From the Model 1893 to the Model 336: Marlin’s lever action of the 1930s and 1940s and its 20-inch carbine forms
From the Model 1893
The Marlin Model 36 did not start from a blank sheet. It grew out of the Model 1893, a lever action based on the patents of L.L. Hepburn that brought in a new locking bolt system and a two-piece firing pin. Writing in Shooting Illustrated, Rick Hacker describes the 1893 as the result of “a collaboration between John Mahlon Marlin and the inventive genius of Lewis Lobdell Hepburn.” Hacker also notes that the rifle’s name was changed to the Model 93 in 1905, so the same rifle line appears under both names. The NRA National Firearms Museum notes that the Model 1893 had a 24-inch standard barrel.
The Model 1936 Becomes the Model 36
In the mid-1930s Marlin revamped the Model 1893/93 with minor changes to the stock, forearm and sights, and called it the Model 1936. The sources do not agree on the year. Shooting Illustrated says that “in 1935 the Model 93 was revamped and renamed the Model 1936,” while other sources give 1936. Gun Digest calls the gun “a direct descendant of Model 1893,” and Elwood Shelton, writing for Gun Digest, describes the Model 36 as “an evolution of the 1893.”
The name soon changed again, to Model 36, and Gun Digest dates the Model 36 name to 1937. On the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum, Don Anderson put it this way: “In 1937, in the catalog only, the nomenclature was changed to Model 36.” The Model 1936/36 was chambered for .30-30 and .32 Special.
The Carbines
Gun Digest describes the Model 1936 with a streamlined stock, an added pistol grip and a 20-inch round barrel, along with a barrel band and improved sights. It had a 7-shot tube magazine and a semi-beavertail forearm. The receiver, lever and hammer were case colored, and the rest of the gun was blued. Gun Digest also describes two variations of the Model 1936: a first with a slight “fish-belly” forearm and a long tang, and a second with a thicker forearm and a short tang.
Two later carbine forms carried the Model 36 name. Gun Digest describes the Model 36 Sporting Carbine as similar to the 1936 carbine, with a 20-inch barrel, but with a two-thirds-length magazine tube that holds 6 shots instead of 7 and a front ramp sight with a hood.
On the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum, Don Anderson described the Model 36RC as having “a 20 in barrel and a full magazine with barrel bands.” In the same discussion, a member wrote, “I think RC stands for regular carbine,” and Anderson replied that “your information was entirely correct.” Gun Digest uses the same “Regular Carbine” reading for the later Model 336.
Rifle versions sat alongside the carbines. The same discussion described the 36A as the model “which was the rifle and had a 24 inch barrel.” Gun Digest describes the 36A-DL as similar to the Model 36A but with a deluxe checkered stock, furnished with a leather sling.
Design
Like the Model 1893 before it, the Model 1936/36 used a solid-top receiver of forged steel and ejected fired cartridges out the side. Its bolt was square. Elwood Shelton writes that the Model 36 “still boasted the square bolt,” and on the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum, a member explaining how to tell a Model 36 receiver from a 336 pointed to its “one piece bolt that completely closes the bolt opening.”
Wartime and Postwar
According to Shooting Illustrated, “World War II halted further development of the Model 36.” For the company as a whole, the NRA National Firearms Museum notes that the Second World War years brought contracts to make High Standard/UDM 42 9mm Parabellum submachine guns, along with barrels and other parts for the M1 Garand rifle and M1 carbine.
On the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum, Don Anderson wrote that “After the war, in 1946, the marking on the upper tang was eliminated and Model 36 was added to the barrel markings.” He added: “The receivers were now blued.”
Succession by the Model 336
In 1948 the Model 36 was replaced by the Model 336. Jeremiah Knupp, writing in American Rifleman, describes the original 336 as “an update of the Model 1936” and notes that it “was introduced in 1948.” The new model incorporated the patents of Thomas R. Robinson, Jr., a Marlin employee. Elwood Shelton writes that Marlin “improved the design considerably by breaking from its traditional design, in particular the square bolt.” In its place came a round bolt, which Rick Hacker calls “a hallmark of the 336.” American Rifleman puts the 336’s total at “more than 6 million produced.”
Markings and Identification
Gun Digest describes three Model 36 variations: the first and second have a case-colored receiver, the second is tapped for a receiver sight, and the third has a blued receiver. The bolt is another dividing line: square on the Model 36, round on the Model 336.
One further caution comes from the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum, where a member wrote that “Marlin used left over parts all the time, not considering what confusion would be created for future collectors.”
Its Place in the Marlin Line
The Model 1936/36 sits between Marlin’s Hepburn-patent Model 1893 and the round-bolt Model 336 that replaced it in 1948. Its carbine forms include the Model 1936 carbine, the Sporting Carbine with its shortened magazine, and the 36RC as described on the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum. The variations described by Gun Digest and on the Marlin Firearms Collectors Association forum turn on details such as forearm shape, tang length, receiver finish and barrel markings.
Further Reading
- The Classics: The Marlin Model 336, Rick Hacker, Shooting Illustrated (October 20, 2025)
- Marlin Model 336: Hunting-Season Classic And Beyond, Elwood Shelton, Gun Digest
- New For 2023: Marlin Model 336 Classic, Jeremiah Knupp, American Rifleman (March 27, 2023)
- Marlin Model 1893 Lever Action Rifle, NRA National Firearms Museum
