Micro groove and cast

[charger 1]

I shoot marlins newer ballard 45/70's with stupendous results. Some guys say the older micro barrels are great, some say crapola for cast. Where did the bear really poop in the buckwheat boys? I know some of ya's musta tried em

[Maven]

charger 1, I have a Marlin #336 .45-70 MG that is a tack driver. I've also tried the same rifle with Ballard rifling with my handloads and couldn't see any difference in accuracy between the two.

[lovedogs]

It's all a matter of alloy used, bullet sizing, correct lube, etc. .... in other words, the rules that govern success in shooting lead in anything.

[Char-Gar]

Charger... do a search for "microgroove" and you will have enough info to keep your busy for some time.

[KCSO]

In about 1974 I got one of the first 1895's that came to our area. After shooting a lot of Elmer's loads I thought I would try some cast loads. I didn't know any better and had heard none of the rumors so I just went ahead and did it. I had a Lee 405 Grain mould and had lapped it some for my trapdoor so I started there and it shot decent groups. Then i tried BLACK powder and it still shot decent groups, but fouled out in about 4 shots. Later I sold the gun because micro groove won't shoot cast. Since then I had thought that this myth had been pretty well de bunked. Cast the bullets the right size and cast them from w/w or harder and they will shoot and shoot well. If I had had bulets that held enough grease for B/P back in 74 I would have bet that the 95 would have never been sold.

[longbow]

I had a Marlin 1895 with microgroove rifling that had no problem with cast boolits.

I can't remember the mould number offhand but the Lyman 385 gr. round nose shot like a hot damn out of it. I also shot lots of black powder and had no trouble with fouling.

I will be called a heretic for this but my lube was Valvoline PB wheelbearing grease smeared into the lube grooves by hand - boolits shot as cast. I never checked bore size or boolit size at the time because everything worked fine.

The wierd bit from what I read now is that the petroleum based grease should not have worked with BP. However, it kept the fouling soft and mud like.

I will forever regret selling that gun.

Longbow

[felix]

Longbow, not all paraffins are created equal. Different chemical chains for different crude locations. It could be that just any kind of paraffin plus other lube components combined with powder residue creates a tacky glue not water soluble. In other words, don't take anything in the gun world notation as gospel, but just as a "listen up". ... felix

[w30wcf]

charger 1,
A friend has a micro-groove .45-70 Marlin and I have a Marlin .45-70 made in '74 with standard rifling. Accuracy with cast bullets has been virtually the same between them.

w30wcf

[jlchucker]

I bought my Marlin 45-70 new in 1981 (before the dorky safety button) and have shot many, many cast bullets thru it--mostly RCBS 300 and 405's, but also some Lyman 385's. I never had a problem with any of them, loaded down or up. It wasn't until years later, when the magazine writers began comparing Micro-groove to Ballard rifling in cast bullet applications that I even became aware there was supposed to be a problem. I could have this rifle rebarrelled with a new Marlin barrel, but what's the point? It has always shot great with cast bullets, some of which were chronographed at about 1820 fps.

[Three44s]

Click on the left side .......... "book" ..........

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/bulletselect/index.htm

Buy it ..... have not found a better book on fitting guns and boolits.


Three 44s

[The Nyack Kid]

Seems to me ,where the marlin microgrove got the bad reputation with lead was with the 30-30 and borerider boolits . something about the shallow groves not supporting the noses of these boolits when fired , combined with soft alloy and max loads , made for "interesting shooting" IIRC . my marlin 30-30 is pre micro grove so i can not tell you more than what i have .

[Nardoo]

I used cast bullets in my Marlin 45/70 with micro-groove rifling with great success. The RCBS 405 FN GC sized .459" shot nearly MOA with a wide range of powders. I replaced it with a Ruger #1 in 45/70 which gave me fits before it would shoot cast OK.

My Marlin 375Win with micro-groove also shoots cast well. I use the RCBS 250 FN GC sized to .376". It shoots 1 1/2" at 100 yds.
And never had leading problems with either of them using home made lanolin/moly lube.

Nardoo

[NVcurmudgeon]

Lyman 311291, an alleged bore rider, but with a .299" nose, leads in long groove-width strips. Using 311466, 150 gr. Loverin, there is no leading and 1.5" groups at 50 yd. from a Marlin MG 336 carbine.

[srayc]

Of the thousands and thousands of cast shot it boils down to correct alloy used, bullet sizing, lube, etc. for excellent accuracy.

[ra_balke]

I have ZERO experience with micro grouve, but from my reading, it works as well as any, you need only to be sure that you keep yur bullets at least .001 over size.