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Had it on lay away just picked it up this morning didn't clean it up yet.
It's a 1951 year with the "peanut" grip cap with the little piece of brass in it that you could send back to Marlin and they would put your initials on it.I think Marlin only did the peanut cap for one year (1951) because they needed the brass for the war.
I have an old Marlin round sight hood that fits nicely on it.
Beautiful rifle! My 1941 39A is among my very favorites, and I was lucky enough to pick it up for $225 about 8 years back because it had been drilled/tapped (and had a Marlin base on it), and was missing one end-cap screw. A silky-smooth, fine-shooting gun and a classic among .22s.
I recently picked up a similar rifle of 1948 vintage. It always amazes me to see these old rifles in such fine condition. It's like they didn't see much use for one reason or another.
Shasta
California Rifle & Pistol Association LIFE Member
National Rifle Association BENEFACTOR LIFE Member
The insert for the grip cap began in 1949, but didn't reach the market until the 1951 model 336 and 39a. It was also offered in 1952, but rarely seen compared to 1951 models. It wasn't dropped for the war, or lack of brass; it was dropped for cost. Marlin contracted out to another company to build those caps and simply stopped to reduce costs.
marlinman93 wrote: ↑Tue Apr 11, 2017 5:33 pm
The insert for the grip cap began in 1949, but didn't reach the market until the 1951 model 336 and 39a. It was also offered in 1952, but rarely seen compared to 1951 models. It wasn't dropped for the war, or lack of brass; it was dropped for cost. Marlin contracted out to another company to build those caps and simply stopped to reduce costs.
You're misreading the letter from Marlin, or reading into it more than it means. Bill Brophy told me Marlin had a heck of a time finding a vendor to build the grip caps, thus the grip caps were in a short run, and going through making more for subsequent runs would be another hassle. So that's the "shortage of materials" mentioned in the letter you posted.
And Marlin was indeed involved in defense contracts with the US Government for the Korean Conflict, so being busy with those obligations made the little grip cap an issue they had even less interest in continuing. Remember the grip cap was only part of the issue. Once the customer purchased the gun, they had to remove the cap to send back to Marlin for having their initials added. This was just more hassle and time taken away from production and military contract work. Money made vs. money spent, and with little demand from the public. Add to that the fact that over half of the grip caps I see never have initials because owners didn't bother sending them in. Pretty much told Marlin customers didn't care about the initials.
With all this angst and upheaval over this thing..you probably don't even want it anymore. So being as I am the closest to you I'll be over tomorrow to get rid of it for you. Because I care!
a Pennsylvanian who has been accused of clinging to my religion and my guns......Good assessment skills.
Tom,you crack me up.....Lol
There is another 1951 Model 39 on the used gun rack at Cabela's,....well it was there as of this past Monday anyway.... They were asking 499.00 for it.
Bill once told me that he thought one reason we see so few of these 1951-52 model 39a and 336 for sale used was the initial plates! He felt that owners who went through the process of sending in the plate to have initials added were more likely to keep them. And he figured more likely to stay in the family after the owners passed also!
I've rarely seen one for sale that actually had someone's initials on the grip cap. Most were ones that never got the initials. I think Bill said they made something around 30,000-35,000 of the 39a in '51, so should be plenty if people ever let them go!
Well I am glad I crack you up Tom, cause it's pretty much an even split between I make people laugh and I make people want to punch me in the face! It's a gift!
a Pennsylvanian who has been accused of clinging to my religion and my guns......Good assessment skills.
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Old walnut has great class.... 
