Accuracy and the 1894 Marlin

[fatelk]

I have an old Marlin .44 mag rifle that I've been tinkering with off and on for many years. A couple years ago, thanks to you all's help, I figured out the severe accuracy problem (mag tube binding on barrel), and got it shooting a lot better. As I recall, it went from dinner-plate accuracy to coffee-cup accuracy all at once.

Back then I also worked up a load for both myself (I don't hunt) and a good friend who hunts a lot. He is a government trapper and carries both a Marlin 1894 and a model 29. We found a load that worked great in both and he says it's a sledge hammer on bear. It was a Saeco bullet from a borrowed mold, as I recall a TC style plain base sized to about .432", with a healthy charge of WC820 (#9). No leading, good accuracy, sledge hammer on bears- what's not to like?

Fast forward to now. The borrowed mold has been returned, and I have acquired a Lyman 429421 and a 429244. I worked up a good 429421 plainbase load in my S&W 629 (255gr @ .432") that shot good with a stiff charge of H110 (ran out of WC820). I naively thought that since the other plain base load with 820 shot well in the Marlin, this one should too. Wrong! I tried it out recently and it's back to dinner plate sized groups, and a slight trace of leading.

I'm assuming that I'm pushing them a little harder with the H110 than I was with the WC820, and that's just a bit too much for a plain base in a rifle. Of course other factors are alloy and lube. The lube is a good one and the same as the others, and I think the alloy is close but I'm not super scientific when I mix my wheel weights and range lead with a little lino.

I tried a few gas checked 429244's at the end of the day and the one group I shot at 50 yards showed a lot more promise, and the bore was clean and shiny like a mirror. I think I'll stick with gas checks only in the rifle.

I also tried a few light 185gr H&G WC loads, but the rifle didn't like them at all. No leading, but accuracy was terrible.

I'm not a newbie, but I don't have the experience and haven't spent the time to really understand what I'm doing with this rifle. I know just enough to be dangerous at this point. I'm appealing to the wisdom of the gurus who have been able to coax good accuracy from lever guns. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong or what I can do better?

I also think my bench rest technique can use both improvement and practice. I can shoot nice tight little groups with a bolt action on solid sand bags, but I noticed that I tend to get some vertical stringing with the lever action. My six shots at 50yds with the 429244's was 4 in about an inch, with the other two touching each other about an inch directly below them. I know I need practice, but any thoughts?

[MostlyLeverGuns]

The number of cartridges in the magazine tube can have an affect. None, one, five, ten may all create different effects. For benchrest, placing the forearm at EXACTLY the same position on the front bag can reduce group size. Experiment with where the rifle rests on the bags, particularly the front. The stock Marlin 1894 buttplate can get uncomfortable after a few full loads. I fold a towel and put it on my shoulder to reduce recoil (slip-on recoil pad, shoulder pad). A good trigger always helps. A scope always helps for load development, even if not for permanent use. There is the whole lever tuning thing that can help and is probably out there somewhere. Accurizing The Factory Rifle by M L McPherson covers a lot of the tricks. I have not had much luck with plain base bullets above 1200 fps though other folks may. For full loads in the .44 Magnum rifle, the gas checked bullets will be easier to develop accurate results.

[Shuz]

fatelk--I use flat based boolits in my 1894 Winchester Trapper in .44 mag with a 225g boolit and 8.5g of Green Dot. Velocity is 1222fps and group was 1.47" for 5 shots at 50 meters.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Plumpest of Wapitis....

One thing everyone needs to remember is that you are launching a 200-300 gr boolit at anywhere from 1500-2000 fps... from a 7lb. gun. This is no wuss load,,,, and it could hurt. In fact it is approaching .45-70 ballistics.

If the gun is a Ballard Rifled gun then it probably has at least a .431 groove dia. the SAMMI Spec for .44 mag in a rifle is .431 +/- .002.

My gun (Marlin 1894 CB with 24" bbl.) is right on the money(nominal) and so it needs at least a .432 boolit. The new Mihec mould for 429244 GCwith HP pins will allow up to a .434 size. YMMV.

I find 22 gr of H110 is about all the fun I can take for extended periods. This is around 1600 fps and knocks a 200 Meter Ram done with authority! My best usage for my Marlin is Cowboy Silhouette AKA Short Range Silhouette with targets placed at 50,100,150,and 200 Meters.

The gun works well for this game.

The cure for that recoil problem is this: A 1" thick Pachmayer Decelerator.

Randy

[EDK]

Marlins may require some load tinkering. 429244 will feed in them; 429421 or clones may. My MIHEC and MMA10MM clones work in my guns and those I have access to. Conventional wisdom on the Marlins in any caliber suggests gas checks. A receiver sight is a good idea too.

I've an 1894 or two around for 40+ years. Loaners usually don't come back after a rookie gets his first deer with it.

[dubber123]

Try sandbagging under the action, not the forearm. It can make a big difference on lever guns.

[fatelk]

Thanks everyone. Yes, the recoil can get a bit painful after a while. I've been thinking about a recoil pad for it for a while, but I don't shoot it a lot and a few rounds here and there aren't so bad. I do have a scope on it for load development, a good Leupold. I did try the sandbags under the receiver just in front of the lever and it seemed to help, but I did not think about the rounds in the tube. Next time I'll try single feeding them.

The barrel is micro-groove, slugged a hair under .431 IIRC. I remember when I first got it a couple decades ago, a gunsmith friend was adamant that I never shoot cast in it because they were terrible for microgroove. That was before I found this site, of course. :)

My friend is getting low on what we loaded for him a couple years ago, and now I'm out of all magnum powders. I'm pretty confident we'll be able to find a good load for him with the 429244 when I'm able to find some more H110. I don't hunt at all; the scariest thing I shoot is paper or the occasional tin can, but he's told me some exciting stories of his encounters with very unhappy bears. He's had some nervous close calls and had his dogs tore up a bit, so he wants good ammo. His boss bought him some Buffalo Bore 300gr, but I told him he really doesn't want to shoot that much in his old classy model 29 if he wants it to last, and he'd rather make his own anyhow. I think he's more confident with it anyhow if we load an extra hundred rounds for practice.

[Outpost75]

My Marlin 1894S is a .44-40 from the 1993 run. It performs best with the Accurate 43--200Q heeled bullet and 7.2 grains of Bullseye, which gives 1270 fps in the 20" barrel and averages 2 inches for a series of five consecutive TEN-shot groups fired off sandbags at 50 yards using the iron sights. The groups pictured were fired starting with a full load in the magazine tube and banged off in a rapid cadence of about 1 minute per ten-shot group. Then a pause between groups to walk to the 100 yard butts, change targets and continue.

This bullet was designed especially to fill the bores of old oversized blackpowder barrels, but without causing any interference problems in chambers having tight necks. The enlarged nose stop flange can be loaded as-cast and unsized when used with worn barrels, black powder and soft alloys. Or the bullet nose can be sized to throat diameter of the rifle while its shank can be lubricated in a conventional lube-sizer using the larger die, the shank therefore left unsized, and then the bullets loaded in the normal manner.

The heeled bullet is dimensioned to be push-fit in sized cases without having to mouth expand. You simply hand-start the bullet with your fingers into a sized, inside-deburred case, shoving the bullet nose against a table edge, against the stop, then crimping rounds in a Lyman tong tool or the Lee Factory Crimp die.

We have tested this bullet in modern Microgroove Marlin barrels as well as oversized, worn, original blackpowder ones as large as .441"! We've shot it with black powder loads and with smokeless, cast from soft lead up to wheelweights about 12 BHN in hardness, up to about 1400 fps. It is in Accurate's online catalog. Thanks to Tom at Accurate Molds and Ed Harris for the design of this versatile bullet.

It should work well in any of the .44s. Charges which work well in the .44-40 Marlin, Winchester '92, Ruger and Uberti revolvers are 7.2 grs. of Bullseye, 7.8 Grs. of Red Dot, 17 grs. of #2400 and 20 grs. of 4227. These same charges could be used as "medium velocity" loads in the .44 Magnum.

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More detailed discussion on the design rationale for this bullet at:

http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/team-44-40/150611-accurate-43-200q.html