44 Magnum 1894 Marlin loads?

[Stopsign32v]

Well I don't want to crack any stocks, that's for sure. But what would be a decent thumping pleasant to shoot 44 Magnum load for a 22" barrel?

Also I'm told I definitely need to slug the bore of the Marlin. So what would be the best route for that, .490 cap and ball shoved muzzle end to chamber with wooden dowel?

[oconeedan]

Buy some Cerro-safe from Brownell's. Easy to use, and you can use it over and over. You won't regret it.
You can not only measure bore diameter, but see what the throat looks like.

I am still learning my "new to me" 1894. I have not found an accurate load yet. But from what I read, lighter (shorter) fatter bullets, below 1600fps , will be a good place to start. I plan to explore all.

Note...swc bullets don't feed well in my rifle. Make a dummy and try before you load a bunch.
Dan

[oconeedan]

And never use a wooden dowel. You may get it stuck. Don't ask me how I know.

[44Blam]

I shoot full house 44 magnum in my Henry and it doesn't have a lot of recoil.

Only thing I notice when shooting it is that it can make the screws walk out, so I make sure to go through and tighten them when cleaning.

My load is 23.5 grain W296 under a 240 grain boolit. I can get it on target consistently up to about 400 or so yards and make the odd shot at 500 or so. After that, it seems to peter out. But at 100 yards 3" clays are no problem to hit.

EDIT:
My boolit is the Accurate 43-240A/AG. If you want to see if they chamber, I can send you a couple - just PM me.

[44Blam]

Buy some Cerro-safe from Brownell's. Easy to use, and you can use it over and over. You won't regret it.
You can not only measure bore diameter, but see what the throat looks like.

I am still learning my "new to me" 1894. I have not found an accurate load yet. But from what I read, lighter (shorter) fatter bullets, below 1600fps , will be a good place to start. I plan to explore all.

Note...swc bullets don't feed well in my rifle. Make a dummy and try before you load a bunch.
Dan

This ^^^

[GregLaROCHE]

I had one for a short time and bought the dies, but never got the chance to reload for it. The question I was asking myself, was if I shouldn’t use slower burning powder, than that used for handguns. Maybe theres data for rifles today, but I don’t remember seeing any back then.

[Stopsign32v]

And never use a wooden dowel. You may get it stuck. Don't ask me how I know.

I've done it before. Cut dowels about 10 inches long, a little smaller than the bore, oil the bore, tap them down while stacking them. Works like a charm...

[Stopsign32v]

I'm honestly curious if there is a safe mild "magnum" load such as a medium recoiling but LOUD and a lot of flash. Would make for some fun at the range.

[bmortell]

.433 is a standard roundball size either purchased or lee mold for 20 bucks, that could be bumped in the bore to slug. .432-.433 will probably be the right bullet size. main problem is that most molds are .430, theres some ways to make bullets fatter like pc or custom mold, I use accurate 43-250AT which is a design I modified from another to fit my 1894 well. I powder coat and push through a lee sizer I lapped to .4324, mine does 1/3 better with water dropped bullets. mine likes h110 imr4227 and 2400 roughly in that order but close. and as others said check screws fairly often cause there everywhere, and make dummy to test feeding.

[44Blam]

I'm honestly curious if there is a safe mild "magnum" load such as a medium recoiling but LOUD and a lot of flash. Would make for some fun at the range.

I don't think your gonna get a lot of flash in a 22" barrel with 44 magnum. My hot loads flash in my revolver, but not in the rifle...

[fatelk]

I've had a lot better results in mine with gas checked bullets.

[W.R.Buchanan]

BY simply chamfering the chamber mouth .040-.050 you will eliminate the problems with chambering anything.

I use 429421 or 429244GC in my Guns with 22 gr of W296 or H110. This yields @1600 fps. Powder Coating helps as most Marlins have a .431 groove dia. Size to .432 and load.

That's all there is to it.

Randy

[fatelk]

BY simply chamfering the chamber mouth .040-.050 you will eliminate the problems with chambering anything.

I use 429421 or 429244GC in my Guns with 22 gr of W296 or H110. This yields @1600 fps. Powder Coating helps as most Marlins have a .431 groove dia. Size to .432 and load.

That's all there is to it.

Randy

That's funny; I use almost the exact same loads in mine. I like those two molds. the 429244GC has the edge for accuracy in my 1894. I also powder coat them but size to .4315" and use the same loads in my S&Ws.

[GregLaROCHE]

I'm honestly curious if there is a safe mild "magnum" load such as a medium recoiling but LOUD and a lot of flash. Would make for some fun at the range.

Try loading black powder to get the effects you are like for.

[dkonrai]

BY simply chamfering the chamber mouth .040-.050 you will eliminate the problems with chambering anything.

I use 429421 or 429244GC in my Guns with 22 gr of W296 or H110. This yields @1600 fps. Powder Coating helps as most Marlins have a .431 groove dia. Size to .432 and load.

That's all there is to it.

RandyDid you chamfer the chamber? Or gun smith?

Sent from my LG-TP450 using Tapatalk

[yeahbub]

I started out with the Lyman 429215, cast of WW's, gas checked, sized and lubed with 50/50 or whatever was in the lube-sizer over 20gr of 2400. They worked well in a Marlin or a Super Blackhawk and accounted for many deer over the years. These days, I like the Lee 200gr RNFP plain base with a card wad and lube cookie over a fairly stout load of Universal. They speak with authority, the trajectory is flat and the recoil is easily manageable. No deer have ever complained about them, nor have they walked away. I used to load a paper-patched Lee 265gr RNFP tumble-lube design, but I figured out I didn't need it for any game in the Midwest. Maybe elk someday, but there's nothing around here that needs that kind of horsepower. They were accurate with stout loads of Lil Gun and paper-patched will keep the barrel clean, but shooting a lot of them starts to feel like work before long.

Slugging your barrel will give you good information on its actual condition. You might go ahead and shoot it first and see what kind of performance you get, since it may be fine as-is. When slugging a .44, I used a .440 RB tapped fully into the rifling from the breech end with a squirt of bar-and-chain oil into the muzzle and allowed to run down to the ball. I used a stout steel muzzleloader loading rod with a "door-knob" type handle to tap the ball down the bore with the heel of my hand to get a feel for constrictions and/or progressive loosening of the ball as it moved toward the muzzle. No harm in doing it more than once. Many button-rifled round barrels will have some degree of loosening from breech to muzzle because they're rifled as a cylindrical blank and then turned to finished contour, releasing unresolved internal stresses, more where the barrel is thinnest. This is usually on the order of less than .0005" and jacketed bullets are not much bothered by it, hence, most people don't notice it. Cast are more affected by the leakage that occurs and accuracy is reduced, but this problem is readily repaired with a bit of pressure lapping. A sign of this condition is no real changes in so-so cast boolit accuracy, no matter what the load is. Once a reverse taper or tight spots are cleared, changes in load data will make identifiable differences and it'll clean more easily as well.

[kir_kenix]

The Lee 200 rnfp suggested above is a good feeding boolit if you can get it to cast big enough. I think I size .432 for the marlin. If you can get one of the 250ish swc to feed they do great on deer as well. May take a trip to the Smith with a throating reamer and some magic to make them work reliably from the tube.

I shot a good sized doe a couple years ago with the pb RCBS 245kt and a case full of h110. She was quartering towards me, and the boolit struck her near shoulder and exited her right flank. Straight through penetration. Any 200+ gr boolit from a rifle is enough for deer.

[Stopsign32v]

Why is there no common .431-432 lead bullets that are common to use with Marlins?

[longbow]

If you want to buy commercial boolits there are:

http://www.beartoothbullets.com/bulletselect/index.htm

They provide boolits all the way to 0.432" which is about perfect for Marlins (which are SAAMI spec at 0.431" by the way). A better question is why aren't there more moulds that will cast a 0.432" boolit?

NOE has some, Mihec moulds are terrific but group buy only and Accurate will make what you want but Lee and Lyman for sure and I think RCBS don't tend to make moulds to cast suitable size for Marlins.

As for your first question: "But what would be a decent thumping pleasant to shoot 44 Magnum load for a 22" barrel?" I find that 24 grs. of IMR4227 under a 245 gr. boolit gives a pretty good thump and performs quite well.

Slower powders like IMR4227 and Hodgdon H110 have performed far better for me than faster powders like Unique in my 1894.

I would recommend an RNFP boolit for 1894's over an SWC design and take Randy's advice on the chamfer. Your gun may like SWC's but mine and many others apparently do not. Mine does now after it got worked on.

Longbow

[NWPilgrim]

Bayou Bullets sell Hi-Tec coated bullets that you can request to be sized to .431”.

I have found the .430” Hornady XTP jacketed bullets and .431” cast and coated bullets shoot great out of my Marlin.

The real question is why does Marlin have a .432” bore and 1:38 twist? Hello 21st century!! Any manufacture of .44 guns must realize a majority of their customers reload in order to afford shooting those cartridges. And that they often like to shoot heavy for caliber bullets.

[longbow]

The SAAMI spec for rifles is 0.431" where for handguns it is 0.429". Who knows why? Makes no sense to me and both call for 0.432" lead bullet... go figure!

https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/ANSI-SAAMI-Z299.3-CFP-and-R-Approved-2015-12-14-Posting-Copy.pdf

Now, why the 1:38" twist? I have to think it is historical for .44-40 and other similar .44 cartridges so call it "tradition", maybe? Why not faster twist to allow use of heavier boolits with no detriment to lighter boolits? Who knows?

That's an even bigger question with 444 Marlin which had no predecessor and was touted as a "modern .45-70" type cartridge. Nothing wrong with 444 except they decided to use the same bore specs and twist so generally limiting a fine cartridge to relatively light boolits. 444 should easily handle a 400 gr. or better boolit but nope! Not with 1:38" twist. I suspect that if the 444 had been designed with faster twist for heavy boolits, .45-70 wouldn't have made such a come back.

But I digress, except the same argument holds on bore diameter and twist for .44 mag. and 444. Makes no sense to me. Groove diameter should be the same as for handgun. Rifling twist well... faster would be better I think. However, I just limit my boolit weight to about 270 grs. and that seems to work well enough in my 1894.

Longbow

[wv109323]

The first question to answer is what type of rifling? Microgroove or Ballard.
For a slug you can drill the primer pocket out of a fired piece of .44 mag brass. Pour the case about half full,of soft lead. When solid drive the slug out using the enlarged primer hole. Oil the bore and drive it through.
The nominal bore for a .44 mag. rifle is .431 not .429 for a pistol. Many have claimed that the roll marking on the outside of the barrel causes a restriction to the inside diameter. Watch for that as you slug the barrel.
My rifle will shoot an extremely hard cast bullet of .430". (Commercially cast). My rifle will keyhole a .430 bullet of my softer alloy. A jacketed bullet is fine also. My bore was .4315 with microgroove.
I used Unique and 2400 with 240 grain cast. To get my cast bullets up to size I needed to powdercoat. The mold dropped the bullets at .430. The mold is a Lee 2 cavity.
For noise and effect I would go with a slower rifle powder. Ww296 may work but it is to be loaded at max. loads only.