Ammo performance in 39A also FTFire & FTEject

[garand308]

No I don't think that Marlin ships all their defective Marlin 39A's to Canada. I'm a yank and when I decided that I wanted to add a Marlin 39A to my collection I went to my local gunsmith that I have dealt with for years and told him to order a new Marlin 39A for me. He said no you don't want me to do that. I ask why not. He said that he already has too many unhappy customers with Marlin's that he has sold to his customers. He stated that Marlin has some grave quality control problems. He said I would be better off trying to find an old one....he told me the best ones were made in the late 1940's to late 1970's. So after looking for over 2 months I found a mint 1965 39A for $ 300.00 dollars. It functions flawlessly...I fired over 350 rounds through it and no malfunctions and it is very very accurate. Marlin better get their act together and take a serious look at their Q.A. department and maybe some top level management people as well. And if they don't they will just make my new/old Marlin go up in value.

[Nematocyst]

Checking in here with a sick 39. Swany sent me.

I've been having failure to fire issues with my relatively new 39A. The rifle is actually over a year and a half old, but due to severe workload, has only made it to the range three times.

I was getting about 3 to 5 FTfire per magazine with CCI  minimags and American Eagle. Took it to my smith, who shot two boxes of ammo, one each Remington and Federal. No misfires. Not a single one.

His advice: change ammo. He doesn't like CCI, claiming their quality is not as good. I haven't been able to try any other ammo yet.

I'm going to read this thread more carefully soon, and consider this hammer strut modification mentioned in the OP. But I may try some other ammo first, just for completeness.

[Justin]

I found this website trying to find out what was the matter with my new 39A (bought less than one month ago). Numerous misfires, fail to extract and fail to eject, all three malfunctions in one brand new rifle with less than 300 rounds through the barrel. Finally parked the Marlin and went back to my old Winchester, which has never given me any problems since getting it new (for Christmas) in 1956. Exceptionally disappointed with the Marlin.

[Squirrel Stalker]

After reading all the negative stuff here on the 39A and Marlin I felt the need to share some good news. I just came home with my third 39A three days ago. I have put about three hundred rounds through it (different loads) and she has not missed a beat.Fit and fiinsh is excellent. The wood was the one thing I expected to be average at best but when my dealer came down off the ladder and opened the box it made my day. The stock is the best I have seen yet on a Marlin.

[newfie bullet]

Hi all,
  I got a marlin 1897 texan 22 , 2002 manufacture with some major ejection problems as well . It does't seem whitch brand of ammo or how fast or slow I cycle the action . some spent cases fly 10 ft away , some drop by my feet while others fall in the action to cause a jam. all in one mag full of ammo.
  I also has a 39a manufactured in 1978, that works flawlessly no matter what ammo or speed I cycle it, when I cycle it slow you can feel and hear the stages of extraction and ejection ,you can even tell when she will let the spent casing fly, yes fly away from me.
   I have taken all the parts, extractor, ejector, and ejector spring from the 39a and put it in the texan and the texan still doesen't work. with the texan parts in the 39a , the 39a works perfect , go figure?the only parts I can't change is the bolt itself.
   Could it be the bolt or the little grove in the barrel , where the extractor goes to slip over the head of the case?
The little texan is such a nice little rifle it is a shame it doen't work right . I sent it to a marlin warrenty shop in ontario ths past summer and it came back the same way I shipped it , still not working. Thinking about sending it to another warrenty marlin rep. in Quebec, but the shipping is starting to add up $90 the first time and about the same again now. sure puts the cost of the little rifle up again

Regards
alan
 

[B78]

I bought a new 39A in June. I'd had two of them in years gone by and they were very good rifles, worked with every kind of ammo. Not so with this one. Plagued with failure to extract fired cases, I tried everything. I ordered three extractors from Brownell's, along with a new strut, and a couple of hammersprings.I completely removed the rebound feature on one strut, trimmed the mainspring to keep the firing pin from "staking" cases in the chamber with a too-hard strike, replaced the extractor TWICE, tried to tune the extractor by bending it and filing, polished the chamber. Still about a 25% failure to extract, worse with some ammo. I sent the rifle back to Marlin. Three months later I received a brand new gun. Guess what? Yep, about a 25 to 30% failure to extract.I tried probably 20 different brands/types of ammo. Some were worse than others, all had a percentage of failures to extract. I called Marlin and told them about it, and asked if there was anything I could do to remedy the situation without sending it back yet again. No, send it back I was told. So I did, about a month ago, and haven't heard anything back yet. I wish I had my $525 bucks back. 

[Nematocyst]

The stories in this thread are starting to seriously concern me.
I'm seeing a pattern here, and I don't like that pattern.

[B78]

I got my 39A back from the factory today, (the second time) The post #20 outlines the problems I was having. It may be fixed. I have fired about 120 rounds through it today, no fail to extract. The work order on the rifle says "Extractor replaced, chamber polished, bolt adjusted" Bolt adjusted?? I kind of think they replaced the barrel too, as it appears to be a little more accurate than it was. I had thought about giving the chamber a real good polishing, and I would have done that step, had the rifle not been under warranty. So far, good, we shall see ....

[Jon K]

B78,

Don't polish the chamber..........the tighter it is the better it will shoot.

Good Luck,

Jon

[strat8]

No they send them to Michigan too! The Henry rifles are much more reliable than these junk 39a' that are thrown together now days for less than 1/2 the price. Run from these new 39a's

[strat8]

Don't even try to feed the new 39a's any kind of bulk ammo they hate it! Now mine has started being finicky with the bulk ammo ( has ammo quality went down or what?). It only likes CCI mini mags and Remington target ammo which is unfortunate due to it being more than double the cost of bulk ammo. I guess premium rifles require premium target ammo these days huh? Didn't used to be like this. I guess I'll have to spend $7,00/ 100ct vs. $15.00/ 550ct even if plinking. How crazy is that?

Anyone else had trouble with bulk ammo recently,  or just me?

[kerr]

 I want to think that after you get the new rubbed off a new 39 It will eat whatever you feed it. I have never had a N.I.B. 39 but I have 5 now and have owned at least another 10-12 used ones and have never had one that wouldn't feed .  Keep the mag tube clean and use clean ammo " wipe it off when you drop it in the sand before you put it in the gun "  and life should be good .

    Now I sure ain't saying I dont believe all the folks with new 39's that are not up to snuff and should have never left the factory .  Thats Q.C. not on the ball . or the Q.C. is being overthrown for the sake of makin quotas .  

   I have never seen a Henry for half price of a 39 . Not a new one anyway. Whats that Henry gonna be worth after 10 years of use compared to the 39 ?  The Marlin is at least 2 times the rifle the Henry is new or 10 years down the road.

[Nematocyst]

I want to think that after you get the new rubbed off a new 39 It will eat whatever you feed it.

Copy that.

In the last few months, I've  learned of a couple of easy tricks from here and another forum (THR) to try to resolve this issue. I just haven't had the time to do them yet.

But even though ideally I shouldn't have to do them if Marlin QC wasn't  slacking, I'm confident that my rifle will be fine after I work with it some, make some minor mods, and in the process, make it more mine.

There's something very satisfying about working with a rifle to make it work better. I did that with my 336 a couple of years ago, smoothing the action. I learned so much about the rifle, and actually bonded with it in the process. I expect the same to happen with my 39 ... when I get some more time.

[Blacklion213]

With all these issues I'm seriously reconsidering whether to buy a new 39AS or not.  I am not too handy when comes to weapon maintenance other than cleaning and upkeep, so I don't want to get stuck with a gun safe queen.  Maybe I'll check out Ruger 10/22 or 77/22 rifles.

[swany]

There are but two problems and very easy to fix, read Picketpins for failure to extract, Swany for failure to fire. The extractor costs a little over $20 when delivered and easy to put in. The firing pin fix for failure to fire only takes some time and is also easy to do.

The two other guns you are comtemplating are very fine rifles and very dependable in my expierience with them, just that I'm a levergun sort, but would not hesitate owning a Ruger.