Thursday, December 27, 2007

Mini-14GB and Marlin 336 Range Report

I went out yesterday with my Mini-14GB (pics) and my Marlin 336 (pics), which is pictured earlier in this thread. The GB gave me no end of trouble but the Marlin of course ran like a top. This was my first chance to get it out since putting a Williams Firesight and FP-336 receiver sight combo on it.

The Firesight works really well. It was overcast but the red fiber optic front sight showed up very well. It has a soft glow that makes it more visible than a plain bead.

I ran two kinds of ammo through the gun. First, a couple boxes of Wolf Gold (Prvi Partizan) 150 grain JSP to zero it. Then some Remington 170 grain JSP to verify the zero, because it's my go-to load. I think the Remingtons feed a little more smoothly. Anyway, when I did my part, the rifle will put them all in the 10 ring of an SR-1 target at 100 yards.

One change I made was to remove the Eagle Shooter's Stock Pack shown in the pics. It includes a cheek pad which made getting a proper cheek weld. (I may put it on my FAL if I scope that rifle.)

What a darn fine rifle this Marlin is.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I enjoyed my visit to your site. I especially enjoy your posts about the Marlin 336 of which I am also an enthusiast.

Anonymous said...

I don't know why some Mini 14s have the problems they do. In the early 80s an amigo and I grabbed two of their new stainless steel folding stock police models; probably today's GB but withot a bayonet lug. We were both experienced in gunsmithing but neither of us could get the dang things to either shoot straight or be reliable. I quickly got rid of mine but my buddy said he was going to hang on to his and sell it as a collector's item when he retired. I suspect the problems are with the stainless steel.