Marlins

[Good Cheer]

Anybody familiar with what year Marlin switched over to the accursed micro-groove?

[Good Cheer]

Think I just found the answer elsewhere.

[imashooter2]

Accursed?

[Eutectic]

Think I just found the answer elsewhere.

What was it?

[Guesser]

Repeat???? accursed????

[white eagle]

come back,.,.,.,., accursed ??

[ReloaderFred]

Did we just witness a hit and run??

Some of my Micro-Groove barrel Marlins are also some of my most accurate. In fact, I kind of like them, and will put my 1994 Marlin .41 Magnum MG up against just about any leveraction rifle.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[izzyjoe]

i want to say i read some where they went to microgrv. in 55' or 56. but in last couple of years they went back to ballard. i'll agree with reloaderfred,i think once you get them figured out there hard to beat!

[btroj]

Micro groove has a bad rap. Too bad it is from people who don't know better. Amazing how once bad info is repeated enough times it becomes "FACT".

[LVRFAN]

Exactly right! Its only accursed for those that don't know how to load LEAD bullets!

[northmn]

Marlin only uses Ballard in specific guns and started going back to it in the 95 bigbores for example. If you buy the standard 336 in 30-30 or 35 Remington you may get microgroove. My 30-30 CB is Ballard but was made for lead shooting in cowboy matches as is their pistol caliber CB and their 45-70 CB (very fine accurate gun but a bit light weight) as stated in the lever gun article, the early micro grooves gave problems due to an improper leade and have been corrected. Most use a sliglty oversized bullet like a 310 in a 308 bore and have good results. I wil admit that the ballard rifling is very forgiving for cast shooting. I sue a 185 grain bullet in my 30-30 on deer at about 1900 fps. I think it would probably work in a microgroove also.

DP

[jh45gun]

My 95 has ballard rifling but I just bought a Marlin 80 DL 22 Bolt to shoot as a silhouette gun and it has Micro Groove rifling. Works for me. The Marlin 60 22 semi auto with micro groove rifling will beat the snot out of a Ruger 10/22 out of the box.

[doubs43]

The Marlin 60 22 semi auto with micro groove rifling will beat the snot out of a Ruger 10/22 out of the box.

IMO, you could throw rocks and beat the Ruger 10/22 out of the box. The one I bought my son had a malfunctioning mag out of the box and patterned rather than grouped. Add the horrible trigger and it was the worst .22 I've owned. The stainless Marlin model 60 I later bought is soooooooo much better!

[Good Cheer]

Greetings from a business trip hotel.
I said accursed because of the bad press the micro-groove rifling has received over the years. The hoorah against it has never made sense to me. But, I never tried it out because sources such as the pistol-powder-only-cast-bullet-handbook told me it was oh so very, very bad.
Any way, as stated in the second post, I found some very informative data in another thread on the forum. It made a lot of sense and to my mind explains a great deal about the bad experiences told of over the years by the professional tellers.
Bed time for me, gentlemen.

[LuvMy1911]

Hmmm... I recently bought a used Marlin Model 1895SS in 45-70, marked as having the micro-groove rifling. I plan on making it my brush/stalker deer gun.

What easily purchased bullets (or cast boolits) would be a good choice to try for my first hand loads for it? I'm real happy to hear someone say that the micro-groove barrel IS able to accurately use cast bullets... a couple of fellows told me to forget trying cast and stick to jacketed rounds. I've only been hand loading about a year now (so I may ask a couple of dumb questions)

Thanks in advance!

[LuvMy1911]

Oh, I know how you feel about the 10/22, "doubs43".

My first "real" gun was a 10/22, my parents gave it to me for as a boy... It was reasonably accurate. So I bought another new 10/22 for everyday use so I could put my "first" rifle on the wall as a keepsake.

The new one does not impress me very much. The rotary magazine jambed every time until I took it apart and polished and cleaned all the internal parts, the trigger pull is rough and heavy, and it doesn't seem as accurate either (maybe it will improve after the barrel is broken-in). If I had known this in advance, I would have sought out and purchased an older 10/22 used and in good condition. It is a purchase I regret now.

[Old Goat Keeper]

LuvMy1911 the first thing you need to do is slug your barrell for bore and groove size. Then buy you boolits that are about 2 thousandths larger. Should shoot well.

Tom

[longbow]

LuvMy1911:

I had a Marlin 1895 back in the '70's. It was microgroove and shot very well. Wish I still had it.

I had a Lee 405 gr. RNFP and Lyman 457124 385 gr. round nose. I shot mostly the Lyman 457124 over BP or smokeless and my gun seemed to like them. It was certainly as accurate as I could aim.

A couple of things to consider:

~ Boolit size: make sure the boolit is at least 0.001" over groove diameter; fit is everything!

~ Not sure about the 1895 because I never checked but my current 1894 Marlin had tight spots in the barrel under dovetails and it leaded badly. I read about that on the Marlin Owners site and sure enough when I slugged it I found several tight spots which I carefully lapped out. Problem solved.

So, if you have accuracy or leading problems, tap a boolit or better, a round ball into the barrel using a wooden mallet or soft faced hammer, making sure it fills the grooves, then slide it through the barrel using a brass rod to feel for changing resistance. If tight/loose spots are evident then hand lap (carefully) or maybe firelap (check this carefully before doing it with microgroove ~ I have not done this).

No need to bother if it shoots well and doesn't lead.

Mine never had a jacketed round through it.

I liked mine a lot. I hope you get the same enjoyment from yours.

Longbow

[Suo Gan]

Got one made in 50 and its a Ballard. I think they switched in the mid 50's/ I have had decent accuracy with MG rifling (to me 2.5 MOA is decent). Also some of the newer units come with traditional rifling.