Keith bullets?

[shooter93]

Anyone feeding Keith style bullets through a Marlin 94?, or any other lever gun for that matter. This will be 44 specials but I don't know if they will feed ok.

[Don McDowell]

I shoot Keith bullets thru my 94 trapper in 45 colt. The only thing I have to watch is make sure the COL doesn't leave those long noses hanging out far enough to catch the end of the magazine tube when the elevator starts to raise.

[fecmech]

I'm speaking to the .357 "Keith" 358429 here. As long as I pay attention to oal it feeds great in my 94 Winchester and 2 92 Rossi lever guns. The Winchester can handle mag cases and crimped in the crimp groove due to the longer action. The 92's are taper crimped about half way up the front drive band which is how I load them all rather than have separate loads for each gun.

[crabo]

My 357 Marlin 94 will not feed any kind of swc.

[Iron Mike Golf]

I crimp the 358429 over the front drive band in my M92 Rossi.

[ReloaderFred]

I have 1894 Marlins in .357, .41, .44 and .45 Colt. The only one that will feed SWC bullets is the .45 Colt Cowboy. It will eat them all day long, but the others all choke on them.

I've never tried them in my 1895's or 336W in .375 Winchester.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[Mk42gunner]

I shoot the Lyman 452424 crimped in the crimp groove in my 1894 Cowboy.

From what I have read, it is hit or miss if the smaller calibers will feed through the action with SWC's. Your .44 Specials may work fine while the same gun with Magnum brass may not.

Robert

[longbow]

I had a heck of a time getting my 1894 in .44 mag to feed SWC's but it does okay now.

I started with the Lyman 429421 which exceeds COAL and while it would feed from the magazine, it did jam up frequently. The first fix I did was to file the cartridge stop to allow longer OAL. That helped some but both the meplat and shoulder hung up on the chamber mouth.

The next fix was to re-contour the carrier to lower the nose of the incoming round. That took some doing but worked in the end. The gun now feeds the H&G #503 Keith quite reliably.

One of the regulars here (can't remember who) posted about an even simpler fix which is to put a small chamfer or radius on the chamber mouth. He claims it solves the feeding problem with SWC's hanging up on meplat or shoulder.

Do a search for Marlin jam here and on the Marlin owners site. There is lots of info about feeding and the infamous Marlin jam.

It seems some guns don't mind SWC's and some do. Must be a timing or tolerance issue. All in all I think you are better off to use RNFP or TC styles which both feed (and fed) very well in my gun. I just happened to become an owner of a Mihec H&G #503 brass Cramer mould and wanted to be able to use it so tinkered with the gun until it worked.

Longbow

[rintinglen]

My 357 Rossi likes the "Sharpe" style nose much better than the longer "Keith" boolits. 358-156 Thompsons run through like water, but the 358-429 doesn't work unless 38 special brass is used, and then still hangs up once in a while. My Marlin 44CB won't feed 429-421s unless seated deep and crimped over the shoulder. My Browning 53 devours the RCBS 32-98 SWC. It is something of a **** shoot.

[crabo]

One of the regulars here (can't remember who) posted about an even simpler fix which is to put a small chamfer or radius on the chamber mouth. He claims it solves the feeding problem with SWC's hanging up on meplat or shoulder.



Anyone know where this thread is? I would like to see some pictures of the chamfer.

[ReloaderFred]

All you basically do is break the sharp edge of the chamber mouth. It's similar to smoothing up a semi-auto pistol to improve feeding.

You just don't want to take off too much metal, since all you want to do is take the sharp edge off. You don't want to polish into the chamber at all, just that outside edge.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[btroj]

My 357 and 45 Colt Marlins will feed swc with no problems. my 357 will even fill a full wadcutter.

[BCRider]

Having loaded SWC for semi auto 1911's I can say that the key is finding the right depth of insertion that the ring around the flat nose and ring around the WC rim are at the point where they match the surface of a correctly set RN bullet.

Mind you that's all fine in theory. I shot a bunch of SWC rounds through my .357 Rossi '92 in Cowboy Action. But I quickly changed over to round nose because the SWC did not like to be fed really fast. But when I took my time and only cycle the lever at a reasonably quick speed instead of trying to get max speed from them the SWC's loaded slick as a whistle. So I supposed it depends on how you're going to use the rifle with the SWC loads.

[GARCIA]

I made some minor modifications to my 1894 Marlin in 357 to chamber the 358429 bullet as cast from an older Lyman mold. Replaced the ejector spring with one from Wild West Guns and then did some minor work with a file to the cartridge stop to allow a greater OAL. I have made the same modification on a 45 Colt 94 Marlin. It will feed the big "Ruger Only" bullet with no problem and it is so slick with Miha's copy of the RCBS 270 SAA it's scary.

My oldest son just bought a new in the box 1894CSS in 41mag and it feeds SWC's without a problem.

Tom

[35 Whelen]

My CAS rifle is an 1873 Uberti in .44 Special. When I first got it, the only mould I had was a 429241 Keith SWC. It feeds them fine and in fact I shot a match with them running the rifle as fast as I could. Zero problems.

My Rossi 357 stays loaded with a magazine full of 358429 HP's. I have to crimp them over the front driving band to keep the o.a.l. right. Doesn't feed them real smoothly, but does feed them. Oddly, the same bullet loaded in .38's and crimped in the crimp groove feed like you-know-what through a goose.

35W

[358 Win]

My Marlin 1894 Carbine feeds all manner of SWC's. The 358429 feeds flawlessly when loaded in .38 Special cases. Same for my Marlin 1984CBL. My walk about load in the CBL is the 358429 loaded in .38 Special cases with 11.5gr of 2400 for 1450fps. Super accurate and stout enough for anything that might try to give me
trouble when out hiking.

[kelbro]

My 1894 44Mag would not feed SWCs worth a flip in 44Mag brass. Does fine in 44SPL brass. The 1894C 357 gobbled up the 358429 in 38 brass.

[MT Chambers]

There are other designs that are much better feeding than the Keith bullet with it's 2 sharp edges to catch when feeding.

[Wills Point Pete]

My 1894 Marlin feeds SWCs as long as I make the OAL as short as a factory .357 lead semiwadcutter, the old fashioned factory load that one doesn't see anymore. And I must work the lever slooooollllly. The same weight in the RNFP works a whole lot faster and the meplat is slightly larger 'cross the flat than the Keith.

[Shuz]

I eliminated all feeding problems with my Marlin and Winchester Trapper .44 mag rifles by going to RNFP styles such as the Lyman 427098, Lee 200gRNFP, Lee Custom 225gRNFP, and the Lyman 429667. The Lyman Devastator 429640 while not a RNFP, also feeds well.

[WyrTwister]

Do not buy a hand gun caliber lever gun expecting it to feed anything but RN bullets . If it does more than that , it is icing on the cake .

My .45 LC Rossi feeds RNL & RNFP fine . Those are the only molds I have for .45 hand gun .

The .357 & .44 Mag guns feed SWC's with varying degrees of success , but I bought RNL molds for them .

Never had any problems with the Marlin 1895 .45-70 rifles , as long as you kept the ammo OAL with in reason . But those bullets are RNL or some variation of RNFP .

The .30-30's are OK with what I have feed them , but , again , I have to watch the ammo OAL .

God bless
Wyr