Swc

[161]

Do SWC function in the 1894 38 357 or do you need a round nose?

[Hickory]

If you get the over-all length right you should have no problem with feeding.

[EDK]

Marlinowners.com is a wealth of information....worth going to on a regular basis.

Glenn Fryxell has an article on 1894s at lasc.us that is really great....answers about all the questions you'll ever have about reloading your rifle.

I've been lucky enough that my 357 Cowboy rifles will even feed full wadcutters. LYMAN 358156 SWC/GC is considered THE BOOLIT for your application. BUT the round nose/flat points are even better, especially the NOE 360 180 WFN GC...the 357 performance is really enhanced by the heavier weight boolit and high end velocity.

John Taffin, one of this generations premier gun writers, commented that "a 357 lever gun is the third most useful firearm you'll own...a 22 LR lever gun and pistol are the two most useful."

:cbpour:

[MakeMineA10mm]

The bottom line is that if you are lucky, yes, it will feed right out of the box.

If that doesn't work, you can try playing with the OAL of the loaded cartridge (seating bullet deeper and longer). Of course, when doing this, you must be careful to watch the max OAL or the rifle will get hung up and you'll have to take it apart to get the round out. Also, if you start seating deeper, don't use anything close to a max load while your testing, because, of course, deeper seating raises pressures. Some people get success with playing with OAL and some don't. Again, it's something you have to try to be able to declare one way or the other.

Lastly, if that doesn't work, all those resources cited above (Marlinowners and lasc) have "how-to-do-it" articles on improving the feeding of your rifle. You can make modifications so it can take longer-OAL rounds than a factory-set-up rifle can (useful if you want to try super-heavy bullets that seat out a-ways), or you can just smooth it up and round over edges/corners so the sharp-shouldered bullets (boolits) will feed reliably.

My 44 Mag 1894SS feeds SWCs nearly without a hiccup. I designed a custom heavy Keith with a full-diameter drive-band that sticks out the front of the case, and the nose is the max that will fit in a S&W N-frame cylinder, but it feeds with about 90-95% reliability in my 1894. A little work (by hand, no power tools needed) breaking the square/sharp edges at the rear of the chamber, and it's slick as butter now, 100%.

Be sure when you're checking functionality, you're checking the gun pointing up and down as well as horizontal, and you might want to try with the gun canted to the left and right (ejection port up and ejection port down), if you want for sure 100% reliability -- If you don't, it will be that one situation you really need it to feed reliably and it won't, at least if Mr. Murphy is as bad for you as he is for me...)

[Firebricker]

They feed out of my Marlin 94 with 357446 Lyman but RNFP's feed smoother out of it. FB

[kelbro]

Both SWCs and WCs feed well in my 1894CS. I just got a 358429 mold to try. No info on the feeding of that one just yet.