1881 Marlin in .45-70 Needs Barrel or Lining

[longbow]

Well, it has been a while! I finally got to this gun and had a gunsmith look at it last fall. He said it wasn't in bad shape and should be shootable and that he had seen worse barrels shoot okay. From the serial number the gun was made in 1886.

I decided I would order a buttstock from Precision Gunworks and did that a few months ago. The wood is quite nice and the buttstock was a pretty reasonable price. I had to do a little fitting but not a bunch and I think I did a reasonable job.

I would have bought a forearm as well so they'd match but Precision Gunworks doesn't make forearms! The existing forearm is beat up a bit but I will remove the finish, steam out the dents I can and sand lightly then refinish. I was told I should get some alkanet root to stain the stock with so have some on order. My plan is to try to stain the forearm a little darker than it is to match the new buttstock as closely as possible then finish both with Tru-Oil. The gun was also missing the rear sight so I bought a Marbles rear sight since 1881 rear sights are very rare and expensive and I have made a plastic buttplate to suit the shotgun butt on the stock because I cannot find an original or repro 1881 buttplate!

The buttstock is now fitted and sanded but raw wood.

Here are pics of the gun:





I made a bullet mould to test the gun with to see if it would shoot. The bullet form is TC and knurled but I didn't do a vey good job on the nose form so wound up with a longer, skinnier nose than planned. It is hard (for me anyway) to single point a small diameter conical flat bottomed hole. In any case they cast okay but came out a little light at 320 grs. I decided to use those bullets anyway. Here is a pic of bullets:



I loaded up 20 rounds then took the gun to the range yesterday. I wasn't too hopeful about accuracy but was pleasantly surprised! Groups aren't great for 25m but I expected keyholes or really large groups. These aren't small groups but show potential. I loaded 20 rounds with 10 grs. of Unique and had intended to put card and felt wads under the bullets to help seal the rough bore but got distracted by other things before loading then forgot the wads! I decided I would pull 5 rounds, add the wads then reseat bullets so did that but didn't resize the brass so neck tension may have been a bit loose. Those are the group 4 bullets. Here are pics of the targets:







Not stellar accuracy but not bad for 1st time out... I think anyway.

I plan on making a new nose form that is RNFP and a heavier bullet of about 375 to 400 grs. to get some more bearing surface. I already made a D-bit for the new nose form but have to heat treat it then machine a new nose form. I will try ACWW (these were ACWW), oven heat treated, possibly paper patched and maybe jacketed if I can't shrink groups some.

I have lightly lapped the bore and it cleaned up better than I had thought. I will probably do some firelapping or some more hand lapping, again lightly, to see if that helps.

All in all I was pretty happy with the results.

Not original anymore but a ressurrected relic that has seen better days. I am hoping I can improve accuracy some without getting the barrel lined.

Longbow

I should add that group 3 is a 5 shot group. One is in the black but hard to see. I must have had the other target black under this one. That makes for 4 holes and one of the holes is a bit oval so two through one hole? Or possibly one round went wild and off the paper? Not sure but 5 rounds were fired.

[John Taylor]

I have heard that Homeland security has changed the rules about export but have not seen it in writing. The place to get liners is T.J's ,
tjsliners1992@gmail.com . Contact them direct and see if they can send out of the US.
I got tired of all the junk going on in Washington state so I moved back to Idaho.

[longbow]

I found an outfit in Ontario that can import T.J.'s liners but it take about 6 months. There is a local gunsmith that says he can line the barrel but he can't get the liners anymore. So if I order a liner from the outfit in Ontario I can get the work done locally.

I am not clear on what US restrictions on import/export of components or guns has to do with safety, security or counter terrorism when it comes to gun parts, reloading components or guns needing gunsmithing. I can understand restricting sales of military style guns, large quantities loaded ammunition or large quantities powder and things like that but I fail to see how sending a gun to a gunsmith in the States for work then having it returned is a threat to national security, and restricting things like cast bullets and brass sales. How many terrorist groups reload and especially with cast bullets I wonder.

Oh well, the rules are there and we have to live with them now. It has made reloading and gunsmithing in Canada much more difficult and costly as most items come out of the States and now many outfitrs just won't ship to Canada due to the bureacracy and cost involved.

So far though I am happy with the results of the first outing and if I can tighten groups up some I will probably not get the barrel lined. If this is the best I get then I guess I have to order a liner and wait. If I could send the gun across the border it would likely be easier and cheaper to get it lined. If I could drive it across I could bring it to your shop! That might go okay but bringing it back might be awkward. It seems that guns and gun related items leaving the US is the sticky part. As far as I understand the rules now is the US dealer/vendor has to have an FFL to export cuns, parts ore reloading components. Non-US residents can bring firearms and ammunition into the States but cannot leave with ammunition and can only be in posession of ammunition in the US if they have a non-resident hunting license or are attending a competition. That may have changed since I read it many years ago.

Oh well!

Longbow

[Cap'n Morgan]

Hi Longbow. Good to see I'm not the only person to draw out projects over a decade or more.

At the moment I'm tinkering with a 1885 replica in 45-70, and one of the things I learned the hard way is that the boolit should be at least .001 over groove size.
This 400 grains slug was meant to be the final say in an accurate boolit for the 45-70. Unfortunately it came out .002 oval and would tumble all over the target.


One of these days I'm gonna enlarge the cavity to drop at .460 to .461 before sizing, and see what happens.

I would definitely not give up on your barrel before having exhausted all possibilities, be it paper patching or hand lapping. As long as the lapping is done from the rear, and you take care to not let the lapping tool exit the muzzle, you should be fine. A schultz & larsen guy once told me that they strived to put a slight taper in their barrels toward the muzzle to keep a firm grip on the bullet all the way. I wouldn't worry over the edges of the lands being rounded in the process as long as the bore is uniform or slightly tapered towards the muzzle. The idea of "sharp" rifling is more of a myth than of practical benefit - rounded corners seal better.

Best of luck with shrinking your groups.

[longbow]

Cap'n Morgan... yes it has been a long haul. The bore looked horrible when I got the gun and I didn't really have the money to spend so it say in the gun safe neglected for many years. I received it dry and with some light rusting along with the very rough bore. I cleaned and oiled it but then left it.

Several months ago I took it out to look at it and see if it could be made shootable again for not a huge amount of money. I really cleaned up the bore and it looked a little better so I took it to a gunsmith who said he has seen worse shoot okay and that I sould give it a try. It was missing the buttstock and rear sight so not a collector item anyway. I decided to order a buttstock and would have ordered a forearm as well since the existing forearm is a bit dented but Precision Rifle Works only makes replacement buttstocks! So I will refdinish the forearm and try to stain to match the buttstock. I have some alkanet on order.

After the trip to the gunsmith I decided to lap the bore a bit to see if it would clena up some nore and it did... much better than I expected. It is rough with most ouf the roughness seeming to be on the lands but the grooves are not bad. It slugs at 0.462" so I made a mould to suit. As it turns out, the mould is also the right size to try paper patching... I made it undersize so I could knurl up to final size.

So fat I have only shot 20 round and all ACWW bullets. It appears that a wad under the bullet helps so I will load some more an duse wads under some and compare groups. I may also paper patch some to try.

I was thinking I might to a bit of firelapping or more hand lapping but after cleaning the bore looks not horrible so I will leave lapping for now and see how changes to bullet hardness, length, paper patching and maybe jacketed bullets work first.

If I can't get groups shrunk some then I will look at lining the bore. Like I said it is not a collector item anymore anyway so it may as well be a shooter. Liner and installation will run $500 to $600 so not unaffordable and that should make it a good shooter.

Longbow