little but not as much as I would've liked so I decided to sell it. Ive got other projects that are higher on the list than this and I can use the money towards those.

If I decided to keep it I was planning on just sending the whole rifle out to be stripped and refinished in a high polish blued finish.

Where in NC are you?
I'm in SC.
What do you want for it?

I'm near OBX, bout an hour south of the VA line, but its already SPF

Nice!

I collect Marlin 336 35's. Looking for one made in 1970 now.