Marlin 39-A

ToddsPoint

Gold Member
Mar 2, 2018
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17,555
Todds Point, IL
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My grandfather bought this Marlin new in 1948. My dad inherited it in 1970. I was in high school then and took it squirrel hunting. I cleaned it when I got home. The two main parts of the receiver were never properly fit at the factory. You had to bang on it to get it back together. I banged it way too hard and split the butt stock in two. šŸ˜« My dad was not amused. He glued the stock back together. Then itā€™s dads turn to screw up. Instead of taking it to a gunsmith to drill and tap receiver for scope, he took it to work and had a tool and die maker tap it. He was off in his drilling and the scope wasnā€™t aligned with the bore. Dad passed in 2011 and my brother ended up with the rifle. He contacted me and wanted to restock it himself. He had never done a stock job but was very confident he could do it. I sent him a killer set of semi finished walnut and he tried and failed. He did okay until he sanded the butt when it was off of the rifle and took off too much wood around the wrist. I told him STOP already, and told him Iā€™d trade him the Marlin for our Stevens single shot. The Stevens was our rifle we both learned to shoot with. I restocked it and put a good scope on it. He agreed and I now have the Marlin. First thing, it will go to gunsmith to get receiver parts to fit correctly. Iā€™ll put plug screws in the badly drilled holes and use open sights. Then Iā€™ll restock it. I donā€™t know if I can salvage the butt stock somehow. Iā€™ll eventually get this thing lined out!
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Looking good, going to look awesome when done.

Did the 39A have the bullseye symbolizing it had a walnut stock like the 39M?

Plus did it have the white spacer on the butt plate? Dont know the reason/meaning for that, other than decorative.

My 39M showing what I'm talking about.

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Hey Sarge, glad this one missed you!
Mine is from 48 and has the bullseye. Iā€™ve thought about trying to remove it from the broken stock and putting it on mine. Kind of a Marlin trademark. No white lines on mine. Now that Ruger owns them I doubt the 39 will come back. You never know though.
 

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Hey Sarge, glad this one missed you!
Mine is from 48 and has the bullseye. Iā€™ve thought about trying to remove it from the broken stock and putting it on mine. Kind of a Marlin trademark. No white lines on mine. Now that Ruger owns them I doubt the 39 will come back. You never know though.

Thank you, I'm also glad we got a pass on this storm, but a pass for us is a hit for someone else. So no winners per se.

You can find the bullseye for cheap on line. If I had my gunroom aka man cave built I'd send you about a 2 inch piece.

When we replaced the missing one on mine. We trimmed close to the correct height, glued it in with wood glue. The put a layer of painters tape around the hole and my wife used one of those disposable nail files and shaped it to the curve of the stock. They work great as they flex enough that you aren't pressing on stock too much if at all. Just replace the tape as needed as you do the contouring.

Looking good and looking forward to seeing the final product.......!
 

The forend is all fit. This forend was a tricky one. Around 4 hrs fitting it. Next Iā€™ll slim it down. The factory forend was too fat to begin with and the guy who duplicated the stock for me left even more.View attachment 2173026

They sure did leave you a chunky handguard....WOW. Guess its better to have to take some off, as you can't add some on.

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They sure did leave you a chunky handguard....WOW. Guess its better to have to take some off, as you can't add some on.

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I like the dimensions of your forend. Thatā€™s what Iā€™m going to shoot for. I think about the time they added the white spacers they updated the forend and thinned it down. You can see on this pic of my ā€˜48 model with the factory wood how thick it is compared to yours.
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Since those top scope mount screws go all the way through the receiver, I wonder if you can get reverse thread plug screws and screw them in from the bottom and file (the bottom of the screws) flush with the top of the receiver? You might be able to make a jig to finish them flush before attaching them to the receiver so there is no damage to the receiver.

Be a pretty slick repair.

personally Iā€™d buy 4. One set for practice. Or maybe two different length plug screws
 

Actually, Iā€™d tend to have a machine shop precision drill a scope mount plate that will use the existing threaded holes your dad tapped.

They can be really good at high tolerance work.
 

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