Marlin feeding problem.

[DuncaninFrance]

Recently bought a Marlin 1894 S/S .44Magnum

Cast bullets from a double cavity Lee 90338 Mold. .429 , 240 grain SWC with Gas Cheeks.

If loaded individually they group very well indeed but the rifle won't feed them.

The dies are RCBS Carbide 3 die set. The loads are crimped.

Commercial Sierra bullets load and cycle without any problems.

Hope the following images give an idea of the problem.

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/Duncaninfrance/LEVER1WEB.jpg

http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f392/Duncaninfrance/LEVER2WEB.jpg

Can anyone offer a solution that would use the existing mold and gaschecks or should I look at a different mold ?

[EDK]

Check the back of the chamber for burrs that catch the boolit edge. Check the extractor to see if the case rim slides under easily. Go to marlinowners or lever guns web sites for MARLIN tuning info.

I lucked out that my various MARLIN Cowboy rifles feed most of the boolits I cast. You can adjust the length over all and see if that helps. While the semi wad cutters feed for me, a round nose flat point design eliminates the problem BUT even the rnfp with a big meplat can cause problems. I got a DEAL on a Lead Bullet Technology 300 grain+ wide flat nose that won't feed or chamber in some of my 44s.

LEE goes to the extremes of a 200 and 310 rnfp. My experience has been with LYMAN and various group buy moulds. The RANCH DOG TLC 432 265 was designed for your gun; NOE makes a clone also. LYMAN 429667 and 429640 work well for me also.

[mustanggt]

You may have to crimp over the shoulder of that bullet to get it to feed properly. I have tried to get my Keith bullet to feed and that is what needs to be done because I couldn't get them to feed either.

[GRUMPA]

I have the exact same issue with those same bullets, but in my win model 94. I even tried to do what mustanggt suggested as well to no avail. Tried all kinds of things and actually got lucky once, don't know what I did, kinda like one of scenerios (look this way, left up your leg just right, sneeze) type things. All my other loads function just fine but that one in particular just wont for me. So I just reserve that one for my handgun which for me defeats the purpose of have a pistol and rifle chambered for the same cartridge.

[DuncaninFrance]

Thanks for that. Looks like factory made bullets for this one. I tend to agree with Grumpa about the Pistol/Rifle purpose.................

[TCFAN]

I have a Cowboy Limited 44 mag that feeds a Lee 255gr. plain base SWC boolit just fine.Also have a Lyman 429244 SWC that will feed ok if I crimp on the top band.A Lyman 429215 feeds good crimped in the crimp groove.
I think you just need to keep trying different OAL with your boolit and maybe you will get lucky.

[Muddy Creek Sam]

Widowmaker Hill over on the SASS Wire forum has his Marlin where it will feed even upside down.

Sam :D

[longbow]

I had had to spend hours altering my cartridge stop and reshaping the carrier to get my 1894 to feed SWC's reasonably well.

Some guns seem to like them, some do not. I have to think it is due to small timing issues and part tolerances.

OAL is one major issue especially with the Lyman 429421 ~ the nose is too long to feed well so it has to be seated deeper to function in an unaltered gun. Or at least it certainly did in mine.

I also had lots of trouble with hangups on the shoulder until I reshaped my carrier.

Mine works pretty well now but it was work.

Good luck.

Longbow

[mustanggt]

I usually shoot RD's 300gr mold in my Marlin. Feeds like butter. Lever actions really need to use a RNFP type bullet so there is no issues. They shoot great in all my 44 mags.

[markinalpine]

A lot of good information about Winchesters, Marlins, and their clones is available here:
http://marauder.homestead.com/rifles.html :Fire:

Good luck,
and Merry Christmas,
Mark :coffeecom

ps, Don't forget that there is a Leverguns forum on this board. [smilie=1:

[GRUMPA]

I 'm sure some folks have some sort of success with altering the OAL on allot of things. But in my own case even setting the OAL to a much shorter dimension and it still doesn't feed tells me a couple of things. 1) The feeding will need work to to some degree. 2) For me I have this really bad mind-set with the whole free bore issue. I like all my cast stuff almost touching the lands for optimum accuracy potential (except for my pistols of course). When ever I do this in my other rifles accuracy improves greatly. I really don't care to get that sling-shot type accuracy with all the work that's required just to make a cartridge.


And as far as the mechanics of the rifle itself I would rather not do it being it's new, but I have far to many other cast boolits I can put through it that will work to my fussy specifications. Factory stuff in my rifle I'm sure will work but for what it costs me to cast my own it isn't even affordable to go with the factory stuff.

[longbow]

RN, RNFP & TC styles have always fed well in my gun. My first mould was the Lyman 429421 and I found out pretty quick that it didn't feed well.

Then I became the proud owner of a couple of Mihec H&G #503 moulds so decided it was worthwhile making some modifications to see if it would feed SWC's. At worst they wouldn't work and I might have to buy a new carrier. As it turns out so far things are working pretty well.

PS: I should add that the SWC's also shoot very well and have given very good accuracy so it was worth the effort.

[BCB]

I have the 1894C which is the 357 Magnum...

I know the topic is the 44 Magnum, but I have the same problem with the 358429 Keith style boolit feeding also...

I finally just trimmed the 357 Magnum case back until I could crimp in the crimping groove and it would then feed. Accuracy is very good, and I can do this because I don't really shoot all that many rounds per year from this lever gun...

Lots of work and I keep the brass seperate from the 357 Magnum brass that I shoot in the Security-Six...

Good-luck...BCB

[Duckiller]

Have a 1894 44MAG that was a fine single shot off a bench. Couldn't take it hunting. Couldn't unload it without it jamming. Hand loads, Factory loads, didn't matter always jammed. On its third or forth trip to the gunsmith I got them all excited when I grabbed a box of factory loads, announced I was buying it and put three rounds in the magazine. Jammed on the second round that I tried to rack out. Smith took it back and shipped to Marlin. Has work ever since. Not sure what i would do if I lived in France. Remington/Marlin must have a factory fix-it place for Europe. Some of our feeding problems should be fix at the factory that caused it in the first place.

[mustanggt]

Go over to the Marlin Owners Group site. They have a fix for the dreaded Marlin Jam.

[theperfessor]

I have an 1894C in .357. Had a lot of hangups using the 358156 until I learned to cycle the action "smartly" and not hesitate. Good accuracy but still not utterly reliable. There are better bullets for leverguns than most SWCs.

[kelbro]

From the picture, it looks like the same problem that I had with my 44. It looks like the rim is not sliding up under the extractor. I smoothed that little 'tit' on the bottom left side of the boltface and smoothed the underside edge of the extractor and now it feeds everything well. Slow or fast. SWC, WC, WFNs, you name it.

[malpaismike]

Hello the camp! I'm not gonna get categorical, just state my experiences. When I started cas, I bought bullets from members of the club. If I say 29/k, you'll figure how far back that was.
When Mesa started, I won a cert for Laredo Bullets; their 240 .44 was a wc, their only offering. They would not feed in my pre-safety Marlin on a bet. A change to Meister's rnfp fit the bill----note: these were all Phx-area businesses, your mileage may vary.
That said, Laredos would feed in my kaboy Marlin jes' fine.
I never measured/compared/investigated, I just shot. Then came Bear Creek moly bullets, and the others sailed into the sunset.
Since dull pointless stories are my mainstay, I'm not altogether sure where this is headed. Mostly, I would go to a fnrp for your rifle and use the balance of your wc's in your pistol. I will say my .44spl Colts shot wc's like a wire-guided rocket.
Sometimes you have to back up and regroup. I've shot bp for over 10 yrs. However, economics and my retarded status dictate I shoot smokeless; we shoot 4 weekends a month here.
My adjustment was buying a .44-200 Lee alox mold; I'm going to try it with my Midway moly tumbling kit, cuz I have it, then do alox if I have to. If anyone has experience with their tumble moly, I'd appreciate a heads-up .
that's my .02. See ya round the campfire. mm

[looseprojectile]

I am familiar with the Marlins. But that said I do not own one at this time.
I have three 92 Winchester clones, a Browning and two Rossis. Two 44s and one .357.
All three 92s have a generous chamfer at the entrance of the chamber to enhance feeding. Your Marlin does not seem to have much of one. If that rifle was mine and I had a problem such as you do I would try some method to polish the entrance of the chamber a little at a time till it will feed. Sharp edges there are probably most of the problem.
I wish you all the best.

Merry Christmas

Life is good

[kelbro]

Addition to my previous post about the fix. Before I figured out what was causing my problem, I did polish a good chamfer on the chamber. It didn't fix the problem but it most likely helped.

[DuncaninFrance]

Thanks for the many suggestions guys.
I am going to try:
Polishing the internal angles.
Adjusting the Extractor Spring a little
Re-shaping the hook on the extractor a little.

Watch this space.:brokenima

[casterofboolits]

Back in the mid 80's, I purchased a Marlin 1894 in 44 Mag to go with my S&W Mod. 29. The action functioned like it was filled with gravel and would not feed my handloads with the Lyman 429421 44-245-SWCPB.

I took the action apart and it was ROUGH, burrs and ragged edges on every part and the inside of the frame. I spent two days stoning every part and the inside of the frame using hard Arkanas stones.

Once the action was smothed out, it fed the SWC's as smooth as butter! I was happy, to say the least. Marlin seemed to have a quality problem at that time and I also did the same for a friends 444 with the same results.

[DuncaninFrance]

To date I have tried adjusting the extractor spring, crimping the bullets a little more and making the bullet the maximum length to change the feed angle but all to no avail. It still will not feed cast but will feed Sierra as smoothly as a hot knife cutting butter!:veryconfu

[MakeMineA10mm]

Here's a start: Failure to feed issues in 1894 SOLVED (http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/index.php/topic,58595.0.html)

Beyond that, let me encourage you to not give up. My 1894SS feeds SWCs (and most everything else) fine, so it can happen. As was said above, some of it is tolerances, angles, loosness vs. tightness of the parts, etc.

I know one big step that improves a lot of them is radiusing the rear edge of the chamber. It must be carefully done, but basically you are just taking away the sharp edge and replacing it with a curved one. Don't be too aggressive.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Oh, and another thing. Keep in mind that when these guns were designed the only bullet designs out there were the Round Nose Flat Point (RNFP) and Round Nose (RN). Both of those will feed like butter as well. Most jacketed bullets have a truncated cone or RNFP shape, so they feed quite well too.

You are trying to make a bullet with a sharp-edge feed. This the gun was not designed to do. But, at the link above, some suggestions should help get you closer, if not all the way there.

[joecool911]

Even with straight walled bullets like ones from Beartooth, if I don't get a good crimp my rounds wont feed either. Get stuck right at the case rim. Try a lee crimp die. From there I would change bullet design.

[DuncaninFrance]

OK, not giving up yet. I joined the Marlin Owners Forum Group and have posted in the Failure to feed issues in 1894 SOLVED slot so I am working hard to sort this problem. :coffeecom