I found a mold!

[44man]

I was in my drawer and found a .44 mold I had made for the Marlin and never tried in the revolver. I sized them .432" and loaded a bunch. They weigh 296 gr so that is right for 296 powder! [smilie=2:
I started with 21.5 gr, then 21.8. Seemed to tighten because the boolit does not go deep in the brass. I then loaded 22 gr and 22.5. 22 looks the best but the boolit is finicky, never had one vary this much. I never worked with a tenth gr either so maybe 22.2 would be better but it did an honest 3/4" at 50 yards.
I need to play with it more but it looks like a good deer killer.

[44man]

Bioman came to shoot today so I loaded some of my boolits in his brass. Little did I know he wanted to shoot them from an old .44 Marlin micro groove instead of his revolver.
Once I bore sighted his scope to get him on paper I had him shoot the boolits. I laughed each time he shot looking through the spotting scope and said to shoot again. I kept laughing and it was screwing him up. He threw the last shot a little because of the recoil but the second went into 1/2" of the first, the third went into the first hole and the fourth went into the second hole. Four shots in 1/2" and the last 1/2" out.
I have to shim his scope base but the boolit shot super good.

[Bass Ackward]

Glad you got a real launcher to test it. Looking at the groups in the first post, the barrel must be bent.

[44man]

Glad you got a real launcher to test it. Looking at the groups in the first post, the barrel must be bent.
[smilie=l:[smilie=l:

[Blammer]

Sweet! can we get a close up of the boolit and mould?

[MakeMineA10mm]

Sweet! can we get a close up of the boolit and mould?

Yeah, pleeeease!! [smilie=w:

[44man]

Nothing special. But it shoots from his Marlin. Now I need to try it in mine but I have the Ballard rifling that has less grip because it is no deeper then micro groove.

[Blammer]

Nice looking boolit!

[44man]

I can't measure the twist on this Marlin because 1/2 turn on a rod has the spud fall into the chamber. I tried 1/4 turn and come out with 1 in 32" but that is just hit and miss.
Anyway we had a lot of trouble with the scope since Bioman just bought the rifle. It was way low and I was at the limits of elevation so I centered the scope and had him shoot. It was a foot low so I figured .024" shim under the rear of the base. I shimmed it and it hit the right elevation but with the Millet rings on the gun I was way off to the side and every time I tried to bore sight it, the stupid Allen wrench fell out of the shallow hole but I finally got it close.
I made a bunch of scope adjustments but the POI seemed to hover around the upper left, just moving funny. Then it came in to where I wanted. I screwed up one shot but the next 5 went into the hole just above the bullseye. Those last five were in 1/2" at 50.
Now we need to see what this boolit does at 100 yards. No opinion yet until we test it.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Nothing special. But it shoots from his Marlin. Now I need to try it in mine but I have the Ballard rifling that has less grip because it is no deeper then micro groove.

Looks like a Lyman 640 with wider meplat and matching (wider) taper to the ogive...

[44man]

Looks like a Lyman 640 with wider meplat and matching (wider) taper to the ogive...
I have no idea! I cut a cherry on the lathe with no drawings or much of a measurement. If it looks right I cut a GG, two or three and most ogives are just filed. I tried making pictures of factory boolits larger and copying them but always screw up anyway. Makes no difference at all. I just think I hit the exact right drive length for his rifle and it is luck.
I loaded the last of the boolits for my .44 Marlin and have to shoot them yet. I will report.
I still think if the Marlin had a 1 in 20" twist, I could shoot theses groups at 100 yards.

[44man]

Forget it, I shot the same load from my Marlin and it is a waste. Ballard is just not right unless deeper.
Here is 50 and 100 yards with a 9X scope. This rifle never shot anything and still won't.

[44man]

Lost picture again????

[MakeMineA10mm]

I have no idea! I cut a cherry on the lathe with no drawings or much of a measurement. If it looks right I cut a GG, two or three and most ogives are just filed. I tried making pictures of factory boolits larger and copying them but always screw up anyway. Makes no difference at all. I just think I hit the exact right drive length for his rifle and it is luck.
I loaded the last of the boolits for my .44 Marlin and have to shoot them yet. I will report.
I still think if the Marlin had a 1 in 20" twist, I could shoot theses groups at 100 yards.

Yeah, I agree 100% with the twist. I don't know why SAAMI/manufacturers stick to the ultra-slow 1:38" twist for 44s and 444s. Drives me crazy too.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Here's some pics of the group-buy version of the 640 that Boomer Mikey did a couple years ago. They're DANDY bullets. Shockingly, I've had pretty good luck with them at 50 and 100 yards out of my stainless steel Marlin 1894 (pretty sure it's even a micro-groove barrel). As you can see they have a narrower meplat than your bullet and the more-tapered ogive makes them smooth-feeders through the lever-guns.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=179&pictureid=1034

[MakeMineA10mm]

Here's a shot of them bare, sized, and loaded in 44 Mag brass. I never thought of it, but I cast these fairly soft, and maybe that let them grip the rifling better (by slugging up) than what happened with you and your bullets? Did you cast your bullets hard? Maybe you should try them softer with a medium powder charge (something heavy enough for them to slug up but not so bad that the softer bullets will lead the barrel...) I think these were loaded with 16.5grs of AA#9, but I'd have to check my records.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=179&pictureid=1033

[44man]

Over the years I have tried everything in mine but those targets are about as good as it ever did.
This boolit feeds OK and even a live round ejects clear.
I have done a lot of work on mine, relieving pressure points, etc but it never changed from out of the box.
I even made a mold for a .434" boolit and nothing changed. Every time I would shoot a super tight group, that would be it and many boolits will not find paper at 100. I am actually afraid to shoot at deer farther then 25 yards! [smilie=1:
I still think the micro groove shoots better then the fake Ballard in mine.
Do you know how bad it feels to see another Marlin .44 shoot decent?
I have owned many Marlins from an 1892 25-20 to the .35 Rem and all of them shot as small as 1/2" at 100, the 25-20 doing it with cast and open sights. Even my model 39 was a tack driver. A friends 45-70 is a joy to shoot for accuracy.
Then they screwed up the .44!
There is nothing wrong with a lever gun at all and I love them but not this one.
The jerk that figured the twist must have made a huge explosion when he finally relieved his constipation! :coffeecom Funny so many other .44 rifle makers followed him into the outhouse.
I blame myself for buying it with out checking anything about it first.

[MakeMineA10mm]

Well, your recourse sounds clear -- You need a custom barrel with proper rifling depth, style, and twist rate. While they're at it, it could be fitted up right, so no pressure points, etc., to begin with (from where the barrel is screwed into the receiver).

I encourage you to not give up on her. Not to bruise your feelings but to encourage you to stick with it, I gotta tell you about mine. I went shooting with an old buddy one winter (after deer season was over) and he brought this stainless steel Marlin along. Now, I like stainless revolvers, but a stainless rifle?? Just didn't look right. We went to shooting, I with my revolvers, and he with this carbine. After awhile, we switched, and I found this carbine to be nearly like shooting a 22, even with near-full loads.

After shooting up all the clay targets we'd thrown out into the snow, and being too lazy to walk through the 2' deep snow to set up real targets, we found a piece of 1.5" pipe from the old target stands that hadn't gotten removed when the old 75 yard targets were taken down. We started shooting at it. (It was the only thing sticking out above the snow...) As opposed to the standing shooting we had been doing, this target was small enough that we actually had to TRY to hit it, so I kneeled down and rested the rifle across a hitchin' rail and went to work. I hit that 1.5" post 19 times out of 20, with iron sights...

I told my friend that whatever he does, do NOT sell that rifle. He turned and looked at me with a shocked look on his face and said, I wanted to come to the range with you today to shoot up the ammo, as my plan was to sell it this week(!). We struck a deal, and I've had her ever since. Wood is beautiful (too pretty for a stainless gun - Marlin really should've put it on a blued model), and it shoots as good as it looks.

Get a custom barrel. It'll shoot.

[44man]

Problem is that a custom barrel for a Marlin costs so much I could trade it off and get two Stainless Guide guns. :bigsmyl2:
I think there is only one shop that works with Marlin's.