38-55 largest dia for marlin 1893?

[ammohead]

A friend brought an ancient marlin 1893 in 38-55 to me to be cleaned up. The bore is hopeless. Looks like it was fired with blackpowder in 1897 and put away until now. Absolute sewer pipe. Is there a larger diameter cartridge that a 1893 can be rebored out to, or is .375 the max?

ammohead

[Jon K]

ammohead,

Don't judge a book by it's cover.............."looks like a sewer pipe" may shoot like gangbusters...cleaned up.
More importantly slug the bore, and see what size it is. It may well be too big to do anything with, but reline.

The 1893 frame was built for that case size.....larger was in the 1895 frame.

Jon

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I totally agree with Jon K. I have some Old rifles that the bores are pitted and one even has missing rifling in spots & they will shoot reasonably well. May not win any Postal´s but they will sure kill coyotees out to 80 yards. I would take any of them deer hunting IF the state of ILL would let me ....
Clean it out. Get a .002+ overthroat boolit. Try some COW underneath... Paperpatch... something will work.

[runfiverun]

the 38-55 is probably gonna want a boolit more like 381-382
my 375's shoot 379.
and i bet my 375 marlin would do better with 380.
if the bbl is truly junk i'd reline to 30-30 or re-bbl.

[John Taylor]

There are several liners available for the 38-55. The original size should have been .372"- .379" bore and groove with a 1 in 18 twist. A lot of people are going with the .368"- .375" with the 1 in 14" twist to shoot the longer bullets to long range.
Like others have said, try cleaning it first. If it's really bad try some 0000 steel wool.
If you decide on a liner, stay with the original caliber as the barrel should be marked for it already. T.J.'s liners are the best ( 859-635-5560 ) ask him to recommend someone to put it in. There are a few shops that can put one in so you can't tell it has been relined.
A new barrel with all the correct markings will run over $500. You might be able to get a shooter barrel installed for a lot less.
Don't know if anyone has tried to change one to 444. The barrel could be rebored but not sure what would need to be done to the action.

[Irascible]

A while back I checked with Norm Johnson about relining a 38-55. he said he has done a lot of them and had barrel liners in .375" and .378" groove diameters.

[ammohead]

A while back I checked with Norm Johnson about relining a 38-55. he said he has done a lot of them and had barrel liners in .375" and .378" groove diameters.

Seems to me that to drill the bbl out for relining would put you well into the dovetail cuts for sights, forearm cap etc. Is this not a problem for a good reliner? How would I contact Norm Johnson for details?

ammohead

[Mayor]

I just put my 44 - 65 Marlin model 1893 back together. Yea I had it rebored and rerifled and rechambered to accept a 444 Marlin case. Probably took 2 hours of minor internal work to get it to work (loaded round is "thicker" in the middle and would not make the bend through the gate into the tube). Feeds like a champ!

Mayor