30/30 cast load question for Marlin 336

[Brother_Love]

I am loading some 170 Ranch Dog boolits for my Marlin 30/30. When I seat and crimp them in the top groove the bullet is just touching the lands. Should I seat them a little deeper or will they be OK touching the lands. I am trying 2 loads , one with IMR 4198 and the other with Unique. I have heard the Micro grooves won't shoot cast but I have also heard others say they will shoot good. I will see for myself.
Thanks, BL

[Ed_Shot]

Marlin 336's do just fine with cast boolits. You'll have to see what your rifle likes. Compare the performance with the boolit touching the lands vs not touching. Boolit diameter can also be a big factor and in my experience it depends on what the individual weapon likes. I've had best luck sizing .310 in microgrove barrels others swear by .311. Have fun reloading.

[dubber123]

Micro Grooves seems just fine in my experience. If they lever in smoothly, I would not worry. If you need to "crunch" the lever closed, that is another issue, even though mostly just a functional one. You could trim your brass slightly shorter, to get a shorter OAL and stay in the crimp groove. Another thought is to firelap the barrel if it hasn't been done already. It very slightly moved/smoothed the throat on my 45-70 Marlin and allowed some previously borderline rounds to chamber freely. It shot cleaner and better as a welcome "side effect". :) Have fun.

[45coltnut]

I load a NOE 31165 FN sized to .311" in my 336 with IMR 4198. It shoots nice 1-1.5" groups at 100 yds. And, loading right to the lands is what I've always done for the best accuracy. But, I never do this starting out with max loads. Start out low and check pressures first.

With that boolit you're lucky. I like others have to trim down my brass if I want to crimp in the crimp groove. I'd say you're ready to go based on what you've stated.

Good luck and happy shooting!

[shooting on a shoestring]

My early 70's micro groove 336 30/30 uses 0.312" diameter boolits. My Winchester 94 uses 0.310". Then I feed a Krag that needs 0.314" boolits. That means a variety of moulds, sizers and boxes.

Usually the fattest boolit you can chamber works the best.

[Brother_Love]

Thanks. I made a couple of dummy rounds and they cycle fine. These old RD boolits are .310". I have about 200 of them but do not have the mold any longer. Even if they shoot good I will have to acquire a new mold and I think RD is out of business. I have a 31141 and may try it next.

Thanks again, BL

[Bzcraig]

Ranch Dog is out of business but gave NOE rights to his designs.

[Rustyleee]

You should read Veral Smith's boo to see what he says about the Marlin barrels. He claims they are similar to an old Pope barrel.

[45coltnut]

Brother_Love,

The NOE 311165 mold that spoke of is the ranch dog design that NOE makes. I really like this mold allot. Currently I'm casting WW lead and using the cup point pin. We'll see how well it performs on water bottles soon. Give it a try, I think you'll like it too.

[northmn]

Marlin bought out Ballard back when and still uses Ballard rifling on some barrels. I have a 30-30 Cowboy and a 38-55 Cowboy that use this rifling. Also have an old waffle top that has Ballard rifling, made before the 50's. There have been discussions on whether there are any advantages over the microgroove with cast. Basically the microgroove formula is to use harder bullets cast a little more oversize. My Ballard rifled 30-30 worked very well with softer bullets at 2000 fps and sized to 309. Winchesters worked very well with a 309 sized bullet. As to whether the Ballard out shoot the microgroove?? Still I see the same basic formula for the microgrooves. Most of my problems with cast have come from commercially cast bullets over home cast.

DP

[popper]

Seat off the lands so you can get a loaded round out of the chamber without a cleaning rod. Crimp anywhere it ends up.

[blixen]

Seat off the lands so you can get a loaded round out of the chamber without a cleaning rod. Crimp anywhere it ends up.
good point. I have great luck with Lee 175 flat points—cast out of all sorts of hardness and sized to .311. But don't crimp—-they fit tight enough for target shooting.

[rhouser]

IMHO I would load it to the crimp as designed and give it a try. The RD 30-30 bullet was designed to solve the Marlin 336 chamber and barrel and in my 3 marlin 30-30's is the most accurate bullet I have found (including J words).

Just my 2 cents... thanks rch

[44man]

Fit is where it is, Micro Groove is just fine. I have measured the Ballard rifling and it is no deeper then Micro Groove at .003".
I use a .301" bore ride and a .311" drive band. I touch the rifling.