lovedogs
03-07-2007, 06:37 PM
In case some of you are curious about how things turned out with the Marlin 1894, my gift .44, I can update some. Maybe you can glean something useful from it.
After Marlin replaced the butt stock, carrier, and barrel I had to scrub diligently for a while to get the surface rust and bluing residue out of the new bbl. It did finally clean up and looks good. It does have what looks like a small longitudinal flaw along the top of one rifling, perhaps a machining mark left by the barreling button. It is small and I hope it will eventually wear off. It doesn't seem to be a problem.
After slugging the bbl. I became concerned 'cuz the grooves miked out at .4315, way too big for a .44 mag. Most jacketed bullets mike .429 to .430 and the biggest lube/size die for my Saeco sizer comes in a .431. I thought I might have to get a new die and ream out to .432 or .433 to get a snug bullet to groove fit when I tried to shoot cast bullets. I was further concerned when I slipped a jacketed bullet in a fired case and found it to be pretty snug. To me that would indicate a snug chamber. If I sized a cast bullet to larger than the .4315 bbl. would it then be too big to chamber? I decided to try them sized at the .430 'cuz that's what I have on hand and see if it shot and if it created a leading problem. I thought I might have a challenge going here.
While waiting for a thaw and the wind to let up I did some modifications. The trigger was way too hard at 5 1/2 lbs. and the lever was stiffer than I liked so I ordered a Cowboy Action Spring Kit from Brownell's. No matter what I did the lever catch spring from the kit was too light. I stretched it and played with it some but the lever would open by itself, just from the weight of it or if you tapped the rifle anywhere. It just wasn't gonna work. So I put the factory spring back in, lubed it well with Tetra Gun Grease and worked it a lot. It did improve some and I suspect it'll break in. The hammer spring in the kit worked wonders. Out of the box the trigger was crisp enough but broke at too heavy a weight for my liking. Cleaning and lubing brought it down to 4 1/2 lbs. Better but still too heavy. The replacing of the hammer spring brought it down to an even 3 lbs. That's not a target trigger but it's plenty good enough for a "bumper jack". It's absolutely crisp and nice now and it made it much nicer to shoot.
To break the bbl. in and to see what it's accuracy possibilities might be I started with jacketed bullets. I had some Speer and Sierra 240 gr. on hand. And I figured either 2400 or H110 oughta work. Long story short... it prefers Speer bullets over Sierra's and likes H110 better than 2400. I thought it odd that I hit max pressures before I could break 1600 FPS with the 2400. Here it's been windy and cool so I began shooting at only 50 yds. When weather improves I'll go to 100. At that distance the best Sierra groups went 1 1/2 in. Even at 50 yds. that isn't too terrible but at only 1500+ speeds it was sort of poor for a .44 rifle. The Speers on the other hand performed really well. Five shots into a neat, round cluster of 3/4 in. The Speers and H110 went an average of 1823 FPS and shot real well. I warmed the ammo to about 75 degrees in my shirt pocket and wore a jacket to keep the ammo warm for testing. So, even with a over-sized bore it shot okay with jacketed .4295 bullets. The wind hasn't let us out for the 100 yd. test but I feel confident that if it'll shoot a ragged hole at 50 it'll probably do okay at 100.
I really intend to shoot cast bullets in the rifle so that was a big issue. I loaded up my own Saeco #431 bullets. They are supposed to be a 250 gr. RNFPGC. Using a Lyman #2 alloy mine turn out to be an average of 243 gr. I sized them .430 and lubed with Glen's excellent 50/50 lube. This rifle just doesn't care for 2400 as it did the same thing as it had with jacketed bullets. I hit pressures before I got any velocity and accuracy wasn't as good as with H110. Best 50 yd. groups with 2400 were 2 in. The H110 loads, however, shot into groups of 1 to
1 1/4 in. and got an average of 1813 FPS. For all practical purposes this shot identical to the Speer/H110 load. They even print the same place on the target. So I think I could use either the Speer jacketed or my own cast with H110 and do about anything I want to do with a .44 rifle. I have to shoot at 100 yds. when I get a calm enough day but it looks to me like it's gonna work out well.
I had wondered if it'd shoot with a .430 cast bullet rattling down a .4315 bbl. and if it'd lead. Or if I kicked the bullet hard enough would it obturate up and work okay? It appears that it did, indeed, bump up and seal well and shot good, too. When I got home to clean the bbl. it only had a slight lead wash in it. Not even what you could call lead fouling. I passed a few patches of acetone through to eliminate powder fouling and be able to check for leading. I could see none. Just a few faint streaks of wash. A couple passes with a dry bronze brush removed them. I finished with a regular cleaning and found the bbl. in good shape with no difficulty in cleaning whatsoever.
So, in spite of Marlin's mistakes and oversized bbls. it looks like this story has a happy ending after all. And, boy, am I glad! I hope to have a lot of fun with her now.
Regards to All and thanks for listening to my ramblings. I hope someone else can get something from them.
After Marlin replaced the butt stock, carrier, and barrel I had to scrub diligently for a while to get the surface rust and bluing residue out of the new bbl. It did finally clean up and looks good. It does have what looks like a small longitudinal flaw along the top of one rifling, perhaps a machining mark left by the barreling button. It is small and I hope it will eventually wear off. It doesn't seem to be a problem.
After slugging the bbl. I became concerned 'cuz the grooves miked out at .4315, way too big for a .44 mag. Most jacketed bullets mike .429 to .430 and the biggest lube/size die for my Saeco sizer comes in a .431. I thought I might have to get a new die and ream out to .432 or .433 to get a snug bullet to groove fit when I tried to shoot cast bullets. I was further concerned when I slipped a jacketed bullet in a fired case and found it to be pretty snug. To me that would indicate a snug chamber. If I sized a cast bullet to larger than the .4315 bbl. would it then be too big to chamber? I decided to try them sized at the .430 'cuz that's what I have on hand and see if it shot and if it created a leading problem. I thought I might have a challenge going here.
While waiting for a thaw and the wind to let up I did some modifications. The trigger was way too hard at 5 1/2 lbs. and the lever was stiffer than I liked so I ordered a Cowboy Action Spring Kit from Brownell's. No matter what I did the lever catch spring from the kit was too light. I stretched it and played with it some but the lever would open by itself, just from the weight of it or if you tapped the rifle anywhere. It just wasn't gonna work. So I put the factory spring back in, lubed it well with Tetra Gun Grease and worked it a lot. It did improve some and I suspect it'll break in. The hammer spring in the kit worked wonders. Out of the box the trigger was crisp enough but broke at too heavy a weight for my liking. Cleaning and lubing brought it down to 4 1/2 lbs. Better but still too heavy. The replacing of the hammer spring brought it down to an even 3 lbs. That's not a target trigger but it's plenty good enough for a "bumper jack". It's absolutely crisp and nice now and it made it much nicer to shoot.
To break the bbl. in and to see what it's accuracy possibilities might be I started with jacketed bullets. I had some Speer and Sierra 240 gr. on hand. And I figured either 2400 or H110 oughta work. Long story short... it prefers Speer bullets over Sierra's and likes H110 better than 2400. I thought it odd that I hit max pressures before I could break 1600 FPS with the 2400. Here it's been windy and cool so I began shooting at only 50 yds. When weather improves I'll go to 100. At that distance the best Sierra groups went 1 1/2 in. Even at 50 yds. that isn't too terrible but at only 1500+ speeds it was sort of poor for a .44 rifle. The Speers on the other hand performed really well. Five shots into a neat, round cluster of 3/4 in. The Speers and H110 went an average of 1823 FPS and shot real well. I warmed the ammo to about 75 degrees in my shirt pocket and wore a jacket to keep the ammo warm for testing. So, even with a over-sized bore it shot okay with jacketed .4295 bullets. The wind hasn't let us out for the 100 yd. test but I feel confident that if it'll shoot a ragged hole at 50 it'll probably do okay at 100.
I really intend to shoot cast bullets in the rifle so that was a big issue. I loaded up my own Saeco #431 bullets. They are supposed to be a 250 gr. RNFPGC. Using a Lyman #2 alloy mine turn out to be an average of 243 gr. I sized them .430 and lubed with Glen's excellent 50/50 lube. This rifle just doesn't care for 2400 as it did the same thing as it had with jacketed bullets. I hit pressures before I got any velocity and accuracy wasn't as good as with H110. Best 50 yd. groups with 2400 were 2 in. The H110 loads, however, shot into groups of 1 to
1 1/4 in. and got an average of 1813 FPS. For all practical purposes this shot identical to the Speer/H110 load. They even print the same place on the target. So I think I could use either the Speer jacketed or my own cast with H110 and do about anything I want to do with a .44 rifle. I have to shoot at 100 yds. when I get a calm enough day but it looks to me like it's gonna work out well.
I had wondered if it'd shoot with a .430 cast bullet rattling down a .4315 bbl. and if it'd lead. Or if I kicked the bullet hard enough would it obturate up and work okay? It appears that it did, indeed, bump up and seal well and shot good, too. When I got home to clean the bbl. it only had a slight lead wash in it. Not even what you could call lead fouling. I passed a few patches of acetone through to eliminate powder fouling and be able to check for leading. I could see none. Just a few faint streaks of wash. A couple passes with a dry bronze brush removed them. I finished with a regular cleaning and found the bbl. in good shape with no difficulty in cleaning whatsoever.
So, in spite of Marlin's mistakes and oversized bbls. it looks like this story has a happy ending after all. And, boy, am I glad! I hope to have a lot of fun with her now.
Regards to All and thanks for listening to my ramblings. I hope someone else can get something from them.