'94 Marlin Feed Problems

[Uncle Grinch]

I've got a Marlin 41 Mag that was rebuilt by the old Marlin company from a 44 Mag. The old barrel was severely pitted when I bought it. It feeds my Lyman 41028 good, but refuses to feed any other SWC style cast.

I've done the basic deburring and chamfering and adjusting OAL, but it still doesn't like to feed reliably.

Can anyone suggest a lever action gunsmith who can fix my problem?

[Gtek]

How about trying UNCLE GRINCH. 41/44 are within .020"-.030" length and width. When is it sticky?
Have you tried muzzle down, muzzle flat? Rolling some of them to left side when levering makes some act up. Do yourself proud, test, study, Marlin Owners Forum. I bet UNCLE GRINCH would like a victory. Could be nothing more than a little polish on lift gate, chamfer on chamber face and bottom floor feed. Give us more to get you down the road! PM if you wish. Gtek

[Uncle Grinch]

Thanks for the input Gtek, but I have polished and chamfered everything associated with the internals I can get to. The action it tight but smooth. Tried variuos positions (it feed jacketed upside down). Tried various seating depths (which seemed to help some, but still would not feed) and trim lengths.

All hang up as the round enters the chamber with the sharp edge of the SWC catching on the top of the chamber. I can either push up on the rim or down on the mouth and nit feeds. Just won't do it in one continous motion.

[ReloaderFred]

I have three of the Marlin .41 Magnum rifles and none of them like SWC bullets. It's that sharp edge that catches. I went to another bullet design and solved my problem.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[W.R.Buchanan]

Grinch: Did you chamfer the chamber mouth? That will fix the problem.

Here I'll post the pic one more time.

Randy

[Gtek]

That is what I have done. Take pink or white stone with 1/4" shaft. Put in dremmel or air grider and dress to correct angle and diameter. Drill 1/4"hole in front of wooden dowel and exopy forever or silicone in. Put through rear and turn by hand to desired effect. Worked super on mine, not fast - but that is a good thing. Gtek

[longbow]

I may have to try that chamfer on mine. I wound up pulling the guts out, filing the cartridge top to allow longer OAL and reshaping the carrier. Now it feeds SWC's not badly at all (even the long nosed types) but that chamfer would probably be a plus as well. Hmmm, it may have saved some other work!

I know you have mentioned it before Randy but that is the first time I have seen the photo. Makes sense. While the gun may not need it now, it certainly can't hurt and may eliminate the few hangups I get now.

Longbow

[dubber123]

There is a way to limit the up travel of the cartridge lifter to keep the boolit nose out of the top edge of the chamber. I spoke to a gunsmith once, (I'll try to remember the name), and he said it is a common problem. He only charged something like $35, so it couldn't be too difficult.

[Gtek]

You need to be a little careful doing this mod. I took an iffy case and inserted into chamber and measured how much protruded from chamber. Removed case and filed through side of rear to confirm pocket size in internal base of case. You do not want to exceed that distance, things can go ugly, sticking, ruptured, head seperation, all that fun stuff. Gtek

[longbow]

dubber123:

I suppose limiting travel up might do it too. Didn't think of that one!

What I did was to file the carrier down to lower the nose of the round. If the meplat didn't hit, the shoulder did. Randy's suggestion of beveling the chamber mouth may have solved the shoulder issue... maybe both. I wanted longer OAL anyway so had the carrier out and modified it.

Longbow

[W.R.Buchanan]

Here's the deal guys,,, SWC and even WFN boolits get the top edge caught on the sharp edge of the chamber mouth. That's where they get hung up. The lifters pressure has nothing to do with it.

The extractor groove on a .44 case (all of the different lengths) is .060 and the internal web of the case is a little higher than that. A chamfer of .040-.060 is perfectly safe. You don't need any more than that to do the job anyway.

Round nosed boolits don't have this problem because when the cartridge lifter has the round pinned up against the top of the receiver the nose of the boolit is already aimed directly at the chamber. Since the very nose of the boolit is below the chamber mouth and there is not an edge on the boolit it just slides into the hole.

Roundnosed boolits are the easy fix, however they are rather short sighted and limit the guns usage when the simple addition of a .040-.060 chamfer or radius on the mouth of the chamber prevents ANTYHING from getting hung up there. I wish Marlin would just do it when the make the barrels. It would take them 5 seconds to do.

I have posted the instructions for this fix and this picture on this site no less than 10 times. It amazes me that more people haven't figured it out. I figured it out on my own in about 3 minutes, and I'm really not that smart!

Gteks' proceedure is an easy way to do this mod. It should take you 15 minutes at most.

I actually scraped mine into the gun with the ground end of a small triangle file. It actually took me 17 minutes, but then again I wasn't really counting.

There is no need to pay for a gunsmith if you can work sand paper and a small file. All you have to do is break the sharp edge, and you can tell how much is enough by using a dummy cartridge with your SWC boolit installed. when it feeds flawlessly you are done.

Randy

[Uncle Grinch]

Well... I see what the general consensus is. Maybe I didn't take enough off the first time, so I'll bevel or chamfer the chamber throat some more.

And.... Randy, I did see your thread and picture previously. I even looked at other sites and read their cures. Thought maybe there was someting I was overlooking.

Thanks guys!

[W.R.Buchanan]

No problem Grinch, just want your gun to function the best it can, and this will do it.

The mod to the lifter to allow longer cartridges to feed is just a matter of moving the stop on the top of the lifter back about .125. My gun will feed cartridges up to about 1.675 with a stock lifter. IE Lyman 429244's will feed. By moving the stop on the lifter back another .125 it will feed any boolit made for in .44 cal up to about 340 gr.

This is usually not needed as unless you have a faster twist barrel on the gun it won't stabilize anything over about 265-280 gr anyway.

When I redo my .44 Carbine it will have a 1/20 twist barrel and I will mod the lifter at that time because I do want to be able to shoot 300+ gr boolits in it. They will be SWC's also.

My only request is that you don't steal next Christmas! :holysheep

Randy

[Uncle Grinch]

Grinch: Did you chamfer the chamber mouth? That will fix the problem.

Here I'll post the pic one more time.

Randy

Randy, I broke out my tools and got a little more agressive in chamfering my '94 Marlin and it made a BIG difference. I guess I was too conservative (scared!!) to really do much metal removal.

It now feeds all my SWC's!!

Thanks for the encouragement.

[Gtek]

We told you Uncle Grinch did a nice job! Free shipping and Cheap also- Congrats. Gtek

[GARCIA]

I had a similar problem with my 1894 45Colt model. Had to cut the cartridge stop back to feed correctly. Never a problem with the nose getting caught.

One special item that did come up was the nub on the ejector spring. It sat to far forward. I replaced it with a Bear Proof ejector from Wild West Guns. Theirs is designed with the nub sitting back further than the OM model.

It will not hiccup at all when fed the RCBS 270 SAA or the MP Mold "Ruger Only" boolit.

Tom

[W.R.Buchanan]

Grinch: Good to see you dove in. I wasn't that bad was it?

When you look at the cartridge case and see a .060 wide extractor groove, you know that area of the case doesn't need to be supported. Making the chamfer a little smaller than that will hurt exactly nothing and yet it facilitates feeding of most any kind of Boolit.

Glad to hear your's works well now.

Randy