marlin jamed

[mpbarry1]

Just picked up my Marlin CS and was really excited to go shoot it. I have read how well they feed 38 specials and even wadcutters. So I put three in the magazine and opened The action. Jam! Haven't even got to fire it yet! It looks like the second cartige is sticking out too far. How do I clear this dang thing? P!$$3d!

[Four Fingers of Death]

Bugger! Don't you just hate that? bad enough an old gun malfunctioning, but a new one?????

I just bought an 1894C, haven't picked it up yet, but was talking to a friend who bought one for his son. He found that unless he seated the boolit out a bit on the 38 loads, they fell from the port as they were cycled and caused all sorts of probs.

Doesn't sound like that is happening to yours. Do they have a shell latch like the 870?

[txbirdman]

I think what you have is a common problem with Marlins.

Take a look here: marauder.homestead.com/files/marlin94fix.html

[Gtek]

I think several of us hear slide over to a site called marlinowners. You will find volumes, you just have to come back and talk to us. Gtek

[Four Fingers of Death]

Thats a good link. I wish there were some more pic though.

If you rounded the cam off and filed the groove out to clean it up, then filled it by TIG wellding, then filing it back to flat, would that work?

[btroj]

I think that would work quite well. I would actually add maybe 10 to 15 thou to the bottom of the carrier and try it. If all is well the polish out the weld and let her rip.
I actually don't hav e a welder so I soldered a bitof a very thin saw blade to mine for my 32-20. I got tired of clearing that darn jam. Works quite well and that rifle sure is ALOT more fun to shoot now.

[mpbarry1]

Thanks. I got this jam cleared by loosening some screws. Is there a secret method to clearing that one?

[smkummer]

My 1894 Marlin (1970's) needs cartridges close to max length or beyond for reliable feeding. It won't even work with long round nose 44 specials but those long round nose bullets that exceed MOL of the 44 mag. feed lovley out of it but it will only hold 9 of them.

[btroj]

I use a small screwdriver to push the offending round back into the magazine while moving the lever just enough to get the carrier to cut off the magazine. I usually go in the the opening in the action but have used the loading port too.

[ReloaderFred]

My wife and I both shoot Marlin .357 Magnum carbines in SASS matches, which means we literally put a couple thousand rounds of .38's through our rifles each year.

You'll find that bullets with a Round Nose Flat Point design will feed best. The magic length is a minimum of 1.480". Anything shorter will cause hiccups. Of the dozen Marlins I own, only one will reliably feed SWC bullets, and that's my .45 Colt Cowboy. All the rest require a RNFP bullet, and at least 1.480" OAL in .38/.357 to feed.

Be careful sticking hard sharp instruments into the action to clear a jam. You can cause burrs that will cause feeding problems. The easiest way to clear a jam like you described is to remove the magazine tube and remove the offending cases that way. You won't cause any damage to your rifle.

Also be sure to give your rounds a good crimp. When the magazine is fully loaded, there is a lot of pressure on the rounds from the compressed magazine spring. Added to that is the impact from the recoil of the rounds being fired, which can cause bullets to collapse into their cases. This will jam up the rifle every time. It's a rare Marlin 1894C that will feed full wadcutters. I know that none of my 5 .357's will. You may have to ignore the crimping groove on some bullets to get the right OAL. In that case, just roll crimp into the side of the bullets, as long as it's not into the lube groove.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[btroj]

The rifle I spoke of was my 1894 cl in 32-20. Actually my 1894c feeds full wadcutters fine. They shoot so poorly that I won't be using them any more. I have found that rnfp bullets shoot much better than anything with a shoulder on it.

[Duckiller]

Send it back to Remington and tell them to make it right! Local gunsmiths couldn't fix my 44Mag. Marlin could and did.

[SkookumJeff]

IF you value your firearms, I would advise DON"T send ANYTHING to Remington. They can't seem to manufacture a decent quality lever gun since they've fired all the heritage Marlin machinists/gunsmiths and moved operations to the Rem plant in NY. Folks have been buying new Remlin lever guns and finding ridiculous quality issues, crooked barrels, etc. They send em back to the Remington factory to get fixed under warranty and get em back in just as bad a shape. These are brand new guns. Go over to the Marlin owners forum if you want to learn more...

Skook

PS Marlin DID have a stellar reputation for fixing their guns. As I said above, the Marlin folks were ALL let go in the move to New York and the Remington factory is have a lot of trouble with these lever guns.

[mpbarry1]

Thanks guys. I got what I needed. I won't be trying those 38 wadcutters in there again! It fed the 38 Swc 158‘s just fine. Also wasn't engaging the catch when I pushed the case forward to clear the jam. Lesson learned. It is ok to experiment but not when you really want it to go bang. :)

[JIMinPHX]

Marlin Jam issues & repairs have been documented in a number of places -
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/archive/index.php/t-31427.html
http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=260906
http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-143876.html
http://50caliberforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=marlinleveractionrifles&action=display&thread=520
http://www.marlinowners.com/forums/index.php?action=printpage;topic=44606.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnaLix1CbfI

I haven't messed with these repairs myself. This is just what I have seen posted.

[calkar]

On the line of Cowboy Silhouette matches for the last five years I have seen that many alibis are (marlin jam) mostly 39's and now the XLR's are catching up. Cartridges are getting past the cartridge stop when the lifter is up, so the lever is frozen closed.

[Suo Gan]

Marlin jam is a rite of passage!

[W.R.Buchanan]

There is an article on www.leverguns.com about fixing the Marlin Jam. My .44 Cowboy Rifle did it once. I increased the size of the radius on the operating cam on the lever and that was the end of it.

This is a 10 minute job and if you can work sand paper and a file you can handle it.

There are also complete instructions on how to completely slick the action on Leverguns.com, and they are very thourough, and easy to follow. These same instrictions work equally as well on 336 actions also, as it functions exactly the same way as the 1894 action, it is just longer and has a round bolt.

There are a couple of parts in the slicking operation text that require a little too much trial and error fitting for me, and the gains from these operations are very minimal, so I just ommitted them. Also you don't need to mess with trigger engagement or anything that could be potentially dangerous. I always include a set of Brownells lighter hammer and lever detent springs which is why you don't have to mess with the trigger. Installing them reduces the trigger pull to about 2.5-3 lbs.

These guns respond very well to just a thourough deburring, and The biggest gains in drag reduction are in smoothing out the ejector groove in the bolt, reducing the tension on the ejector spring, and polishing the top of the Hammer where the bolt hits when being cycled.

The only other thing I do is chamfer the chamber mouth. This is what makes them feed any kind of Boolit! I have posted pics of mine here several times. A .040-.060 chamfer or radius on the chamber mouth makes it so nothing hangs up while entering the chamber.

Mine feeds SWC, WFN, RNFP's. mags or specials interchangabily and as fast as I can run the lever.

I have never tried full wadcutters and doubt they would feed that well in anything other than a Smith M52.

As far as the different length cartridges. The cartridge lifter is momentarily held down under the rim of the next cartridge case as it slides into the action, as soon as the rim goes by it puts tension on the bottom of the case, and as soon as the nose of the bullet goes past it pops up blocking the next round from entering. It doesn't differentiate between cartridge lengths, it is only looking at the end of a cartridge whenever it goes by, and then pops up blocking the following round.

This is the big difference between the Marlin feed cycle and the Win73 feed cycle. The Win can't differentiate cartridge lengths and it has a narrow range of Cartridge OAL s that will function reliably as a result.

The Marlin will feed Shorts Longs and Long Rifles interchangabily. Also .44 Russian, Special and Magnum, .38 Spec/.357, and a variety of .32 cal rounds. All because of this simple design.

A full wadcutter bullet is going to have nearly the same rim diameter as the case itself and as a result there is very little difference between the rim and the cartridge nose, so the lifter doesn't have much of a chance to pop up and stop the next round. Hence the jamb.

The next cartridge in the magazine ends up on top of the lifter in front of the preceeding round, half on the lifter and half in the mag tube, and that 's what locks the action up.

With a round nose or SWC type bullet where the Meplat of the bullet is significantly smaller than a full wadcutter, there is more time for the lifter to pop up into position before the rim of the next cartridge, and as a result the next rim doesn't get past the front of the lifter and cause the jamb.

Obviously These guns were designed to run best with RNFP' style bullets however they can also be made to feed SWC's reliabily, and mine does.

Full Wadcutters maybe a bit of a stretch, for the above reasons. You might get them to feed by operating the lever very slowly, but it is going to be marginal at best.

Hope this helps with understanding of this condition.

Randy

[nanuk]

How about the 45/70's?

mine jammed with Hornady LeverEvolution

a local gunsmith who worked on mine says he has had lots come back after sale, jammed up with the LeverEvolution ammo

he won't sell the Hornady **** any more.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I know that the .45-70's require the action to be opened up to just about the max to function, due to the diameter of the round.

I would suspect the problem with the LR rounds is the shape of the bullets.. They are kind of short and stubby and as a result the cartridge lifter doesn't get down in front of the bullet to stop the next round. Pretty much the same problem as the Full Wadcutter problem discussed above.

However, increasing the radius on the point of the cam on the lever would help this problem, whether or not it would completely fix it, I can't say without playing with the gun.

It would seem that it would because no matter what people think about Hornaday, they are still a major and reputable manufacturer of ammuntion, and I doubt that they would put out anything that is marginal, and especially for something like the Marlin Rifle that this round was specifically designed for, and might be used for dangeerous game.

I would look at the gun closer before I convicted the ammo. Like I said above, simply radiusing the cam on the lever which takes all of 10 minutes to do probably will fix the problem.

Randy

[EMC45]

It tried to run some .44 Specials through my 1894 .44 mag and literally had to disassemble the entire gun to clear the jam. It will feed 429-421s in .44 Mag though.