30AS vs 336 in .30-30

[marineimaging]

O.K. lever gunners, I walked into Believers Pawn the other day and there on the shelf was a Marlin 30AS at about 87-90% outward. Innards a little dirty but not bad in terms of wear. So I plop down my first installment and leave feeling pretty good. A week later I have a little extra cash so I decide to put it in 'tween' payments. Waiting for Michelle to finish with a customer I am scanning the rack when suddenly I hear a "boing-g-g-g-g" as my eyes spring back. There's another one but this is a 336 with original furniture and from where I was standing it looks to be a few points cleaner that the 30AS and the furniture is a major plus. I put both guns side by side and immediately go all googley over the 336. Only problem is it is significantly more than the 30AS. The owner agrees to come down to almost what I was paying for the 30AS so I jump on it. Here is what leads me to the question. One thing that stood out to me was that there were visible lathe marks on the bolt for the 1991 30AS but on the 1984 336 the bolt was smooth as silk. Both of them had superb rifling but again, on the inside of the bolt track with a light I could see more machine marks on the 30AS but nothing on the 336. Is there anybody familiar with the 30AS or the 336 and if so, do you know if Marlin had any significant quality issues regarding the years 1991 and 1984? The older one obviously looked in better condition due to the better machining quality, at least in my opinion. Still, that might not mean much if they were having quality issues back then. Here is a 336 (top) vs a 30AS (bottom). This bolt (top), from Numerich for the 30AS also has the type of tooling marks I am referring to while the one for the 336 (bottom) looks just like the on in the 336 I upgraded to. So the question is if this is consistent and does it make any difference to anybody that knows?

 

[MarkRohfrietsch]

Looks wise, the only picture that I see one has a scope, the other not. The scoped one has nicer wood. As far a which is better? It's a 30-30; fire them through a garden hose, and they will still drive tacks. Why? Just one of those things. LOL. I've see shot out, rusty old barn guns put 5 shots in 5" at a 100 yards. Not bad. They are both good guns. Send me the one you don't want, I'll help you by taking it off your hands. LOL

 

[marineimaging]

Bought the 336cs and scoped it. Took it out and was going really good but I think my scope is broke. I will be trying it again next weekend with a different scope. Found a used Leopold for 100.00 that appears in really good condition. It might just be the ticket to shooting through the same hole 6 times.