Marlin 1894 in 45 colt

[cwlongshot]

Lee 300 WFN and a 270 Lyman. Both are new to me and not yet tested in the Marlin. Both chamber in my Blk Hawk.

CW

I tried both of these last night in two of my Marlins I could get to easily... The 270 was a slick feeder... but again that derned LEE wont feed... too long or too fat or both. Pulled the dies and sized two more cases and seated another 300 LEE a lil deeper. This time to 1.60 and that's the top crimp groove. NOPE, too long and fat. Ticks me off kinda too, nice lookin' boolit but now it wont work in my 450 Bushmaster OR my 45 Colt marlin. Dosen't LEE do ANY R&D or do they just smack out a mold... Yes, it will work in my Black Hawk, but so would and does my FULL WAD CUTTERS!!

I have a couple hundred cast and PC'd as I have hi hi hopes for them in the bushmaster... I doubt I'll ever cast another from this next to useless mold.

CW

[ReloaderFred]

Over all length (OAL) is critical for Marlins, and most other lever action rifles and carbines. With a cast bullet, you can just crimp into the side of the bullet wherever you need to get the OAL that will feed through the action. The only thing you have to be aware of is not to crimp into a lube groove, or too far into the ogive, or you won't have enough crimp tension to keep the bullets from being compressed into the case under spring tension in the magazine tube.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[cwlongshot]

Yes, absolutely OAL is big on these levers. Did ya look at that Bullet Fred?

Its top crimp groove under 1.60. Of coarse you can crimp anywhere, but for top loads best consistency comes from a groove. On this bullet, unless you crimp on the Ojive, you cannot make it any shorter...

CW

[ReloaderFred]

I looked at it, and I also mentioned that you have to be aware of crimping on the ogive.

You might try shortening it a little just to try to get it to feed. You'll never know until you try, right?

Hope this helps.

Fred

[cwlongshot]

I looked at it, and I also mentioned that you have to be aware of crimping on the ogive.

You might try shortening it a little just to try to get it to feed. You'll never know until you try, right?

Hope this helps.

Fred

Never thought of shortening the case...Probably because of further reducing the powder cap isn't something I generally want to be doing.

CW

[ReloaderFred]

I didn't mean to shorten the case, though Hornady already does that with their factory ammunition. I meant to just seat the bullet deeper into the case enough to get it to feed. If you can do that, and still obtain enough crimp into the side of the bullet, then you can adjust your powder charge to account for the decrease in case volume. At least you'd be able to use that bullet that way.

If you don't care to, that's OK, too. It was just a suggestion.

Fred

[Hickok]

Had a JM Marlin Cowboy with octagon barrel in 45 Colt.

Fired cases came out bulged due to too large of a chamber. Looked like pregnant guppies.

Sent it back to Marlin, came back with a new barrel.....same thing, bulged cases. Not heavy loads either.

Got rid of it.

[cwlongshot]

Thats the way that they all are, hasnt bithered a thing in any of mine. Sure it works the brass a bit more, but isnt dangerious brass is but a vessle to contain the powder its dosnet hold pressure especially on its side walls.

CW

[Baltimoreed]

My JM .45 Cowboy Ltd does not like 200 gr [poor accuracy, fed them ok] but 225-300 gr rnfp are fine. It also makes fired brass with a little bulge but I’ve never split a case except when shooting a state cas match in a rain but they all resize just fine. The bulge doesn’t seem to matter. It’s what I use when I want to be competitive, I use one of my ‘73 muskets when I’m having fun.

[cwlongshot]

I didn't mean to shorten the case, though Hornady already does that with their factory ammunition. I meant to just seat the bullet deeper into the case enough to get it to feed. If you can do that, and still obtain enough crimp into the side of the bullet, then you can adjust your powder charge to account for the decrease in case volume. At least you'd be able to use that bullet that way.

If you don't care to, that's OK, too. It was just a suggestion.

Fred

Seated one tonight to 1.565 and it just functions. 1.563 for a bit of measure. Tagt puts the bottom of the bullet just below a factory 255 rnfp.

Ill have to do some load dillagence. But that might just work.

Cw

[ReloaderFred]

If that works, then that mold won't be so useless, which is a good thing, right? I really hope it works out for you, since that bullet looks like a heavy hitter.

Fred

[krems]

I Shoot the 250gr RNFP bullets in my JM Marlin Cboy. I had to shoot .454” bullets to get any kind of accuracy. Cases are bulged at base but I adjusted the sizing dies so they don’t size down as much. I have dedicated brass for this rifle and just live with O/S chambers.