30-30 micro-groove barrel

[flyingstick]

I have an old 30-30 Western Auto Revelation 200M made by Marlin. It needs a new barrel on it and Marlin said they would put one on it for $130, but I found out tonight that it's a microgroove barrel which is bad for shooting cast bullets.
Does anyone know if another type of barrel will go on this gun that will shoot cast bullets well? It's the 20 1/4 " barrel.
Thanks,
Don

[Ranch Dog]

Don,

Eleven of my fifteen Marlin's have the Micro-Groove barrels and I see absolutely NO difference in performance as compared with the Ballard barrels.

[mag_01]

:coffee: ---My Marlin 336-m/g 30-30 shoots well with cast boolits ---I use 160 gr. g/c Lee boolit with 5744 and have no problem at all--I size .311---Mag

[9.3X62AL]

"Micro-grooves no good with lead boolits" is one of the board's favorite urban legends to debunk. I have a Marlin Model 62 (lever action 30 Carbine) and its MG rifling dotes on Lee Soup Cans (113 grain RN GC) @ .311"--it does better work with these than with the j-words. Little sister has a Davis-built Model 10 PPC revolver, and its Micro-groove barrel will lay HBWC's into a B-27 X-ring all day long at 50 yards.

Fit (meaning "fat") is the key to any lead boolit application.

[beemer]

Howdy. I'm new here, just got registered yesterday. Your 30-30 will shoot cast just fine.The rifling is shallow on MG barrels. This makes the boolit size a little more critical. I used 5744 and a .5 gr tuft of dacron to hold the powder in place.
The Lee 160 and Lyman 311291 work great. The Marlin I used would do about 2.5 at 100 yds.
beemer

[cbrick]

Marlin Micro-Groove barrels won't shoot cast??

hhmmm . . . Seems a silly thing to say.

Rick

[Char-Gar]

fllyingstick.. we have delt with the microgroove stuff over and over and over again. Do a search and save us all the time again. Long story short, no need for a new barrel.

[flyingstick]

Thanks Guys, I took the gun to the Oldest Gunsmith in town today and this was the info he gave me. I certainly am glad to find out different.

[tall grass]

Flyingstick

I've got one of those Revelations and really like it. Found it in a pawn shop last year, it had been someones truck gun. I refinished the wood, touched up the bluing and it looks alot better. I've been trying to find a load for the 311440 group buy and so far IMR3031 doesn't work. Remember on the Micro Grooves that you need to shoot a boolit that is big enough.

Jim

[Taylor]

27 grains Varget and 170 grn Lee,Nobody told my Marlin that cast would not work,it does't seem to mind.

[grumpy one]

Taylor, if your bullets are fairly hard you may do a bit better with a slightly stiffer load. Varget is said to perform better with a fair amount of pressure. So far my best Varget accuracy with that Lee bullet was with 30 grains, but the experts on this board tell me that with even harder bullets - say, linotype - I should get some further improvement with a bit more powder than that. Varget can drive that Lee bullet to give J-bullet factory load velocity and accuracy in a MG 30-30.

[NickSS]

My MG Marlin likes 170 gr lee fp and 18 gr of IMR 4198

[uscra112]

There was a really good article on shooting Pb projectiles in Marlin barrels in American Rifleman, a long time ago. In the late '60s or early '70s. Conclusion was that the Microgroove barrel doesn't much like boolits with long bore-rider noses, but rather those with the OD at groove diameter for at least 65% or so of the length.

My experience with my .35 Rem Marlin bears this out. That 336 carbine was my Dad's last deer rifle, and it's still one of my favorites. You can do almost anything that you really NEED to do with that cartridge, from heavy 200 grain loads that will kill a moose, (at reasonable ranges), to subsonic loads using 140-grain hollow-point semi-wadcutters that will do for the chucks behind the barn, and don't alert the neighbours. A medium-hard 158-grain Keith can be sent out at 1800 fps using XMP5744 (I won't quote the exact charge - work out your own.) A 300 yard varmint-killer it's not, but at 100-150 yards it's a hard-working tool.

[1Papalote]

If you must have a ballard rifled barrel, have them rebarrel to the 24" Octagaon Cowboy. It will cost you a bit more.

1Papalote

[Junior1942]

I have an old 30-30 Western Auto Revelation 200M made by Marlin. It needs a new barrel on it
What's the matter with the old barrel? Maybe you could slice an inch off the length if it's cleaning rod wear at the muzzle.

[lastmanout]

I have new Marlin factory barrel that fits a 336 lever -should be the same rifle. It is brand new, blued, chambered for 30-30, and threaded. Should screw right on. Headspace will need checked by a gunsmith. And (for better or worse) it is has Microgroove rifling. $50 including shipping. I have a couple microgroove Marlin 30-30's and they shoot cast Boolits just fine-just make sure they "fit the bore"- Chubby boolits-:mrgreen:

[Scrounger]

What's the matter with the old barrel? Maybe you could slice an inch off the length if it's cleaning rod wear at the muzzle.


That would probably mess up the front sight. Try counter-boring the barrel for a half inch or inch. That way you get a new crown AND a built-in cleaning rod guide.

[NVcurmudgeon]

One of the many great advantages of Marlins over Brand X lever actions is the ease of field stripping for cleaning from the breech.

[flyingstick]

Junior, the barrel had something in it about 9 inches from the muzzle when it was fired. It bulged the barrel out. I sent it back to Marlin right after the original post. They're supposed to put me a new barrel on it for $130.

[versifier]

Good price for the work - I doubt you could have a gunsmith fit a new one for that.
If you had a lathe, I would take lastmanout's offer (a steal of a deal), but since you have already sent it out, I imagine the factory can handle it.

[flyingstick]

yea, I checked with local gunsmith's and they would'nt touch it for that price. So I shipped it back, right after the original post.

[Greg]

Howdy. I'm new here, just got registered yesterday.

I used 5744 and a .5 gr tuft of dacron to hold the powder in place. The Lyman 311291 work great.
beemer


beemer-

Welcome to the board.

I would be interested in any 30-30 loads and the Lyman 311299.

I have a 30-30 H & R in which I'd like to use the Lyman 311299 and 311284, but I don't know quite where to start...