Marlin 336 RC in .32 Special

[wmitty]

A rather nice specimen followed me home from the pawn shop yesterday. I slugged the bore at the chamber planning to order a 8 mm 170 gr rcbs mould but to my surprise the mike read .314" across the lands and .318" across the grooves with the lands being .055" in width and the grooves .185" wide. I'm now wondering if the .323" as cast diameter of the rcbs mould is what I need to squeeze down to .319/.320" to fit the Marlin's bore. Could someone give me a suggestion on this or point me towards a mould with a smaller as cast dia?

[Glen]

I generally ignore the bore/groove diameters and size cast bullets for use in rifles to fit the throats. How big is the throat in that Marlin?

[wmitty]

The throat is nearly the same size as the groove diameter, as near as I can read the mike it's .320", and the throat is also very short, barely .050".

[Bret4207]

That's pretty close to the traditional .321 the 32 is supposed to run. Kinda tight though. Did you clean it good first?

Also- remember the 32 Special isn't an 8mm. I'm not sure which RBCS booit you're referring to, but they make a nice 32-170FN IIRC. Supposed to be the cats in the Special.

[Newtire]

I don't have the Marlin in .32 special but have a Winchester 64 in that caliber. It's among my favorite cast bullet rifles. I have the RCBS 170 FN and it sure is a great boolit. I put 4 out of 5 touching last weekend with a load of 17.5 gr. SR 4759. Have a Lyman peep sight on it.

[StarMetal]

That does sound tight, but not to worry. The important thing is making sure the neck portion of your chamber is large enough to let the case neck expand to release the bullet...that is if you use a fat bullet and are not sizing the bullet down that much. In other words lots of us like to shoot as cast or as fat bullet the chamber will let us. You can make up some dummy round with different diameter bullets loaded in them and marker pen the entire neck of the case and try chambering them. You could also go ahead and obtain a fired case from your rifle, by which ever means is good for like factory round or load a small diameter cast bullet, then mic the fired case neck and see what it's expanded diameter is. Yes the brass will shrink back some, but this measure will be real close to use. Now you can just mic the dummy round necks and if any of them are that fired cases diameter or over, they are too fat.

That's a fine cast caliber and sounds like you have an earlier model with the standard rifling.

Newtire...sounds like a really nice rifle you have there. Couple years ago I picked up a pre 64 Model 94 32 Special. It came set up with a quick release Paul Jagger side mount with a Weaver 2x on it. I love it and it shoots cast just beautiful.

Joe

[woody1]

A rather nice specimen followed me home from the pawn shop yesterday. I slugged the bore at the chamber planning to order a 8 mm 170 gr rcbs mould but to my surprise the mike read .314" across the lands and .318" across the grooves with the lands being .055" in width and the grooves .185" wide. I'm now wondering if the .323" as cast diameter of the rcbs mould is what I need to squeeze down to .319/.320" to fit the Marlin's bore. Could someone give me a suggestion on this or point me towards a mould with a smaller as cast dia?

Lots of the Marlins, mine included, ran small it seems. Was it me, (and I did) I'd just buy the RCBS 32-170FN and not look back. Regards, Woody