Jagstang
10-09-2020, 11:00 PM
Hey guys. This is my first post. I’ve been casting for about 15 years and I’ve had some ups and downs but overall I’d say I’ve had pretty good luck with it for the most part. I cast about a dozen different bullets in the various pistol calibers. I’ve had some issues that have come up and I’ve revisited them a couple of times In the past few years but I can seem to figure it out. I’ve lurked here on many occasions, but I can’t find any threads that talk about this problem. So here I am.
I have two marlin 1894 cowboy rifles. First one is a JM .44 mag, the second one is a marlington .357. The bores slug at .431 and .3565
First problem. The .44 loves the 250 gr Keith bullet as far as accuracy but is a pretty rough feeder. This bullet will group 2.5-3” at 100 yds, which I think is pretty good considering that’s about as good as I can see with iron sights. I bought a Lee 200 gr rnfp mold to facilitate good feeding and be a nice lighter weight plinker bullet. Magnum brass only. This bullet has never shot well out of this rifle. I’ve tried varying hardness of alloy, lubed, powder coating, .430, .432, as cast, as cast fattened up with powder coat. Varying powder charges, specials, light, midrange and heavy magnums. It groups 12-18” at 100 yds with the best combination and at worst it won’t put three shots on a Uspsa target at 50. I gave up a couple years ago on this one and bought an Arsenal mold that is a 245 gr rnfp and the bearing surface portion is identical to a Keith but a rnfp rather than a swc nose. This will group 3”@100 sized at .432”
Now for the .357 Marlin cowboy repeater. This gun was bought last year. I previously cast both the Lee 358 125 RF and the Lee 358 158 RF for several years and both of these shot so well out of my s&w and uberti revolvers that I figured they’d be perfect for the marlin. I’ve stacked rounds on top of each other at 15-20 yds from the revolvers. The marlin can’t keep 3 shots on a 16”x16” target board at 50 yds with either lee bullet. I’m sizing .358” after powder coating. Special or magnum brass makes no difference. Special or magnum loads, no difference. Softer or harder alloy doesn’t seem to change anything. I gave up on these too and bought an Arsenal 162 gr rnfp will group 3/4” at 50 yds. Which is the best I’ve ever shot an iron sight rifle in my life. In a real quick test just to see, it grouped MP 135 gr 9mm rnfp sized .358” in 38 special brass and loaded to +p. These were almost all touching but only shot at 30 yds. But shows good promise.
I’m not so much concerned at this point in making the lee molds work since I’ve moved on to other molds that do work. But these three lee molds and these two rifles have sure been a head scratcher for the past few years and I was curious if any of you had seen this and would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks
I have two marlin 1894 cowboy rifles. First one is a JM .44 mag, the second one is a marlington .357. The bores slug at .431 and .3565
First problem. The .44 loves the 250 gr Keith bullet as far as accuracy but is a pretty rough feeder. This bullet will group 2.5-3” at 100 yds, which I think is pretty good considering that’s about as good as I can see with iron sights. I bought a Lee 200 gr rnfp mold to facilitate good feeding and be a nice lighter weight plinker bullet. Magnum brass only. This bullet has never shot well out of this rifle. I’ve tried varying hardness of alloy, lubed, powder coating, .430, .432, as cast, as cast fattened up with powder coat. Varying powder charges, specials, light, midrange and heavy magnums. It groups 12-18” at 100 yds with the best combination and at worst it won’t put three shots on a Uspsa target at 50. I gave up a couple years ago on this one and bought an Arsenal mold that is a 245 gr rnfp and the bearing surface portion is identical to a Keith but a rnfp rather than a swc nose. This will group 3”@100 sized at .432”
Now for the .357 Marlin cowboy repeater. This gun was bought last year. I previously cast both the Lee 358 125 RF and the Lee 358 158 RF for several years and both of these shot so well out of my s&w and uberti revolvers that I figured they’d be perfect for the marlin. I’ve stacked rounds on top of each other at 15-20 yds from the revolvers. The marlin can’t keep 3 shots on a 16”x16” target board at 50 yds with either lee bullet. I’m sizing .358” after powder coating. Special or magnum brass makes no difference. Special or magnum loads, no difference. Softer or harder alloy doesn’t seem to change anything. I gave up on these too and bought an Arsenal 162 gr rnfp will group 3/4” at 50 yds. Which is the best I’ve ever shot an iron sight rifle in my life. In a real quick test just to see, it grouped MP 135 gr 9mm rnfp sized .358” in 38 special brass and loaded to +p. These were almost all touching but only shot at 30 yds. But shows good promise.
I’m not so much concerned at this point in making the lee molds work since I’ve moved on to other molds that do work. But these three lee molds and these two rifles have sure been a head scratcher for the past few years and I was curious if any of you had seen this and would like to hear your thoughts. Thanks