1894s marlin - what is best to feed

[rp85]

hello;

purchased a near mint condition marlin 1894s in 44 magnum last week. serial number is 0604...... think manufacture date is 1994. it has micro grove rifling.

looking for input on what to feed this rifle. have several hundred 240 grain xtp hornady bullets and several hundred ww 240 grain h/p bullets.

have a hoch mold that drops 255 grain cast bullet. the bullet base is out of round @.003". using a lee hand sizer i get a bullet between .4295 - .4315.

is the out of round bullet a problem???

anyone use the lee 310 grain bullet for their 44 magnum marlin???

have plenty of 2400, hp38, and accurate #5.

would someone suggest reloading data for the above powders and bullets.

plan on shooting paper and maybe some deer hunting.

thanks for any input.

rp

[btroj]

Only your rifle can answer those questions.
Try the bullets and see how they shoot. Some levers shoot well with some bullets, others don't seem so agreeable.

[Ole]

I have a Microgroove 1894 in .44 Mag and it loves the 310 Lee bullet.

My load is 20 grains of H110.

Try 10.0 grains of Unique with the Lee 200 grain RNFP for a plinker.

One of my favorite rifles.

[knifemaker]

One of the problems with the Marlin 94 in 44 mag is that most of them require a cast boolit that is oversize for best accuracy. My 1894 built in early 70's likes boolits that are sized .432-.433 before I get very good 100 yard accuracy. slug your bore and size your boolits 1-2 thousand over your groove dia. Most of the micro-groove barrels run about .431 on groove dia. for the average.

[stubshaft]

Shoot them first and go on from there. You have to develop a baseline first.

[calkar]

Slug the barrel and measure your twist if it is the 1:38 like I had it will only shoot well with oversize boolit loaded kind of hot.

[kawalekm]

I feed my Marlin two loads that it digests equally well. Remington's 240g jacketed hollow point (.430") and Lyman's 245g 430421 (sized to .430"). My Marlin's bore slugs out to .430"

I load both to an oal of 1.615" and they feed equally well. I've taken deer with the jacketed hollow point. Don't think you need anything heavier than that for deer sized game.

[miestro_jerry]

I would recommend using Ranch Dog molds for your boolits. Ranch Dog designs molds that work extremely well with Marlin lever guns with Micro Grove bores.

Jerry

[rp85]

should i be concerned about the .003 " out of round on the hoch cast bullet???

thanks for all the input.

rp

[x101airborne]

Save yourself some headache. Contact RanchDog on this forum. He owns a levergun or two and custom designs molds for them. Order his 310 grainer for the 44 and load it with a maximum charge of 296 or H-110. My rifle shoots both to the same point of aim and my Redhawk and 629 shoot the same load really well, although The only time I put them through my Smith is when I HAVE to. My redhawk eats that one and only load.

[knifemaker]

To add to x101airborne's post. I use the Ranchdog 265 gr. cast boolit mold that is designed for tumble lubing. I do not tumble lube and run that boolit though a .433 sizing-lube die using white label 2500 lube. My best accuracy has been around 1700-1750 fps with that bullet. This bullet is very reliable and smooth feeding.

The other accurate load consisted of a NOE 255 gr. keith style SWC that I also size at .433 and load to 1700-1750 fps. I have had good luck with both 2400 powder and W-296 with both loads.
This bullet also feeds very well in my 1894, but some rifles will have problems feeding SWC bullets.

[calkar]

That is a fact, Ranch Dog will have the molds and oversize sizing die that you will need also, for a very reasonable price.