heavy .357 bullet for a Marlin 1894

[BrettT/C]

Well I have a Lyman 358665 mold that cast a 158 plain base bullet for light loads and now I need a heavy bullet. I try a NOE bullet that had a very wide nose but it would not feed from the magazine because the meplat gets caught on the top of the barrel end.

So what heavy .357 bullet are you guy shooting out of your marlins? I am looking for 180 to 200 bullets. Has any one tried a BRP bullets?

Thanks
Brett

[Dutch4122]

So what heavy .357 bullet are you guy shooting out of your marlins? I am looking for 180 to 200 bullets. Has any one tried a BRP bullets?

I have shot one of the BRP designs through a friend's Marlin 1894 in .357 Magnum. It was the 360180 (640 nose style) hollowpinted. The boolit fed through the Marlin flawlessly and was very accurate/stable at long range.

Hope this helps,:mrgreen:

[excess650]

My normal 1894c bullet is the Saeco #354. Its a GC design with RNFP, and weighs 185gr from my alloy.

[imashooter2]

My rifle shows a distinct preference for heavy.

I shoot the SAECO #353 plain base for plinking. I had to modify the carrier to get it to feed though.

The various group buy 180 grain RNFP gas check designs have all been excellent. OALs are designed around feeding in the Marlin rifles. I've shot the Lee version from a friends mold and I own the NOE version. Very nice at over 1,700 fps.

I'm surprised you are reporting a problem with your NOE mold. Are you trying to shoot the 190 designed for .35 Rem or the 180 designed around the .357 mag? If it is the 180, I suspect the problem is with the rifle not the mold design...

[bobthenailer]

i also have used the saeco # 354 a 180 gr fpgc, its a little to long when loaded in 357 brass ! so modfiey the carrier or trim 357 brass a little shorter than normal trim to length and it will work.
my main bullet is the GB lee 180 gr wfn gc it will work with no alterations, and is very accurate with a varaity of loads . my favorite plinking load is without the gas ck installed on the lee bullet and 4.5 gr of tight group , in 357 cases and fed small pistol primers. @ 1030 fps and 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards . shot with a 2x7 leupold . but for normal use it weares a aimpoint red dot sight and i love shooting this rifle off hand which is the only way i shoot it after accuracy testing! you almost cant miss out to 100 yards. ive shot more rounds through this rifle in 8 years than all of my other centerfire rifles combined and im 62 , but then again im really a pistol shooter

[BrettT/C]

I borrowed a few dummy round loaded with NOE .360-180 from a friend and tried them to see if they would cycle. The wide nose would catch every so often. I would jigle the lever and they would go. So for this Rifle I think a smaller Meplat is needed.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Brett

[1Shirt]

Don't have a Marlin, but do have a M94 Win, and the Ranch Dog mold that with my alloys drops close to 185gr. No problems feeding, believe off the top of the head that my most accurate load with it is 12 or 12 1/2 gr. of 2400, but don't take my word for it, check it out with published loading manuals. Any how, with the RD blt, it will stay in the 3" at 100 bracket all day, and occaisionaly pushes 2". Will admit I am somewhat hooked on RD blts.
1Shirt!:coffee:

[imashooter2]

I borrowed a few dummy round loaded with NOE .360-180 from a friend and tried them to see if they would cycle. The wide nose would catch every so often. I would jigle the lever and they would go. So for this Rifle I think a smaller Meplat is needed.

Thanks for the suggestion!

Brett

What is the OAL on the dummy cartridge?

[excess650]

I have (3) 1894C Marlins and they all feed the Saeco #354 without shortening 357 cases. The newest, new this past spring, seem fussiest about OAL, but .1605" or shorter works in all of them. The 1982 and 1990 vintage both will feed slightly longer rounds.

[beagle]

Mine feeds a 358429 when deep seated and crimped on the forward driving band and shoots well over 2400. Too long to feed if crimped in the crimp grove though./beagle

[BrettT/C]

imashooter2 I am not sure of the OAL but that was not the problem. The NOE bullet's meplat was to wide. That bullet would hang up on the top end of barrel.

Any others use 180 + bullets in a Marlin 1894?

Thanks
Brett

[Artful]

I bought a ranch dog 190 but I use a Rossi - have to see if my friend with a Marlin can get them to work in his.

[Groo]

Groo here
About any mold that is like the factory jhc in shape will work.
NEI has one [.358-180-pb #158] that is 180gr ,Penn bullets has a 180 TCBB.
I would not stray far from factory jhc or rnfp in shape or length..

[JIMinPHX]

This is what I tried - http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=76745

I put that mold up for sale a little while ago, but nobody wanted to pay the price that I was asking.

I think that the Ranch Dog boolit is nicer, if you have a gun with a big enough groove diameter to take it. I find that once I try to size a TL boolit down more than about .002-.003", I smear off too much of the lube grooves & that's no good at all. The RD that I tried dropped raw boolits around .361"

[Newtire]

I got one of the group buy moulds in 180 gr. RF with a gas check and like 1 shirt, the guy who I made them for shoots them in his Marlin with 12.5 grains of 2400. He says it's the most accurate thing his Marlin shoots. He also uses the same load in a .357 Desert Eagle and it really nails the target.

Velocity out of that Desert Eagle is 1135-1155 fps. I hear you have to beware of shoting cast in the DE though so I would check that out before you do.

[dualsport]

I have an LBT 359-200-LFN that I got just for my Marlin 1894c. With my alloy they are dropping from the mold at .360. My biggest sizer die at the time was a .358, so I just tumble lubed them as cast and loaded them up over some AA#9. Feeding/function is flawless and accuracy is excellent. I have gone so far as to put a 36X scope on the Marlin to shoot groups from the bench, but haven't got it to the range yet

[rintinglen]

About 5 years ago, I ran several pounds of RCBS 38-175 RN bullets through my Rossi Carbine in quest of a lever action Silhouette ram load. Frankly, it was a waste of time and lead. Never did get it to shoot that bullet worth a darn, which was odd, because it would shoot the RCBS Thompson Copy 358-162 into nice tiny groups. I used to have one stuck up on the wall of my garage that measured less than 2 inches for 15 shots at 50 meters.
(why the metric 50 yard line--danged if i know--the rest of the range was in yards). Anyway, I ended up with a Marlin 45-70 Cowboy and the Rossi and its heavy bullets sort of drifted off into that vast pile of stuff I am going to do, "when I get time."
I could use a day stretcher.;-)

[LeadThrower]

I have a Mountain Molds custom mould. It's a truncated cone 215 grain whomper of a boolit for the 357. I designed it based upon a chamber cast of my Marlin. It feeds flawlessly and leaves the barrel about 1300 fps with 10 grains of A9 and a CCI magnum small pistol primer.

It's a fun round in a Ruger GP100, too, especially when fired at bowling pins.

[WyrTwister]

i also have used the saeco # 354 a 180 gr fpgc, its a little to long when loaded in 357 brass ! so modfiey the carrier or trim 357 brass a little shorter than normal trim to length and it will work.
my main bullet is the GB lee 180 gr wfn gc it will work with no alterations, and is very accurate with a varaity of loads . my favorite plinking load is without the gas ck installed on the lee bullet and 4.5 gr of tight group , in 357 cases and fed small pistol primers. @ 1030 fps and 1/2 inch groups at 50 yards . shot with a 2x7 leupold . but for normal use it weares a aimpoint red dot sight and i love shooting this rifle off hand which is the only way i shoot it after accuracy testing! you almost cant miss out to 100 yards. ive shot more rounds through this rifle in 8 years than all of my other centerfire rifles combined and im 62 , but then again im really a pistol shooter



Do you have the catalog number for the GB lee 180 gr mold ?

Thanks ,
Wyr
God bless

[imashooter2]

Do you have the catalog number for the GB lee 180 gr mold ?

Thanks ,
Wyr
God bless


GB means Group Buy. They were custom order molds and not a stock item. Your best bet right now is to watch the group buy area for a rerun of the NOE version.