Golden 39A Problems and fixes

[rene]

I have recently bought a Golden 39A brand now out of the box. After four months of waiting I finally got my grubby paws on my new toy, only to discover that the forearm and the buttstock are loose. Not too serious can always fix that later. First priority is to clean the rifle, race to the shooting range and try it out. The first couple of rounds were perfect, followed by many extraction problems. Holding the cartridge guide spring open with a Leatherman and picking a case out with the tip of a pocketknife is not my idea of fun. Took the rifle appart cleaned it properly, oiled everything, cleaned the ammo and tried again. Same results out of fifty rounds i had six or seven duds and about twenty extraction problems. Needless to say that i was at boiling point, I spent a lot of money and four months and twelve days of waiting only to recieve this piece of crap!!!
The closest gunsmith is 946 kilometers from here so i'll have to figure this out myself.
Had a close look at the extractor and the cartridge guide spring, here are my problems. Bent and filed the extractor a little bit so that it grips the case properly and rounded and polished the guide spring. I even epoxy beded the forearm and stock so everything is nice and tight now. Tested a hundred rounds this morning and must say i'm impressed had a couple of duds but not a single extraction problem. So now i am as happy as the proverbial pig in you know what.
I guess what i'm trying to say is that Marlin should take quality control more seriously. Other than that great little gun wont part with it ever and i'll be ordering a 444 soon.

Cheers
Rene

[Regnier (gunrunner)]

Rene;

From the sounds of the distance to the gunsmith, you are not in the U.S.A. If you were, you could have returned the rifle to Marlin for repair as they do take quality control seriously. They would have gladly fixed all the problems. Sounds like you got one assembled just before the weekend, and the assembler wanted to get away for some "fun in the sun" or something....
Sorry to hear about the problems, but it sounds like you handled the problem quite well.

[rene]

Hi Regnier

Nope definetly not in the States, I live in Namibia Africa beautiful country, friendly people and great hunting. I was quite disapointed when I recieved my 39A, my 336W is just about perfect the wood to metal finishing is exellent and she feeds, extracts and shoots like a dream, I expected the same from the 39A. Mind you now that it's sorted I cannot complain she shoots very well so I guess being a JACK OF ALL TRADES AND MASTER OF NONE has its uses.

Thanks for the reply

Rene

[marlinman93]

Unfortunately I hear more and more stories the last couple years of Marlins leaving the factory with what appears to be glaring problems. Things the naked eye could easily see, and I wonder if every gun gets inspected, as things like barrels that are not indexed straight, or stocks with huge gouges, or inletting problems should all be easily caught at final assembly.
This isn't something to blame Remington for either! It's been going on from before they bought the business.

[LGM]

To Marlinman93,
Would you please educate me on the term you used in a Marlin 39A reply. You referenced "barrel indexed" for straightness. I'm not sure I know what "barrel indexing" means.
Thanks,
LGM

[Sure-Shot]

When the barrel is installed and checked for headspace it should have the sights directly on top and not tilted to one side or the other every once in awhile someone reports one that leans slightly to one side and most folks don't care for that.