help! Marlin 62 ...

[castalott]

Not what you think....I want one bad...and I need you guys to talk me out of wanting one! Tell me that it won't do any more than the 1894 .357 mag rifle I have. Tell me the brass won't last much longer. Tell me I don't need to try the 6 or so excellent light weight .30 molds I have in it..

Help me out guys.....convince me I don't want one!

Thanks in advance, Dale

[izzyjoe]

i'm not sure what rifle you're talkin' about, but i think you should get one if you want it. you'll only live one life, unless your a cat. im think'n it's a lever gun, just never seen one up close. i know what i'd do if i was you, get it and if you don't like it, down the road she goes. :wink:

[6pt-sika]

I had Marlin 62's in both 30 Carbine and 256 WIN MAG . Kept them maybe 3 years and sold them both for a small profit .

Can't say I was ever overly enthused about them .

[9.3X62AL]

I traded a Marlin 62 in 30 Carbine last fall, and I have no complaints about the rifle at all. It shot better than any M-1 Carbine I ever owned, and was as accurate with cast boolits as it was with jacketed bullets. 1.75"-2.00 inch at 100 yards was about its best work, and it HATED cheep 110 RN FMJs. Lee Soup Cans to 1800 FPS or Speer 110 HP to 2200 FPS ran best. I sold it because I have a lever action 32-20 that fulfills the same role for me. The 30 Carbine ammo/components/moulds will see work in a Ruger Blackhawk at some point in time.

[Otony]

I had a .30 Carbine version. Did. Not. Like. The. Short. Stroke. At. All. Lets just say I was underwhelmed and leave it at that.

[trooperdan]

I have two, one in .30 Carbine and one in .256 Mag.. Love the .256! Accurate, fun what more is there?

[part_timer]

I have one in 256 win mag and I like it a lot. I'm thinking about turning an 1894 into a 256 I like it that much. I've never shot the 30 though.

[onceabull]

9.3x62 Al's Marlin 62 latest owner is part time res.of Alaska,who winters in Ely ,Nv. --gent made his way to Twin Falls County fairgrounds, took his wallet out without ever picking it up,or its' 256 WinMag partner ,and left smiling with both.. After carrying it through 4 gun shows closer to home, I said THANK YOU... Onceabull

[Harry O]

Got one in .30 Carbine and I like it. It is different from more "traditional" lever actions, but I still like it. It is more accurate than my M1 carbine, but that should be expected. The Marlin has a tighter chamber and shorter throat. I also have a scope on it. Scope mounts are cheap and easy to get. They also don't require altering the original gun (like the M1 carbine).

The tighter stuff in the Marlin means that EVERY case must be trimmed (at least the first time) to shorter than 1.290" and you have to make sure the bullet is set at the right depth for the rifling. Different .30 carbine bullets have different shapes. The ones that have a short nose radius and long straight sides must be set deeper than the ones that have a longer radius and shorter straight sides. The M1 carbine I have will feed just about anything.

[45 2.1]

Your not going to get any help from this bunch of enablers.............

[Newtire]

I have one in .256 and like the thing mostly.

I wish it held more than 4-rounds though. I bought another magazine from Gun Parts cheap and after tweaking the lips to match the original, works great.

Am still wringing it out but got great results with 5.0 gr. Unique and the 257420 Lyman. Another one that was great was the RCBS cowboy boolit modified with gascheck added and 10 gr. SR4759.

It's a finicky little rifle with a longish barrel and the brass must be trimmed short enough or it will not feed. Making the brass from .357 mag is no trouble once you get it down. No fancy RCBS form dies needed either! I made a pile of cases out of both plated and plain brass after annealing it.

If you get one and need any help making the cases, get in touch and I will send you my illustrated method.

Sorry I couldn't help dissuade you.

[Harry O]

I forgot to mention: The magazines are cheaply made. I bought some more from Numrich. They had to be tweaked like NewTire says. After I got them to feed reliably, I heat treated the lips and the baseplate. Haven't had any problems since then.

The 4 shot capacity is poor, though. I wonder why Marlin did not make it to hold the 15 shot military magazine. They probably could have bought a boatload of them cheap. My military magazines are much more rugged than the Marlin magazines.

[trooperdan]

Newtire, I'd like to hear more about your method for making .256 WM cases!

[Newtire]

Newtire, I'd like to hear more about your method for making .256 WM cases!

Hi Dan,

Welcome home and Thanks!

Went back & forth and bought the #2 RCBS form die and turns out I didn't need it to make the cases. However...I did buy a .30 Luger die set from Lee and use the size die to neck down the case back about 1/4".

How I made the cases:

Step #1
First neck down the untreated cases to about .30 Luger size back about 1/4" to start.

Step #2
Lightly touch the cases with a tiny bit of size lube but don't get any on the area that will be the shoulder once you've formed it. I used Lanolin from the local hippy health food store.

Step #3
I next ran them up into the full length .256 Size die. This makes the shoulder but leaves them a little long and they also want to spring back at this stage.

Step#4
I trimmed them to length and then ran them up into the sizing die to remove the huge burr raised by the trimmer. A little loose ring of brass appeared around the neck and after I lifted that off, the case was ready to chamfer the mouth.

Step #5
After steps 1-4, I still couldn't get them to chamber so decided to try something. I carefully annealed the neck/shoulder area.*
I then ran them back up into the full length sizer and Bingo!

Be prepared to lose a few when necking down to .25 after the step #2. Not many actually.

Go slow on the sizing step down to .25 and that seemed to work better.

So, this is the way I did it and have over 500 formed cases and about 400 of those loaded. Saturday will make a few empties out of those.

*there is some controversy on annealing but my way works great so I do it, no blown cases either. Some say the cases will be ruined if they turn color but I've fired some of these now 5-times and they keep on ticking. Your results may vary.