Marlin 1894 .44 Magnum throat lengths, just curious......

[Dutch4122]

I just checked the throat length on my Marlin 1894SS .44 mag and got .203" with a bullet seated backwards in the case. Used a jacketed slug first and decided to use a boolit that was .435" diameter to repeat the process. Sure enough it was .203" with just a little pressure required to close and lock up the lever at the end of the stroke. Seems a bit long for a Marlin Levergun; although I've come to expect it from my Winchesters.

Anybody else get something similar with a Marlin 1894 or other pistol caliber carbines?

[felix]

This is not unusual for Marlin guns either. My 41 mag is .205 with a 413 copper slug, and 245 with a 411 copper slug. ... felix

[Dutch4122]

This is not unusual for Marlin guns either. My 41 mag is .205 with a 413 copper slug, and 245 with a 411 copper slug. ... felix


Thanks Felix. So, to be the most accurate I should do it all over again with a .433" boolit seated backwards as that is what I plan to shoot out of this carbine?

Or, am I close enough as is?

I forgot to mention that I'm playing around with a 290grn GC design for this carbine on Mtn Molds and that's why I'm askng.

[felix]

Try and get somebody cheap to turn you hard wadcutter boolits out of brass pipe or rod, one boolit at 435, 434, and 433, and leave the edges sorta' sharp, but deburred with a case prep tool. Getta a finger pressure loose fitting case and fill it with lube to hold the boolit up for inserting into the chamber. Take lube out gradually to make the lever close all the way. Make darn sure which diameter fits into the chamber with zero circumference drag by dropping the cartridge straight in with fingers. After several insertions and action closings, the boolit should stop going in the case and slipping back out. Now, cycle that cartridge from the magazine slowly at first, and then faster as you would do in the field, but no faster. If the thing starts to hang up, then you will have to go down to the next smaller diameter boolit. Start over to get the more longer throat length that will result. If this does not do any better, go back and choose the fatter boolit for Dan's program. Use that diameter using the +002 tolerance. ... felix