1894 38 357

[161]

I tried to shoot the new Marlin last weekend but it was about 6 degrees. Has anybody noticed their rifle shooting better with 357 rnds vs 38? My thought being the 38 is shorter so the boolit rattles around a little while before hitting the throat and rifling. It was to cold to tell but it appeared that mine shot 357s better. What do ya think?
161

[btroj]

Not enough experience with mine yet but I would not be surprised. Due to the amount of 38 brass I have mine will still see mostly 38 loads.

[405]

Yes, most of the time better to shoot the full length 357. Not an absolute rule just a generality. Accuracy can be better and most of the time it is. Another issue comes up if mixing shooting 38s and 357s. If a bunch of 38s are shot first, a significant fouling/carbon ring may form in chamber ahead of the case then it can be difficult or impossible to chamber the longer 357 until the crud is cleaned out.

[NickSS]

My experience is that most lever actions and single shots I have tried in 357 mag shoot the mag cases more accurately than the 38 spl cases. Some lever actions also do not like to feed 38 cases (I have one Marlin that is this way). So I mostly use magnum brass in my rifles. I have plenty of both to last my life time so I am not worried.

[shdwlkr]

I had a model 94 winchester in 357 mag that would jam all the time traded it for something else. Should have kept it and had it reamed for 357 maximum and got rid of the problem. Seems winchester forgot to do something with the feed setup in the model 94 and a lot of them jammed had to do with the overall length of the cartridge if I remember right as my smith dealer found out later and was willing to do the fix and sell me back my own rifle but by that time he had found a model 92 miroku in 357 that just called to me.