RNs in an 1894 Marlin?

[Kraschenbirn]

A few months back, I picked up a pre-safety 1894 in .44 Mag and have been shooting 200 gr. Lee RNFPs for a plinker/practice load...like "minute of pop can" at 50 yds.

The other day, though, I single-fed a few of the loads for my OM Vaquero...245 gr RN over 9.5 gr. Herco...through the Marlin and discovered a marked improvement in my 100-yd. groups. I've got a bunch of these boolits on hand but am a little concerned about feeding RNs through a tube magazine.

My older Lyman and Speer reloading manuals both show RN loads for 30-30, .32 Spl, and .35 Rem - my first deer rifle was a Marlin 336 in .35 Rem and, as I recall, factory loads back then were RNs, too - and I'm only going to be loading to around .44-40 levels so heavy recoil won't be a major factor.

Anyone out there shooting RNs in their leverguns? Any problems...other than Marlins being chronically finicky about OAL?

Bill

[bearcove]

Factory 35 rem ammo is loaded with RN's. A lot of the RN bullets are basically a flat nose, take a close look at how they sit against a primer.

[btroj]

Look at 30-30 ammo. How much do you see that isn't RN?

[zxcvbob]

I've cast some Lee TL-158-2R's to try in my Marlin but I haven't gotten around to loading them yet. It has an unusually good ballistic coefficient.

I think RNL is fine. Round-nosed FMJ might be pushing your luck just a little in a tubular magazine.

[Kraschenbirn]

I've cast some Lee TL-158-2R's to try in my Marlin but I haven't gotten around to loading them yet. It has an unusually good ballistic coefficient.

I think RNL is fine. Round-nosed FMJ might be pushing your luck just a little in a tubular magazine.


Outside of being TLs, your 358-158-2Rs have almost the same profile as my 429-240-2Rs and, accuracy-wise, my 1894 seems to like them a lot better than 200 gr. RNFPs. As mentioned earlier, I'm loading to approx. .44-40 levels with fairly soft boolits (50/50 WW-Pb, air-cooled).

Hey, bob, where ya'll from in S.E. MN? The wife and I usually spend a week every year up along the Root River for the biking and canoeing.

Bill

[zxcvbob]

Outside of being TLs, your 358-158-2Rs have almost the same profile as my 429-240-2Rs and, accuracy-wise, my 1894 seems to like them a lot better than 200 gr. RNFPs. As mentioned earlier, I'm loading to approx. .44-40 levels with fairly soft boolits (50/50 WW-Pb, air-cooled).

Hey, bob, where ya'll from in S.E. MN? The wife and I usually spend a week every year up along the Root River for the biking and canoeing.

Bill

Little town (you've probably heard of it) called Rochester. A little north of the Root River area, considerably south of Minneapolis.

[gundownunder]

I use a 135gr RN in my 357. Most of them develop just the slightest hint of a flat spot on the nose from being sized through the Lee sizing die. I only use them with light loads like Trailboss or 38spl loads.

I've seen how badly I mangle some of the primers when I jam one up in the priming tool on my press, so I have no doubt that I could shoot them even with full house loads with no chance of getting a detonation in the magazine.

In theory, pressure follows the path of least resistance and lead is softer than brass or nickel so the bullet should give way to the primer and not the other way around, but that's theory, not law.

[EDK]

Easy for me to say...spending your money for you...but I'd get a RANCH DOG TLC 432 265 or a LYMAN 429667 mould and "live happily ever after." The modified clone of the RANCH DOG by NOE is a good one also. My MARLINS (and the assorted VAQUEROS too) seem to favor 240 to 270 grain boolits.

MIHEC has a group buy for 429640 in a regular or hollow point format...I have used the original LYMAN, but don't need gas checks in the VAQUEROS....so I ordered the hollow point version in plain base.

You probably wouldn't have a problem with the RN boolits, but Murphy's law...like the tinsel fairy!...is always waiting. LEE is dropping the ball, per usual, by not having a round nose flat point of around 250 grains instead of jumping from 200 to 310.

:Fire::castmine::redneck:

[Ed in North Texas]

snip
You probably wouldn't have a problem with the RN boolits, but Murphy's law...like the tinsel fairy!...is always waiting.

:Fire::castmine::redneck:

Murphy has been waiting a long, long time then. RN factory ammo hasn't had a tubular magazine primer detonation problem since oh more than a century. Obviously that excludes damaged firearms and fool operators. All bets are off if you try to make a .458 Magnum out of a Marlin 1895 .45-70, though I firmly believe the largest danger there is in the chamber.

Just in case someone is aware of a tubular magazine detonation incident with factory RN ammo and an undamaged/fooled with rifle, give us the details. I might have missed one.

[calkar]

I noticed when working with my lever guns that the round nosed flat shot better due ( I believe) to overall length restrictions to properly feed from a tube magazine, the ogive of the rnf can be seated out farther and fit into the throat closer that a rn. With a rn. The ogive is kept farther back due to the nose adding extra length to feed properly.