32-20 marlin cowboy

[glen ring]

I have a new marlin 32-20 Cowboy Limited. Can someone give me their most accurate loads? I'm going to only shoot this gun in lever action silhouette and the maximun range is 100 yards. I've been looking at the Ranch Dog 32-20, but I'm open to any suggestions from those of you that have actually worked up a good , accurate load.
Thank You

[old turtle]

I have a 32-20 that shoots a Lyman boolit 311008 cast in Linotype backed by 8.2 gr. of Accurate Arms No. 9 powder. Other alloys including ww's may work just as well and I intend to try them. I must confess I am shooting these in a Martini Cadet with a properly relined barrel.

[excess650]

I've mostly shot the Lyman 311008 plainbase. My notes show 5.5gr SR4756 in RP cases with F205 primers and no crimp produced the best groups. If you have an AA2200, try 15gr and work UP. 7.5gr AA#9 looks like a winner as well as 10gr AA5744. This was in a Marlin 1894CL that had been fire lapped, and bullets sized .313" with LBT Blue.

[cobbmtmac]

glen ring,

My wife "CookieCutter" has the same rifle. We have a Lyman 4-cav 311316 GC mould that drops boolits at .314-3155, we size hers at .313, using 8grs. of 2400. We have used 8-10grs. with seemingly no difference. I received this loading data several years ago from 9.3X62AL. If you would like to try these boolits, PM me your address and I will send you 30-40 usized or lube-sized and GC'd. as a Happy New Year present. :Fire: The Lyman 311008 mould also get a lot raves on this board.

I have a single-cav 311316 GC, I believe it is a ideal/Lyman mould, that drops boolits at .311-.3125 which are to small for us. If you or anyone might have a use for it, PM me and I will mke you a great deal?

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

[glen ring]

P.M. sent mac. I may try to deal you out of that mold! Send me a PM when you have time.

[6pt-sika]

I had one of the Marlin 1894CCL's in 32-20 . As well as a couple other recent manufacture Marlin's in 32-20 and a 1906 vintage Marlin 1894 in 32-20 .

Anyway all of mine did nicely with the Lyman 311316 or Ranch Dog 314-115GC and 5 grains of Unique . I tested all four rifles with both these bullets at 100 yards on the Hunter Pistol ram silhouettes with acceptable accuracy in each instance .

I also had good luck with the Lyman 311419 which is similar to the 311316 except instead of being 113 or so grains is just 90 grains . This one is also a gascheck mold and I again just loaded the bullet with 5 grains of Unique and again in all four rifles it had acceptable accuracy for silhouette matches although it didn't knock the rams over quite as easily at 100 meters as the 113 grain bullets did !

[quilbilly]

Info from shooting the 32-20 in a T/C Contender with a 308 bore may not be relevant in your case but my favorite and most accurate load has been 9.4 gr of 2400 with either the Lee 113 gr or the 120 gr boolits both with gas checks. This load is about halfway between "hot" and factory. It ruins the day for jackrabbits and coyotes out to 150 yards if they will sit still long enough.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
Biggest thing with any Marlin is to figure out that throat diameter. Get that filled +.001 and most any boolit traveling along at 1200 fps + is going to hit what-cha-shoot at.

[9.3X62AL]

What 5155 said. Fit the boolit to the throat, and life gets a whole lot better. Also--check the expander spud diameter, most of these in RCBS die sets run .308"-.309". This works well in barrels/throats/boolits with .311" dimensions, but when boolits need to be .313" to fit.....a .311" expander makes life easier--esp. in Starline cases, which are significantly stronger than the R-P and W-W makes. Don't let too-small case mouths reduce your hard-won boolit diameter.

My Marlin 94 CCL has been an utter delight since Day 1 (2004). It took about 600 rounds of break-in (both jacketed and cast) before it shot consistently, but now with about 1500 rounds downrange the flyers have ceased and groups are circular and well under 2" at 100 yards with the open buckhorns.

#311316 has been its best boolit, and the Speer 100 grain .312" JHP is not far behind. With that casting, 8.0 through 11.0 grains of Alliant 2400 doesn't vary group size much, but each grain of powder raises group center about 1.25" at 100 yards. One contributor to enhanced accuracy has been the use of Remington 6-1/2 primers in place of WSR or CCI 400 spark plugs. A member here (Urny, IIRC) suggested their use in this caliber and in 25-20 WCF, and the substitution paid off in reduction of vertical stringing in both calibers.

[rintinglen]

I've had good results with4.5-5.0 grains of unique and just about everything I've tried in my browning 53. I am currently working with the 311-245, 311-419 and 311-316 boolits. I also tried the 311=465. so far any of the above boolits, sized .311 over 5 grains of Unique seems to be equally good. If it will ever quit raining for a few days, I'd like to get out to the range with my old Chronograph and see what gives. I am in hopes that the 311-245 pans out, just to save the hassle of gas-checking.