boolit chambering issue marlin 1894C

[mebe007]

ok guys so im in the endless quest to find the right boolit. it needs to chamber first lol. ok so i have a lee 358-158RF and it casts a nice boolit problem is it wont chamber worth 2 cents in .357 mag brass. however 38spl brass is smooth as silk. Got given some RD 359-175 boolits to try. made a dummy round at 1.59(as deep as crimp groove allows) and it wont chamber without a ton if finagling and pressure. seat down to 1.5 and it does chamber. Note this is .357 Mag brass. This really brings great concern to me as I would like to get one of the 180grn WFN boolit molds that are avail. and the rd and lee molds have less meplat than those boolits so one would think the issue would be magnified. So a nice gentlemen donated me some miha 359640 boolits and seated to the front of the forward most crimp groove they chamber well. everyonce in a while there will be a slight hickup but next to the lee 158rf in 38 special brass this is the smoothest and most reliable next to jacketed rounds. Cant find one of the 359640 molds so i am torn with what to do here. any help is greatly appreciated.


Thanks,
Mark

[btroj]

I have the 175 RD mould and it requires slightly short cases in my Marlin.
I haven't tried the 125 Lee at all but the 158 SWC doesn't shoot for nothing in mine.

The Mihec 360640 is the bomb in mine. Faster it goes the better it shoots. Haven't tried it in a special case but it works great in mag cases.

Next time there is a buy on the 360640 jump on it. Great bullet. It is the only cast my Marlin really shoots well. That gun drove me nuts until I tried that bullet, it is now all I feed the rifle.

I wouldn't other with a 180, I know it won't cycle in mine. It will chamber but not feed, round is too long for the action. The 360640 was but I modified the carrier to stop that problem.

Good luck. Don't give up

Brad

[mebe007]

I just cant understand why the lee 158rf doesnt want to chamber properly as it seems to work for everyone.

[jtaylor1960]

You already have the RD mold.Why not just trim your brass to adjust the O.A.L. and you can still use the crimp groove.I've done this in some of my guns to get a perfect fit.

[btroj]

Is them158 rnfp not feeding properly or not chamfering fully?
If not feeding then watch to see of the bullet nose hangs up on the front of the receiver when the carrier is moving up from picking the round up from the magazine.
Of not chamfering then is it not entering the chamber right or will the bolt not close fully? Of it doesn't close fully then the bullet ogive may be hitting the end of the lands in the throat. Tha is what the RD does in one. This is when you need to trim a case a bit shorter and retry. Don't crimp the bullet as you will be pulling it. Keep trimming and trying until ou find a case length that works. Go in .015 increments or so. Gonma take some time to get it right.

Cycling the action slowly with a dummy round can make a difference. Watch what is happening thru the electron port. Where is the hang up? Good observations will let you know where your problem is, that is important so you know what to fix.

[Blammer]

I would look at your chamber, any way you can get a chamber cast?

try chambering an empty brass case that is fully prepped (well, minus the primer and powder and boolit of course)

I am not a fan of trimming brass extra short for a particular gun, I don't see the point. Plus I usually have more than one gun in the same chambering.

[ReloaderFred]

I just ignore the crimping groove and seat to the OAL I need and apply the crimp into the side of the bullet for my Marlins, and I have lots of them. I'm shooting a 185 gr. bullet in .357 Magnum for some uses. The crimp groove is in the wrong place for the Marlin, but seated deep and crimped above the crimping groove works well. The bullet is very, very accurate seated like this, too.

With Lil'Gun, it's clocking 1710 fps over the PACT Professional Chronograph. With Winchester 296 you lose about 150 fps from the Lil'Gun load, but still very accurate.

Hope this helps.

Fred

[btroj]

Fred uses a viable option. sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

[mebe007]

ok guys trimmed a bunch of brass to correct length. issues appears to not be the boolits but something in the rifle. With barrel pointed down and rounds dropped into chamber all rounds fall smoothly in and the bolt closes with little to no pressure at all. just like it should. what appears to be happening is that they are going into the chamber cockeyed. if i try to chamber and it jams and i back the bolt out i can then slightly pull the rim end towards the ejection port and it slides into place.

i colored the cases and boolits with a blue sharpie and went through the loading process. there were no marks at all on the boolits. all the marks were on the brass. on the ejection port side the mark was close to the mouth. the mark on the exact opposite side was further back from mouth than on the other side furthering proof that the round is loading crooked. so it seems the nose is too far outward. I noticed no other marks on the brass what so ever. I could duplicate this with .357 and occasionally with 38 special though not as often. even some factory 100gr sp rounds i had exhibited the same issue occasionally.

all rounds were crimped at the forward most part of the crimp groove and the 359640 was crimped in the forward crimp groove

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so not really sure what to do here

[mebe007]

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[jtaylor1960]

Good detective work.It looks like it is a feed issue only.It looks like you need to talk to a gunsmith or someone with knowledge of the 1894.I hear of guys adjusting the timing on the elevator but I don't know how that is done.I'm sure someone here can head you in the right direction.

[mebe007]

ok so i think i have found the problem, now to figure out how to fix it. it appears the extractor is putting enough pressure on the rim to keep the cartridge kicked inward causing the cockeyed chambering. now to figure out how to remove the extractor.

i loaded the tube full of dummy rounds of all these different boolits i tried both in 38 special and .357 mag brass. and i can cycle the lever as fast and hard as i can and they seem to chamber but slow is a no go.

to the guy who posted about the rd mold. I do not have the rd mold. I was donated some of the boolits by a fine gentlemen on this sight. i would love to have the rd 359-175 though

[Mallard57]

I don't remember where I found the web article but it consisted of polishing the bolt face and extractor, bending the extractor spring to loosen the tension, and reshape the nose of the extractor to allow the case rim to slide under the extractor easier. It helped mine some. Jeff

[mebe007]

so far it seems like i have it licked thanks to this thread
http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/jams-all-kinds/44402-failure-feed-issues-1894s-solved.html

i relieved the spring tension as described and dressed the edges of the extractor with a file. it seems to eat every dummy round ive thrown at it so far. now that its feeding i will load some real rounds and head to the range

thanks for all the help guys

[missionary5155]

Good morning
Over at Marlin Owners there is info on basic Marlin problems. Yes some extractor springs are far to stiff. But it is a generic assembly line part. We are looking to make a pickup truck into a 450 horsepower track burner. It will take a few tweeks to get there.
Mike in Peru

[mebe007]

Yeah I love marlin owners. Been there a long time. Actually how I found about this place.


Now my next question is my barrel slugs at .357" , its a Ballard rifled barrel not micro groove. What should I start with sizing them at?

[dragon813gt]

.358 minimum. I size mine, same rifling and bore size, to .359. Only reason is I have molds that drop at this size and I don't have to size them. They shoot great at this size but every rifle is different.

[mebe007]

Now to find lube size dies