Lengthening Marlin 1894 action?

[BAGTIC]

Years ago I opened up a Winchester 94 Trapper in .45 Colt by grinding back the shoulder on the cartridge follower/lifter to accept a 1.85 inch long cartridge. It continued to feed factory COL rounds and 1.85 inch COL rounds alike. It made it possible to duplicate ballistics of factory 300 grain 45/70 ammunition.

I would like to know if anyone has ever done something similar to a Marlin 1894 so it would be possible to shoot extra long rounds. It may not because the Winchester action was originally designed to shoot cartridges with rounds longer than 1.65 inch.

What about using an 336 action to shoot long pistol rounds like the .414 Maximum and .445 Maximum. IIRC at one time the 336 was offered in .44 Magnum.

[northmn]

You also have the 95 action that takes 45-70 and 444. I do not know the length of a 336 but look at a 30-30 round and that would be an indication.

DP

[imashooter2]

Easy job to adjust the 1894 and it works great. I posted on it here:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?7750-Modifying-the-Marlin-1894-for-a-longer-cartridge-OAL

As I recall, just over 18,000 .44 mag 336s were made. They command a premium today. I'm certain with enough time and dollars, you could modify a garden variety 336 to feed and fire pistol cartridges. Not sure how practical the effort would be though...

[W.R.Buchanan]

If you move the step on the Cartridge Lifter about .125 back it will feed rounds up to 1.750 long. This is long enough for .44 Mag cases with LBT 340gr LFN's.

There is little need to go further as regular .44 Magnums have already killed everything on earth.

Have a look a Garrett Cartridges http://www.garrettcartridges.com/ They make some pretty heavy duty .44 ammo and you'll see the 340 gr boolits used there. Also look at their Gallery with Hunting photos which shows everything that people have taken with Garrett ammo.

If you do, do this to your rifle make sure to put a .050 chamfer on the chamber mouth so that Boolits with wide Meplats or SWC's won't hang up on the sharp edge. This is a must do mod even if you don't alter the Lifter.

Randy