Slicking up my 1894 Marlin in .44 Mag for Cowboy Action Shooting

[Doc1]

I have an old(er) 1894 Marlin in .44 Mag that I use for Cowboy Action shooting. It will digest anything with a j-word bullet but is very particular about cast boolets. The only cast that it will feed with 100% reliability is the Lee 240 gr. RNL. I've had this rifle apart half a dozen times, cleaning, polishing and adjusting springs, but it's still finicky about cast boolets. Interestingly, it seems to like that 240 gr. Lee in a .44 Spl. case slightly better than the same boolet in a .44 Mag case!

Best regards
Doc

[SvenLindquist]

Thanks for the tips.

[badwolf]

I'm another user of a one piece firing pin from Long Hunter, make the action run amooth as silk

[W.R.Buchanan]

OK Liberty and others. you can find all the instructions for modifying the 1894 action for Cowboy use at www.leverguns.com.

You can go as deep into it as you choose, when you finally get it right you can "flick it open and closed with virtually no effort. I can do one in about 2 hours.

As far as finicky about what type of boolits? You need to chamfer the chamber mouth and I have posted this many times here and as late as last week. Put a .040-.050 chamfer on the chamber mouth and the gun will cycle any type of boolit as fast as you can run the lever. Mine will run SWC's just as fast as Round Noses.

Randy

[Liberty1776]

For that .30-30 case;

You can also drill out the primer pocket, making it a full diameter hole. Then thread a leather thong through it to make a extended handle or hanger. Just trim points on the thong, pull it all the way through until it stops on the ten penny nail you stuck through it across the case head. The tie a Hard Knot in the ends and pull it back up through the primer pocket. Glue in your dowel, radius the tip a bit and add some shellac and you are ready to go. Great for .32-20 & .357 kid guns.

For larger calibers, use a .40-65 dummy round with a RNFP cast of Linotype and epoxied into the case.

I built a pusher from the .30-30 case because I had one and put a 3/8" dowel in it. My wife likes it, but the dowel gets shaved and leaves pieces of wood in the rifle as she pushes the .44 Mag round into the gate.

So I need to try your .40-65 idea. Unfortunately, I don't have any .40-65 nor any RNFP bullets to epoxy into the case.

I'll try a .45-70 and see if that will work.

[Liberty1776]

I'm another user of a one piece firing pin from Long Hunter, make the action run amooth as silk

I'm coming around to this line of thinking rapidly.

My light Wolff hammer spring has resulted in multiple failures to fire. Just not enough impact on the primer. The primers are dimpled, but don't fire. Pulling the hammer back manually and pulling the trigger again usually results in the bullet firing.

I put the original factory heavy spring back in, but it's really hard to cock the gun now.

I need to replace the 2-piece firing pin.

I'll also check out www.leverguns.com for other details.

Thanks for the wisdom.

[ReloaderFred]

Check and make sure your primers are seated all the way. My goal is to seat them .004" below flush with the base of the case. This sets the anvil into the primer pellet properly.

You can also put a small #6 thin washer under the hammer spring to give it slightly more strength, which may help with the misfires, but check the primer seating first.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Greg S]

About the best things I could recommend marlin wise is breaking the chamber edges, Wild West sear, polish the ejector grove, aftermarket springs or clip the factory, 1 pc firing pin, trim the hammer point to reduce massive overcocking and polish toolmarks out of the bottom of the bolt that the hammer rides on.

[curioushooter]

Question regarding the hammer spring...did you get the barrel type one or the straight type?

Anyone have opinions on the matter?

I recently purchased a newly made "Remlin" 1894CS (357). There will be a more thorough review coming in...but so far the loading gate is rough and the spring is heavy.

[Ozark mike]

I can't remember what all I did to mine but the 2 piece pin is a safety in case you pull the trigger before you close the bolt all the way that being said I use the single pin in my 1895gs I also removed the cross bolt safety and a whole slew of other things that I can't remember but you have to treat it like it's always ready to go off. I don't need the safety to to hold me up in a grizzly encounter 10 mi back in the wilderness. That gun has the slickest action I've ever seen especially since it wouldn't chamber a round due to rimlins failure of q&c

[shootinfox2]

W R where or how do you get to the chamber mouth to complete the champfer?

Another site is marauders site(google) for more slicking up tips.