I have a 16” Remlin that likes the 170 grain Winchester powerpoints. On a good day it will shoot clover leafs at 50 yards, and easily about 1” for three shots at 100. The thing is, it shoots 2 MOA to 3 MOA with almost every other factory load I have tried. Some are closer to 4MOA. And I have tried a bunch. Winchester powerpoints are the most inconsistent ammo I have used in every rifle or every caliber except this one.

Might only have a few hundred rounds through her. Sometimes I wonder if that’s all it takes to foul up a microgroove. Maybe the Winchester 170’s have a longer bearing surface than all others? Thinking I might give her a good bore scrub and spend a morning at the bench with the old girl.

Curious as to what other factory ammo you’ve tried. The Glenfield 30A I inherited from my grandpa liked Hornady LeveRevolution so much I never even tried anything else.

Why not exactly what you're after, our rifles are similar. My boys and I have several 336 Marlins in 35 remington. They are all 1970s 1980s rifles with microgroove barrels. I load for all of them using the same exact press setup and powder charge and projectile type/weight. Two of them group at 1-1.5 in at 100. Looking at my last targets, one of them was 2 in but I think I could get it down to 1.5 being a little bit steadier. My point being is these are all very consistent rifles firing a basic by the book hand loads (e.g standard cartridge overall length). I did not try to custom load development for each chamber. I wanted to keep it simple at under 130 yard shots.

All this is to say I believe our Marlin 336 rifles are capable of 1- 1.5 in all day with a basic components WITH consistent loads. As you found a factory load that gives you 1 in, I would stick with that and call it a day. Would be interesting to try scrubbing the bore might change.

I have tried pretty much every factory load i can buy on the store shelf except for Federal Fusion. Pretty much every common 150 and 170 grain factory loaded cup and core soft point, plus Winchester Super X hollow points. I have some Remington Managed Recoil 125’s but have not really tested them, other than to check POI from about 25 yards.

The 150 grain hollowpoints were terrible. I had high hopes for them.

Sometimes I wonder if I am not giving the barrel adequate time to cool. But I always wrap it up with the Winchester 170’s and they never disappoint me. That was the case last night. I thought i completely missed the target with two of the last 3 shots until i pulled it.

I’ve been hand loading for more years than most members here have been alive. I have found several rifles that just don’t shoot anything satisfactorily.

What you discovered happens often enough with a factory rifle shooting factory ammunition. If you have that lever gun shooting factory ammunition MOA @ 100 yards, stop looking for something to beat it. Either lay in an ample supply of the factory ammunition it shoots well or take up reloading and start with that same projectile.

Remlin you are lucky - you got a good one. I use the FTX 160gr. very accurate. But mine is a 20" JM.

I have to agree with this. A lever gun with factory ammo shooting an inch at 100 is plenty good enough.

As to why the OP’s rifle doesn’t like other ammo… sometimes rifles are just picky

I love this gun. I really don’t care that it’s a Remington gun, it’s my favorite gun to shoot. And It’s not that I am not satisfied with how it shoots, or what it shoots. That 170 grain winchester load was the first ammo I ever bought for it, and I have several boxes.

I am more concerned with why does it only like this load, and how can I duplicate it. I would assume that it will work with lighter bullets, just maybe not maxed out the way they load them from the factory. I still have hope for other loads. I really wanted that hollowpoint Winchester load to shoot better for coyotes. I will probably use some of it anyway and just keep it short-ish.

I have some 160 grain FTX’s and a couple of boxes of the 175 grain Sub-X bullets that i’ve been sitting on for a long time. I have a Lee loader and a grain scale, primers, and I think a pound of W760 too. I would imagine those Sub-X bullets would shoot well with the longer bearing surface. Technically I could start rolling my own.

I wish I could get my hands on some 170 grain powerpoints to load up.

At the end of the day I just want to know, why is this the top notch load for this gun, and why can’t I squeeze more than 2 MOA out of anything else? I just want to learn. Curiosity is kind of killing me.

This is my completely unscientific theory that I pulled out of my [censored]. It’s worth what you paid for it. And I’ve got nothing to back it up. Just a hypothesis, if you will.

I think you may be onto something with the bearing surface issue. But, I wonder if the Winchester jacket alloy is a touch harder than other alloys (or softer, or just Goldilocks to work with the microgroove). I know guys in the past have had trouble getting cast lead bullets to shoot well out of microgroove barrels.. so the hardness thing might make sense. Maybe that particular load behind that bullet is just enough to fill the microgroove but not enough to strip the extra rifling? Or the other loads don’t have enough pressure to make the bullet fully engage?

If you do decide to load your own, I’d be real interested to see what your best powder charge did with different brands of bullets with the same bullet weight.

I wish I could help you. Its not indicative to only that rifle, I have a Savage 340 that only likes 170gr. I never could figure it out.

I’ve used all the 30-30 factory loads and my favorite is the old Winchester Powermax PHP