Cut a barrel or not?

[ladder13]

I've been contemplating cutting down my barrel from 20 inch to 16 inch, no other reason than I just like the look. The gun is a Marlin 336 in 35 Rem. Is the cost worth it or should I just buy a gun with the 16 inch barrel and sell mine?

[AJMD429]

Do it yourself if you like projects like that; otherwise better to trade/swap...

[OldWin]

I have done several of those with 336's and 94's. They handle great for thick woods or in and out of a vehicle. If you use iron sights you will NEED a receiver sight as the reduced sight radius makes them tough to shoot.
If I did another I probably would go to 18" instead. Oh, and I always put a saddle ring on these projects cause it just looks "right".

[Birdman]

It's yur rifle. If you want to cut it, go for it. Looking for what you want may take awhile to find.

[Old Savage]

There are not that many of those around and no more made by Marlin. Seems a shame to do away with one. What else is currently available that would be what you want?

[sore shoulder]

I'm with OS. Leave it be and buy something shorter. That 20" is a good barrel length for a 30-30 especially for longer shots with a scope, which just look natural on a 336.

[Old Savage]

And actually shoulder - this is a .35 Rem.

[6pt-sika]

I cut one down in the last couple years !

Out of the two dozen or so 444's I have owned I decided i wanted one of the original monte carlo stocked straight gripped barrel banded 444's with a 18-19 inch barrel like the 444P and I cut it to suit me . The gun needed a total reblue and refinish anyway as I didn't like it the way it was when I bought it from a guy in Texas . Gun is circa 1966 .

Here's one of my circa 1967 rifles I reblued and refinished the wood with the original length 24" barrel !



And here's my circa 1966 "Retro 444P" with the 19" barrel .

[FWiedner]

My first response:

It's your gun, do what makes you happy and your gun most useful for the way that you use it.

My considered response:

If it's a working gun in good shape, don't do it. The .35Rem from a 20" barrel is just about the perfect woods gun. By shortening the barrel you'll be takin' away a bit of it's spank. In addition, and as has been mentioned before, there just aren't that many of them out there and Marlin isn't making any more. You'll be wrecking it for the next guy if you decide not to keep it and decreasing it's future value besides.

My Proviso:

If it's a wreck or a project gun that you are reconditioning to a servicable knock-around or truck-gun condition, go for it. Cut that puppy, train it, and make it bark.

[M. M. Wright]

Usually plan on losing 50 feet per second per inch removed. 4" equals 200 feet per second. May not be important to you.

[OldWin]

In my earlier post I forgot to mention that these were project guns.
FWiedner is quite correct with his statement that if it is all original to leave it as is.
The Marlins I have done were done many years ago when they were still cranking them out.
Sorry for neglecting to mention this in my earlier post!

[6pt-sika]

Usually plan on losing 50 feet per second per inch removed. 4" equals 200 feet per second. May not be important to you.

I took the two guns pictured above and shot the same loads in both with bullets from 240-375 grains all cast of course . The full length gun has a 24" pipe and the chopped one is 19" . thats a five inch difference and the greatest difference with any bullet weight was 130 FPS . So that equates into about 25 FPS per inch .

[sore shoulder]

6pt, that is also my understanding, that between 16-22" it's roughly 25fps. Below that velocity can start dropping dramatically and above that it can increase considerably, or not much if any. Ive also seen one test that supposedly proved very little difference between 24" and 10" by cutting off the barrel an inch at a time. But looking at the test data showed why and it was not typical at all.