Refinishing and and action job on my 1895 Marlin

[W.R.Buchanan]

I have had this 1895 Cowboy Marlin in .45-70 for about 3 years now and have only fired it about 20 times. It has set mostly in the safe as the action was really rough, the stocks were more bland than 2x4's, and the accuracy with the RCBS mould I got was abismal.

Well RCBS made some changes to their mould cherry dimensions to use the shrink rate of Wheel weight material instead of Linotype.

I received the new mould last week along with their sample bullets cast from linotyope material but at .463-4 dia. Wheel weights should drop at .461-2 which will size nicely to .460 which is what I want for this gun.

Anyway I swore I was not going to shoot this gun again until I installed a serious recoil pad, refinished the stocks, and completely deburred the thing.

I started Sat morning and did the recoil pad first. I used a Pachmyer Magnum Trap Pad. By afternoon I was stripping the MarGOO off the stocks, and then fluted the comb of the buttstock which took me nearly 5 hours to get looking half way right.

Then I stained the stocks with French red and then a second coat of Red Oak, and then applied the first coat of oil.

I started on the action at 1PM yesterday, and worked the action for 5 hours to completely deburr all the interior of the receiver and polish all internal parts. I spent nearly an hour just breaking and polishing all of the edges on the lever which cut me last time I shot the gun. It was badly done but tuned up just fine.

I noted some differences in the manufacturing of some of the internal parts. This gun was made in 2003.

Parts that used to be either forged or machined like the bolt lock and cartridge lifter and hammer, are now castings like Ruger does. All were throughly tumble finished so they only took a few minutes each to deburr and polish on the felt wheel.

I then assembled the action using a lighter mainspring. Tried to use the lighter lever detent spring also but the lever wouldn't stay closed so I had to replace the original spring.

It needs to be said that these are not complicated guns, There is about 10 parts in one, and anyone who can operate a file and sandpaper could do an action job. There is absolutely no reason to mess with the trigger surfaces as just installing a lighter hammer spring reduces the tirgger pull to about 2.5-3lbs. I would like to install a one piece trigger someday but it's really not necessary and for $80 I'll probably just suffer. The trigger has virtually NO creep whatsoever, and I did nothing to it.

The simple instructions to do this job were downloaded from www.leverguns.com and were basically for an 1894, however an 1895 and 336 are the same action but longer and with a round bolt instead of the flat bolt. All of them have the same drag points as the shorter action. Also some of the instructions that are applicable to make a full race gun can be omitted on a working rifle, as overall there is little to be gained from doing them any way. The main things are easy to do and make the biggest gains, after that it is diminishing returns for the time spent as you will hardly notice them past a certain point.

The difference a few hours of deburring makes to these guns is simply astounding. I urge everyone who has one of these guns to jump in and have a look around inside one. They are pretty simple, and I feel they are a superior design to the Winchester 1886 and 1892 and 1894 for that exact reason. Simplicity.

The action works smoothly and slickly now, and all that is left is another week of applying oil finish and sanding until I achieve the desired level of finish.

I lost alot of depth and red color of the stain while sanding and filling, and I am putting it back in with tint in the oil. Using BC Tru-Oil for the finish as I have had very good results in the past with it.

I was hoping to find some hidden character in the wood but so far it looks like the character is hiding somewhere in a different part of the tree. :shock: This stock has the straitest grain I beleive I have ever seen on a gun. Maybe something will come out of it when the oil gets about 10 coats deep. I hope?

We'll see and I'll post pics of the completed gun when it is finished.

Here is a before pic.

Randy

[timkelley]

Looks pretty good to me, if you are still unhappy when done feel free to send it to me.

[smoked turkey]

Randy thanks for the excellent write up. I recently came into an 1895M in 450 Marlin. I need some dies and brass so I can shoot it more comfortably and cheaply. I imagine I'll need to do what you have just done in order to make it more fun to shoot. Thanks again. Oh BTW that is a nice looking rifle even now.

[W.R.Buchanan]

ST: just go to www.leverguns.com and download and print out the instructions on doing the action job. Also go to Brownells and buy a Cowboy Spring kit which consists of a lighter hammer spring, and a lighter lever detent spring. @$10. Also a 1" thick Pachmayr Recoil Pad like I got will make the gun a lot more tolerable to shoot.

The Guide Guns appear to have a smaller butts on the stocks than the other versions of the 1895 guns. IE less surface area. I ground my new pad at an 2* angle so it flares out more at the rear. This increases the surface area which distributes the recoil over a larger area.

If any of you have read any of my ramblings about 1894 Marlins feeding a variety of SWC and other Boolits, you will remember me talking about chamfering the mouth of the chamber. I've posted pictures many times....Surprise the .45-70 already is chamfered! It also has the thread shroud on the top side of the barrel so the bullet doesn't get hung up on the unused threads in the top of the receiver for the barrel to thread into.

In the last picture you can see exactly where I broke all of the edges of the lever. It originally had really sharp edges all around and actually cut me when I first shot the gun. It don't now!. It like many other parts was tumble deburred except I think this part was only in the tumbler for about 30 seconds. Before I'm done I will end up tumbling it in my big tumbler for about 24-36 hours, before it gets reblued for real.

I reblued the worked areas with cold blue, but will have it and several other parts from other guns blued by a local gunsmith next time he does blueing.

I also have to weld in a sling swivel stud into the forend cap and it and the ones on my 1894's and all my Marlins will have to be blued at the same time. I'll just set up and drill and weld all 4 of them at the same time.

There will be more on this redo as I progress towards the end and then there will be load development to follow. [smilie=w:

Hope some of you find this stuff useful.

Randy

[Char-Gar]

I have had more bad luck than good luck with gun refinishers. The only one I could recommend at the present time is Accuracy Plating and Weaponry. They have blued three rifles for me in their "brushed 400" finish and they are all great jobs.

[Swampman]

It looks nice. The 1895 Cowboys are going to go through the roof in value now that Marlin isn't making them anymore.

[Swede44mag]

I have a Marlin 45-70 Lever Eveloution that I put one of the Wild West Triggers in and a Magnum Kick-eze pad on it is more fun to shoot with a some what lighter trigger. I had to put the pad on because the gun was to short when I put on my 4-12 x 40 Leupold scope. I may have to install the Cowboy Spring kit because the trigger did not make it as light a pull as I was hopeing for. Mine has the laminated stock but yours looks good with the straight grain to me. Straighter the grain is with no knots the stronger the stock is. At least that is what I have been told.

Happy shooting with your 45-70

[Swede44mag]

Quote "ST: just go to www.leverguns.com and download and print out the instructions on doing the action job."

Where is the directions for doing a trigger job I can't find them on there web site?

[W.R.Buchanan]

Swede: the trigger job part of the mods are in along with the rest of the instructions for the action job. They are located on the upper right side of the Home Page in the list of articles.

They aren't separate and there is very little to the actual trigger portion of the mods.

The thing about the triggers on these guns is other than polishing the surfaces of the trigger, and the step on the hammer (which does virtually nothing to improve the function of the tirgger) The major gains are from tweaking the actual trigger/lever safety spring in the bottom assembly of the receiver, where the triger itself is housed, and installing a lighter hammer spring. The springs are where all the gains are. Idid the famed .25 trigger job on this one, where you put tension on the hammer by pushing it forward with your thumb and then pull the trigger. This knocks any burr off the sear. By doing this a few times you pretty much do everything that you can do to remove the steps in the creep. There will be some small amount of creep no matter what, unless you fiddle with the sear step's length. This IMHO compromises reliability, and or safety for very little gain. In short It ain't worth messin' with.


The major drag points on the action, and this is true of 94, 95, 336, and even the 39s, and probably all of the other older ones too, is the ejector spring and the slot in the bolt that the ejector runs in. And the cam on the bottom of the bolt and it's interaction with the hammer.

The ejector slot on every gun I own originally looked like waves in the ocean, and smoothing out the waves is the first place to start. Then reducing the spring tension on the ejector a little helps a bunch. This spring tends to be very stiff from the factory, and it pushes the bolt sideways in the receiver creating a bunch of drag that doesn't just go way by "wearing in".

The other main point is the amount the hammer is pushed past the sear.

There is a small cam or bump on the underside at the rear of the bolt. This contact point is what actually contacts the hammer as the action is being cycled. It needs to push the hammer below the trigger sear in order to catch the trigger. On most Marlins it pushes the hammer well below the sear to insure trigger engagement. However 2 of my guns pushed the hammer 1/8" beyond the trigger sear, and that is just not necessary.

In addition, the bolt does this going open, and then again as it is closed. Obviously the farther it pushes past the point of engagement the more drag there is during the operation of the lever. The amount of spring tension on the hammer also significantly affects drag here.

This is one of the places where you have to be careful. Obviously if you remove too much metal here you either have to build it back up or get new parts. I suggest creaping up on this adjustment very slowly, and this will require assembly and disassembly several times.

This is a good thing as you breed familiarity with the mechinism by repeated exposure to the parts through dissassembly and handling.

I usually buff and polish the bolt cam. Sometimes some reshaping is necessary to achieve smooth operation in both directions, but usually I don't do much to the bolt itself. Also it is the more expensive part to replace.

On this gun the majority of the material was removed from the top of the hammer were the bolt actually contacts. Usually there is a flat surface(angle), above the actual hammer face. I radius this area so there is a constant amount force being transfered to the hammer by the bolt.

On this gun the Hammer was an investment casting. There was a step on the hammer face which had to go. Also I have not gone all the way on this particlar mod yet. My hammer is being pushed down about 1/16" past the sear. There is a little more to be gained here. This is a major sticking point of the Marlin action, and correcting it makes the gun a joy to operate.

There are two sides to doing these mods. There is smoothness of the operation,,, and then there is the relibility of the gun under field conditions. You can obviously go a fair amount farther with the mods for a Cowboy Action gun than you would probably want to go on your Guide's Back Up Gun that may have to save someones life..

The idea here is to understand how and why the parts interact. This is accomplished by following the instructions on Leverguns.com and understanding how the gun works. Taking it apart and reassembling it many times, is how you achieve this.

Believe me,,, these are very simple guns, and once you understand how they operate and what does what, you will agree with me.

Also if you are going to heavily modify a part, I highly recommend that you purchase a duplicate part PRIOR to modifying the part in your gun.

I decided that I wanted to get rid of the rebounding hammer on my 39AS. I bought a hammer strut and cut the rebound side off it and installed it into the gun. problem solved!

EXCEPTwhen I put the gun on half cock I could STILL PULL THE TRIGGER!!! There is only a step and not a slot on the half cock of the new hammers. So the trigger is not captured like it is on all of the other Marlin leverguns.

OOP's.

But since I didn't bugger the original part, I just reinstalled it and I was back to square one.

Now I'm looking for a old 39A hammer and trigger to complete the mod. The gun goes "boing" with a very metalic sound everytime you pull the trigger and I just can not live with it! It must be changed ,,,,BUT it also must be safe!

However because I performed many safety checks I was able to find my mistake.. Obviously this saved me from bad things down the road. Checking and rechecking is how you find these things out. Just taking one of these guns apart and quickly doing a bunch of modifications and expecting it to be safe and work right is NOT the attitude to have. You need to Understand all you think you know about the mechinism. The only way to achieve this is by repeated exposure to the mechinism. It is a simple gun, but it does alot of things. Kind of like a Mauser action. Lots going on in there that most are never aware of.

You actually need to be aware.

More to come.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Well after 6 days and about 10 coats of oil/ stain / tint, I am just about there on the stock refinish. I think it will take about another 3-4 very light coats to get where I want to go, then a buff and application of wax to end the process.

The forend is actually starting to show some character in the grain. The buttstock looks like a highly polished 2x4 even though it looks way better than when it was painted with the Mar-Goo paint. (Mar-Shield)

This is going to be a very good looking gun. And a strait grained buttstock on a .45-70 is not necessarily a bad thing.

Even though several of my other Marlins have generic wood they have all showed some hidden character. This one is just plain. If the gun shoots beyond expectations I may someday buy some better wood for it. But for now it will be just fine, and like I said it is lightyears beyond where it was from the factory.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Well,,, I finished it last night,,, almost . Still have to mount sling swivels, but for all intents and purposes it is ready to go to the range.

I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. The intention of my mods to this gun were to build a rifle that is what a knowledgable user would have built 100 years ago had he had the parts we have today. IE a modern version of the old classic but not straying too far from the original 1895 design or look. Believe me everybody would have had a Pachmayr recoil pad back then had they existed!

The wood looks as good as it is going to get, I got complete fill out of the grain and a nice satin finish when I waxed the last coat using 0000 steel wool to apply the wax. Broke the gloss just enough that it still shines in the sunlight but doesn't look like it was spray painted. I feel the level of finish is comensurate with the over all quality of the gun. IE not $2000 wood on a $500 gun. if that makes sense.

The Action is night and day difference!, and after I put about 200 rounds thru it it will be just like glass. It works real nice now, and was rough as a cob to begin with, so there is a definate pay back for the labor expended by doing these mods.

See the pic with my 1894 .44 mag along with this one. You can easily see the difference in the wood between the two guns. The .44 had all sorts of hidden fiddleback and grain structure below the Mar-Shield paint job. still not high dollar wood but with more character than it came with.

The forends are about the same as far as visable grain goes. The wood to metal fit is about what you would expect on a $500 gun, but there is little I can do about it, so it will remain unchanged

This is a big gun, and with the 26" barrel it points and holds very steady. Pretty sure I'll be able to hit what I aim at pretty easily. The addition of the Pachmayr Recoil Pad makes the gun much more pleasant to shoot, and I'm sure it will come in handy with higher power loads. I was surprised that it only weighs 7 lbs 3 Oz. empty, and will probably add another pound when stoked. When empty it balances right at the rear of the forend, obviously ammunition forward of that will make it muzzle heavy, which is what you want in an offhand rifle.

Both the Marlins currently have Williams Aperature Sights mounted, however those will eventually give way to receiver sights that I manufacture that have been on administrative hold for the last 3 years till I get my Jeep project done. They will be similar to the Marlin Combination Sight which almost nobody even knows about. Luckily I found a guy who did have one (after 2 years of looking) and was kind enough to take a few pics of it for me. It will be an attempt to bring something to the market that will be in the same vein as my overall concept for this gun IE a modern version of the old sight. And don't worry, it won't look anything like a Skinner Sight.

The front sights will be replaced by blades that resemble XS white line blades from the back but are considerably longer length wise. This will make them look more like the blade style sights that were popular 100 years ago, but with the excellent visability of the XS sight under all light conditions. I consider these front sights to be the best out there by FAR!

I'll post pics of these things as they occur.

Heres pics of the finished gun. If you click on the pics they will enlarge so you can see more detail.

Randy

[Four Fingers of Death]

My mate was refinishing a stock when I was a teenager. It was very plain and the grain was barely visible. He was wondering what to do with it and he had a big range of stains as his Dad used to restore old furniture. He was very talented with art I suggested he paint the grain lines with some of the very dark stain, then use a lighter stain on the wood. He shrugged and I took off home and never thought about it again. A few months later we went hunting and he pulled the rifle out. I thought he had a new rifle but he had done the trick that I suggested and it worked pretty well.

[W.R.Buchanan]

FFOD: I have a guy in my gun club who is a very talented stock refinisher and checkerer.

I have seen some of his work done on several Perazzi and Beretta High dollar shotguns. He is damn good!

On one Perazzi stock he and the owner showed me where he had "enhanced the grain" using a Magic Marker! Once you saw exactly what to look for you could pick it out, but only once you were shown where the enhancement took place. I never would have picked it out on my own, and only the most talented stock person could even see it .

This guy is only into High Dollar shotguns and he does all his own work, and I have been trying to get him to show me a few tricks with regard to checkering which I want to learn.

Maybe soon.

His name is Randy too!

I tried some "Sharpie" enhancement on this stock but didn't really get what I was looking for so most of it was blended into the existing grain. I have 3 more Marlins to do and I will have this technique mastered by the end. Where it really needed help was down near the toe of the stock as the wood was nearly white. I managed to get the whole stock evenly colored but the grain on this one was just too plain. You'll notice the wood on the .44 rifle in the picture. None of the "fiddle back" and very little of the grain showed thru the Marlin paint. All that came out with one coat of stain and about 6 coats of oil. I didn't get complete grain fill out on that stock either but it was my first one. I'll do better in the future.

I can't wait to learn checkering. I have about 7 different stocks I want to do, and I am not about to screw any of them up just practicing.

The cool thing about Marlin rifles is that they are inexpensive enough that you can't really hurt them too much and anything you do do that makes them look better only enhances the experience and value. They are a good place to start with cosmetic gunsmithing. They are also simple enough mechanically that they can be smithed easily and there are certainly enough instructions available that nearly anyone can work one and make it function better.

Randy

[Jailer]

Any possible way you could post a direct link to the article you referenced for the action job? I looked at the site and can't find it.

I recently purchased a 1895 SBL and would love to check out the article. I've de burred the receiver and action some with very good results but if I can make it better I will.

This is my first lever gun and I'm loving it so far. It's a Marlington but so far it shoots straighter and better than I can.

Thanks

[zuke]

I wrapped my original lever with a thick nylon shoe lace to make it a lot easier to cycle.
Add's a cushon for your finger's.

[RidgerunnerAk]

WRB: Did you smooth out the front edge of the loading gate? On the new one I bought this spring the gate would just about cut your thumb nail off when you shoved a cartridge in and tried to retract your thumb. I was soooo glad to get rid of that gun. I like my older 1895's much better.

[Jailer]

WRB: Did you smooth out the front edge of the loading gate? On the new one I bought this spring the gate would just about cut your thumb nail off when you shoved a cartridge in and tried to retract your thumb. I was soooo glad to get rid of that gun. I like my older 1895's much better.

I did on mine because of that reason. Every time I would load a round it would shave lead, brass and skin. I little work with a dremel, some small trigger files and wet/dry paper and it works great now.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Ridge Runnner/Jailer yes I did deburr that thing! my god, mine tried to bite me hard as I was putting the action back together, and I had to keep my wits about me and push the gate down to release my thumb instead of just pulling it out.

So I stripped it again and did both the inside and outside of the port in the receiver and broke all the edges on the gate on the felt wheel.

One thing that will help you out loading these guns is too just stuff a cartridge half way in and then use the next cartridge to push it in the rest of the way. That way you only have to push the last one in with your thumb, or you can just use a cartridge to push the last one in and then pull the pusher cartridge back out.

My lever had nothing but sharp edges. The profiling on that lever was bad! The part was tumble deburred but it was not allowed to be in the tumbler for nearly long enough. In my shop that part would have been run for at least 24 hours, I doubt this one was done for 15 minutes.

I filed all of the edges into about a .030-.040 radius all around inside and outside of the lever, and then used a Cratex point on my flexible shaft to blend all the filemarks smooth. This makes the lever feel more like they used to along time ago.

I have several Marlin leverguns and they are from the 50's,80's 90's, and 2005. You can see how the hand work has diminished over the years. the 58 model has the best external finish but the worst internal machining. This .45-70 has the best internal machining, but the worst external finish, and also some cast parts the others do not have..

Here's the deal on these guns. They all need TLC, period. They are generic guns and do not receive very much hand work. If I was there I could improve their processes to where the guns would be much smoother than they are now but so far nobody has invited me to the factory.

If you look at the Marlin Rifle as gun that you can afford to put some money and time into to yeild a gun that you really can't buy, then they are a real good deal. If you expect them to be a premium grade gun out of the box you will certainly be disappointed. They are just Generic guns, and are made to a price point.

With some elbow grease and time you can bring one up to "Custom Shop" standards pretty easily. And since Marlin has not had a Custom Shop since about 1910 you end up with something nobody else has.

My gun club has 900 members, and I am the only one with custom finished Marlin rifles.

I feel they are currently the best platform for firearms personalization there is available, that is priced within reach of just about anyone who wants it. If you look at these guns in that light they are a pretty damn good deal.

Here's the direct links to the reworking instructions. I have to say there has been a large amount of content added to that site in the last year.

All of these are under the ''Marlin Resources" category down the right side of the Leverguns.com Home Page.

Keep in mind these instructions are written for the 1894 rifles,,, However the 336 action rifles work EXACTLY the same way, and all of the drag points are the same. The spring kits from Brownells work in all of the actions even the M39. They are only different in the fact that one has a round bolt and is longer and the other has a square or flat bolt and is shorter. They function exactly the same.

Fixing the Dreaded Marlin Jam
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/marlin94fix.html


Tuning Marlin Leveractions
http://www.marauder.homestead.com/files/TUNING_M_1894.htm

If for some reason these links don't work, go to Leverguns.com and look in the Marlin Resources category on the right side menu.

I hope this gets others interested in working with these guns, as I consider them to be one of the best values in firearms today.

Randy

[RidgerunnerAk]

I've owned and shot 3 older 1895's over the years and bought a new SS guide gun this spring that was a crude ***. I couldn't get rid of it fast enough. I took it out of the box and slid the front sight hood off and the front sight fell onto the bench. I had to peen the dovetail shut a bit to get it to stay in place. I hadn't had it for more than 2 hrs before writing Marlin a pretty rude letter describing what a *** it was; not sure whey I never heard back. I replace all my rear sights with rigid 1886 like sights as the folding blade on the Marlins generally get snagged off and lost in the brush within an hour or two. And I lost the sight hood off a brand new Papoose .22 in less than 15 minutes while hunting grouse on a moose hunt this past week. Retraced my tracks several times and couldn't find it. Even the older ones have a loading gate problem; I wrote Marlin about that in 1978. I just took an EZ lap diamond steel to my guide gun's loading gate and took the sharp edge off. It helped a lot but it still liked to shave lead and brass - very irritating. They really do that when you unload them through the gate instead of racking them through the action, which I don't like to do. I also at the time asked them put a recoil pad on them and they did take that advice eventually. It's my understanding that Marlin is now owned by some large conglomerate. If so their quality control is bad. And I REALLY dislike that hammer block safety. I will not ever buy another with that feature. I'll just stick to my two remaining older ones, one of which I got for $200 at a gun show and have not ever even put a round through. I use one of my older 1895's as my bear gun and consider it the most and fastest and most reliable firepower you can carry. Put the right 400gr jacketed bullet in them at 1850+fps and the amount of firepower is very impressive. They will just about turn a black bear inside out when you need it.

[W.R.Buchanan]

I've seen some newer guns that were pretty bad too. The ones with the barrel screwed in about 5 * too far are my personal favorites.

I always keep an eye out for nice used ones that I can redo into other things. I bought an early 1894 in .44 mag specifically to rework with a takedown feature and change the barrel to a 1/20 twist. I found one for $250 that will work out fine. And if I screw it up it is not the end of the world. Not too worried on the screw up problem as I have 30 years as a machinist /toolmaker and my own shop to work in.

I also may take my older 336 and do a take down mod on it with a set of interchangable .30-30 and .38-55 barrels. This would be something really different.

You can't do this with expensive guns to start. You have to learn on affordable stuff and the Marlins are the answer.

Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

Once again the intructions for doing these mods are listed at Leverguns.com

Fixing the Dreaded Marlin Jam
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/marlin94fix.html

Tuning Marlin Leveractions
http://marauder.homestead.com/files/tuning_m_1894.htm

These instructions apply to 1894's and 336's/1895s also. even 39A's a little too.

Randy

[Jailer]

W. R. your second link is dead. Try this one.

Tuning Marlin Lever Actions (http://marauder.homestead.com/files/tuning_m_1894.htm)

[W.R.Buchanan]

I fixed it. Randy

[W.R.Buchanan]

I started Load Development a few nights ago for this gun .

Previously I had little experience with this particular gun and all of it bad. IN fact I put this gun in the safe for 2 years because of it! The reason it got refinished is because it was sharp and not very pretty, it also lacked a recoil pad so shooting it was not fun.

Out of 20 rounds in a 10" group at 50yds nearly all were keyholed! Not exactly what I was looking for accuracy wise either, so there was much work to do to turn this into a proper shooter..

The RCBS .45-300 FNGC mould was dropping bullets at between .458-9 they weren't round, they wouldn't size at .459, and the gas checks wouldn't stay on. The mould was undersized.

I sent the mould to RCBS along with a very detailed letter of what was wrong and what I wanted them to do to fix it.

They sent the mould back stating that it was Ideal for sizing to .458, and did nothing.

I basically came unglued and sent a scathing letter to Customer Service and the GM indicating I wasn't looking for a second opinion, I just wanted it fixed.

The very next day the new GM called me and we discussed my and his problems for 45 minutes. We also discussed many machine shop issues he was having and I offered simple solutions to many that he actually put into use immediately.

It seems that RCBS moulds have always had their dimensions dictated by the shrink rate of Linotype material for all moulds in the line. Also allowing for sizing as little as possible.

I pretty much convinced him that nobody was casting boolits for larger bores out of Linotype and that everybody was using Wheel Weight material which shrinks more than linotype for jsut about everything.

He agreed and made me a new mould, and it arrived a few weeks ago.

This new mould cavities are a little longer than the original at .825 vs. .795, and drops ww material at 330 gr. and at .4617-.462. diameter, which I am sizing to .460. and yes the gas checks now stay on quite firmly.

I am 'beta testing" this mould and if successful they will be looking seriously at changing the cherry drawings to a little larger for all bullets that are appropriate for softer lead alloys. This will also allow for sizing for the larger bullets down to smaller sizes to increase versitility of each mould. Sizing my boolits .001-.0015 on a side is NOT too much to ask from a bullet, and provide more options for the caster who isn't aware of custom moulds. (Most aren't)

Using the new Boolits I started loading, and have loaded a bunch using 5744 powder, at various weights from 25 gr to 35 gr. 25gr should be around 1200fps and 35gr should be around 1550fps.

I will see as soon as I can get to the range and do the testing, and will report back..

I am looking for several different loads for this gun, and to carry over to a possible guide gun style rifle in the future.

I'm looking for a light load with this 330gr boolit for Short Range Silhoutte. A fast load for Hunting or maybe long range silhoutte.

After that a light load for 405-430 gr boolits for long range silhoutte, and a couple of heavyer loads for hunting, ending up with some 400 gr brass sollids if I need to shoot an Elephant or a Pickup Truck. :holysheep

I have several other powders to try as well.

This should be fun, and the final piece of the Puzzle is an Electronic Powder Dispenser which will facilitate a little quicker assembly of these test loads. My B-day is 11/15 and I will make sure one arrives just before that date.

The project continues,,,

Randy.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Today I bought a NOE 460-425 mould from Swede Nelson. It is a 2 cav that has one as a HP.

It will be my Heavy Bullet for this gun.

I also received my extra bullet seating die from Titan Reloading www.titanreloading.com who is a Lee dealer 3 miles form the Lee plant in WI. good guy to deal with.

The purpose of the extra BS die is to use it as a crimp only die. I installed it in the C&H press and finished loading and crimping all of my test rounds.

Will shoot over the Chrony soon. I loaded 10 of each powder charge so I could shoot 2 groups for accuracy and velocity. Should be fun as this will be the first time I have shot this gun in 2-3 years and since the redo. It was a Miserable *** before. Hoping for big improvements this time out. It damn sure looks and feels better than before.

Randy

[Jailer]

Nice. Let me know how that mold works for you and what size they drop at.

I do the same as you with the Lee seating die. I pulled the seating plug and use it in the 4th hole on my Classic turret press as a crimp only die.

In for the range report. I'm curios to see what powders work for you in your gun.

[crabo]

Randy, please keep us posted as you go along.