Marlin Firearms Collectors Association

Ser # 72000881
How can I find out the age of this rifle. It was one of three rifles my father had. He passed away in 1999 and his rifles have been packed away for the past 24 years.
I tried internet searching but didn’t help.
Tks

CanuckleHead;

This is an easy one, your Marlin Model 336 was manufactured in 1972. The first two digits of the serial number indicate the year of manufacture. Marlin did this for a short time, but dealers complained that using the first two digits of the serial number was "dating" the inventory, so Marlin changed the system of serializing their products to subtracting the year of manufacture from 100 to indicate the year of manufacture.

Thank you!