advice needed marlin 336w and lee 170 grain.

[44magnum1979]

hello all. I have a problem i have casted pistol boolits for awhile now. i just started to cast my first rifle boolits yesterday. here is what i have first i have the lee 170 grain flat point 2 cavity mold. i am sizeing them to .312 lubed with nra lube.gas checked of course. i loaded some up crimped in the crimp groove. the gun is a marlin 336w with microgroove barrel. when i chambered the first one it was tight in the chamber i tried to eject it and it pulled hard to open the lever.when i got it open i could see the boolit it had rifling marks it and it pulled the boolits forward in the case. i did get it out of my gun. so my question is what am i doing wrong? i am not really sure on what to do. thanks any tips would be helpful. Derrick

[Junior1942]

The case neck is too large in diameter for the chamber. Try sizing the bullets to .309" or .310".

[44magnum1979]

i am not sure. the boolit that came out of the gun was engraved with the rifling. i think i might have to soft of a boolit too. i was looking at the ones that i loaded and the nose kinda got a little deformed from loading. i was using acww for alloy. do you guys think i should water drop them?

[Ben]

44magnum1979

Are you seating the bullet to the crimp groove ?

Do you have any way of measuring the nose dia.
of one of your cast bullets ?

Some guns won't tolerate a nose dia. of much over .301 " and
some not over .300" dia.

Nose dia. of your cast bullets could be your problem ?

Trying to seat a .312 " dia. cast bullet into your case necks is
probably what is causing the nose deformation of your bullets.

[Baron von Trollwhack]

You ought to do a little measuring before "loading some up and jamming them in" . Start with truly cleaning and slugging the bore. That is the way cast bullet users start.

BvT

[northmn]

If a 30 cal mold is sized to 312 you may have an oversized mold which makes the bullet oversized. I load an annealed bullet in my 30-30 that has a soft nose but a harder base. Often the sizing/seating part leaves me with bullets that are too large in the nose area and causes that problem. To get a softer nose I place the bullets in a pan of water and heat the noses with a torch. I then have to do a bit of sorting to get the usable bullets, but as I only do this for the bullets I actually hunt with, I rarely need more than a very few. I sight in with the non annealed bullets. 310 is as large as I go in my Marlin.

DP

[kelbro]

I would take a Sharpie and color the neck of a couple of loaded rounds. You might then discover that your .312 is a little too fat for the chamber. If the Sharpie marking is all scratched up, your bullet is too fat. If the coloring is intact, you might try trimming your brass a little until you can chamber the round without engraving the bullet.

[izzyjoe]

i'd do what Junior said, and size them smaller. make up a coulpe of dummy rounds, one .309, one .310, and one .311. then see which one chambers the best. then you can go from there. of course that means you'll have to buy a few more sizers, but that's just the fun of casting and reloadin'. i size mine at .310, at .311 they become a little stiffer to chamber, but hey every rifle is different.

[MBTcustom]

Im no eggspert but it sounds to me like the bore riding nose of that boolit is getting gripped by the rifling. ie, your boolits are coming out oversize. You need to get them to come out smaller by messing with the alloy and pot temperature. However, Lee molds are legendary for having some little problem, too small, too large, etc. etc. If you cant get it to work right, send it back to Lee and they should make it right. One more thing I would like to add is that I have made quite a few aluminum molds myself and I have found that I need to cut the cavities .002 smaller than the finished boolit that I want it to drop. You can use calipers carefully to measure the diameter of the bore riding section of that boolit. if the mold measures closer than .002" to the bore diameter of your rifle, then you are going to play hell getting that mold to drop boolits small enough to work in your rifle.
Another trick you can use is to check your fresh cast boolits by seeing how easily the nose goes into the business end of your barrel. The nose of the boolits should slip into the bore easily and stop on the driving bands If they work on the muzzle, they will surely work in the chamber. Make sense?
Another thing I would like to mention, is that Lee molds sometimes dont shut all the way when they are brand new. They clamped the living ****e out of them when they were manufactured and they cut the cavities in there, and then they slap some handles on 'em and sling 'em into a box. (what'd you expect for $19.95?) I just got a RB mold that was casting oversize balls. I could tell by the part line that the mold was not shut all the way when I poured the lead, even though it looked for all the world like it was. I started experimenting, and after making sure there were no burrs or chips hanging it up, I started shutting the mold carefully, applying a good white knuckle grip on the handles, rapping on the mold blocks lightly with the wooden mallet, and then carefully closing the sprue plate and filling it with lead. All this was done while keeping a tight grip on the handles. I knocked off the sprue and viola! good boolits! I hope the mold settles down eventually, but I'm going to keep wrangling with it for a while. If it refuses to cooperate, I'm just going to send it back to Lee for a little TLC.
I hope this helps you out some.

[TCFAN]

I have two 336 marlins. One is a 336W made in 1999. The other one was made in 1974. They both have this same problem. I have a RD 311-165 that cast a .302 nose and it will not go in either one of these marlins. Also have two Lyman 311041 molds that cast with a .301 nose that is very tight in both marlins.
The one mold that I have that does work in both guns is a old Lyman Ideal 31141 HP that cast a .299 nose. It works great loaded and crimped in the crimp groove.

So I would say you need to measure the boolits from your mold and see if they are casting .301 or larger on the nose in front of the top band. If they are that may be your problem.............Terry

[GabbyM]

you could easily be deforming and or bending the bullet when trying to seat a .312" into a neck expanded with a standard sized ball. It doesn’t take much to bend a long skinny rifle bullet.

Then try one of those .312” bullets into a fired case. I know our Marlin 336 will not chamber a .312”.

[Lonegun1894]

My 336 was made in '71, and gives me shotgun patterns at 25 yds and leads bad enough to make my bore look like a sewer pipe with every alloy I've tried if I size to .309", but shoots 1.5-2.5" groups at 100 yds all day long if I size to .311"--and NO leading no matter the load used. My next step up is a .314" sizer, so I cant comment on .312". I use two Lee molds for it, the 150grFPGC and the 170gr FPGC, both of which are supposed to cast at .309, but dont. I just checked both, and the 170 gives me a .303" nose, while the 150 gives a .301". The 170 usually gives slightly smaller groups, but only by about 1/4" at 100yds with open sights, so not something I concern myself with. The 150 does chamber slightly smoother though, which I'm sure is due to the slightly smaller nose.

[pipehand]

Before you blame the mould, check to see how big the bore riding portion is before you size the boolits. I usedto use a Saeco sizer for my rifle boolits, but found that I was not very consistent in how much downward force I applied to the handle, and that caused me to bump up the noses varying amounts. In my limited experience, the Marlins will take a larger nose and body diameter than the Winchesters, but i have had the same trouble as you in my marlins when the noses got too fat.

[pipehand]

Sorry Lonegun. Your last post musta hit my puter while I was composing my last post. Sounds like your 170 grain mould Beagled itself. Got a 303 Brit to use it in?

[Lonegun1894]

Pipehand,
Have three of them. 2 are No4Mk1s and the most recent aquisition is a Pattern 1914. Haven't had a chance to shoot the 1914 yet, but the other two shoot very well. I have been sizing a lee .312" 155/160 GC down to .314" for them. Both No4s slug at .312/.313", and the Lee 150 and 170 both cast at .311/.312, so I'm not expecting either to work well in their bores. The 1914 is .312", so the same story as the other two. I keep thinking I may have to try paperpatching for them though.

The .303 British is a caliber that isn't very common around here, but I was taught a little about it in my teens by a man who is a close friend and the closest thing I've had to a grandfather who is a bit of a gun nut/historian. He also taught me to load and between the loading and history, he has been a major reason I have stayed broke and out of jail. In a way, I'm almost glad that the .303s aren't very popular here as it has gotten me three good rifles so far and the previous owners of each one told me they were selling them cheap because no one sells ammo for them locally and for me to enjoy my wallhangers. I just hand over the money and smile. If I told y'all how much I have in these 3 guns someone here would hunt me down for stealing them. But it is a VERY underrated cartridge, at least around here.

[popper]

Seat deeper and crimp wherever it ends up. The nose is too big. If it only need the case trimmed a few thous. its OK. If the bullet stuck in the rifling, you don't have enough crimp. I've heard that the FCD will allow crimping on the ogive, it will resize where it crimps, but haven't tried it.

[Loudenboomer]

I shoot the same boolit in my 336. I size .311 with ww alloy and have not expirenced the tight chaimbering issues you've mentioned. My rifles have the old Ballard style bores though.
A chaimber casting may shed some light on whats goin on. Another thought would be to try the ranch dog boolit. The nose is fat but designed for your chaimber.