Rebarrel options for new octagon 1984 .45

[.45Cole]

So my chamber is REALLY cut too wide on my 45 colt. When I resize my brass, they come out looking like 45-40 brass. This causes some feeding problems in some of the other guns. I don't want to cut and rechamber the original barrel as it's a 1894CB 45. I was hoping that one of the big manufacturers made a barrel that would finish out to 24" and I can save my original. Anyone know of a marlin spec (except for the chamber!) aftermarket octagon barrel?

[Nobade]

You can compare Green Mountain's small levergun profiles, and see if they have anything. Also, McGowan will make you a custom profile for not too much $$. Dave Manson will make you a minimum spec 45 Colt reamer.

That said, I have the same rifle and have found the solution is to only neck size the cases, anneal them well, use a big enough (custom) expander ball in my flare die, and use big (.455 - .457) enough boolits, and seat and crimp in different operations. Doing all this, I managed to stop the blowby, dramatically improve accuracy, and it feeds slick. Don't be afraid of big boolits as long as they're cast and fairly soft. And yes, those chambers are pretty big - the base of my cases are almost as big as the rims.

-Nobade

[truckboss]

Make sure before you do anything to test your gun with a lot of different loads.I have 2 1894's on 20' on 24' and both will shoot under 2' at 100 yards.Both will chamber a .461 boolit,I size .454. Edit

[truckboss]

Thats not a 2 inch internet group its actual, got the paper to prove it.Do what Nobade said and also make sure your benchrest technique is good.I rest my barrel closest to the receiver.

[Uncle Grinch]

Are we speaking about a new or recent maznufacture Marlin 1894CB? If so, would Marlin not make it good?

[truckboss]

There are no new CB.

[.45Cole]

The rifle shoots amazingly (I have no need to punch paper, it hits all the rocks I point it at). I want to stop all the smoking of my brass, and I need to stop blowing out my brass because of a new pistol with min specs. The rifle is my new project beings that it's the worst case I have (not accuracy, but the way it treats brass). A new barrel chambered as I please will cure all of this, but I want to maintain the feel of the rifle, it feels great (except the lever, but I'll take care of that during the rebarrel). I have heard that McGowan barrels are, well maybe not worth more than scrap iron. Unless Green Mountain does mainly custom orders, they didn't seem to have much in stock.

Uncle- it's an older 1894, with the JM mark, so I'd like to just put the barrel and original takeoff parts in a nice, findable, resting place. This is it's identical twin.

[John Taylor]

One of the problems with a strait walled case in a lever gun is they have problem feeding. The way they get them to feed easy is to use an over size chamber. I have two McGowen 45 Colt barrels, 22" long, that are undersize on the groove diameter. Sent them back to McGowen and they would not stand behind them.

[bigted]

my winchester '92' is a modern miroku manufacture rifle and it will take .457/.458 inch boolits in a fired case. so what i do is just load with the .457/.458 inch boolits and crimp em and have a blast ... they all seem to work thru the action well except for some very SWC type boolits.

just experiment with your boolit diameter and then have a ball with your rifle... i bet it will do at least 2 inch groups at 100 loading thusly.

[Nobade]

One of the problems with a strait walled case in a lever gun is they have problem feeding. The way they get them to feed easy is to use an over size chamber. I have two McGowen 45 Colt barrels, 22" long, that are undersize on the groove diameter. Sent them back to McGowen and they would not stand behind them.

That's sad to hear. I just ordered a barrel for my 375 H&H from them, guess I'll see what comes in. Now that barrels are so hard to get I thought I would give them a try. Looks like I might regret it...

-Nobade