Will 500 gr boolit cycle through a Marlin?

[ghh3rd]

Think this will cycle through a Marlin?

Lee 2-Cavity Bullet Mold C457-500-F 457 Diameter 500 Grain Flat

It's a gas check mold, and I need a cheap one to play with while I'm waiting for my 425gr group buy. If it won't cycle, think it will chamber if loaded singly through the ejection port?

Thanks

Randy

[missionary5155]

Good afternoon
The issue is overall length. 2.55 is about all you want to go to. Some rifles will tolerate a hair bit more.

[thx997303]

Mine doesn't like a good fat boolit seated anything longer than 2.49"

Longer than that and the boolit is forced into the rifling harder than I like.

[Doc Highwall]

To me it looks like the distance from the crimp groove to the tip of the nose it too long. Compare it to the 457-405 F and you will see what I mean. RCBS makes a 500 grain that will work in the Marlin.

[NickSS]

Over all lenth is the importent thing as I recall the lee bullet has a long nose and unless you seat it deaper in the case than the driving bands an crimp groove allow it will not cycle. I have loaded both lyman 257124 and honady 500 gr RN sp in my marlin. They were too long to feed through the magazine but I fed them one at a time into the chamber. The only problem is that if you want to unload without firing you need to pull the bolt as the shell is too long to eject through the ejection port.

[arcticbreeze]

If you use you Hornady LE brass that might get you short enough to cycle. You would want to reduce your starting load though.

Marc

[crabo]

Randy, send me a pm with your address and this weekend I'll try to send you something to play with.

I know you want to shoot. These will feed through your guide gun. 36 and 420 grains.

[BABore]

You can stuff them through the action and fire them, but you couldn't cycle them through the magazine. Also, once chambered, you have to fire them as the only way to get them out is to pull the finger lever, bolt, and ejector. I tried a few 510 grain Postell's in my Marlin, so I've been there. A normal Marlin Lever gun boolit will have a nose to crimp groove length of 0.400". The meplat and ogive radius are also a consideration.

[6pt-sika]

I bought a Ballisti Cast 462-550GC that works very nicely in my older Marlin 1895's . Cycle's thru action and chambers well :cbpour:

[bigted]

which leads us to an interesting question here.i also have played with the oal so as to work em thru the action. i did my 444 and had to trim my brass to enter the oal and be able to keep the boolit off the rifling in the chamber. but after this i worked thru the action and chambered the 300 gr boolits,, that are fat at the flat point,, just fine.

question here that begs an answer is...where is a place that we can get the meassurments from the crimp groove to the front of the boolits. need meassurments for all 458 lead's and all manufacturers and weights. with this in hand one could actually figure out before hand what will feed and what wont. then the small diff in diameter of the tip of the boolit can be worked out as for the throat diff in each gun/firarm makers.

so is there anybody that has acumulated this information and furthermore is this info available to us....really i quess im asking for myself ...lol.but if its available then i bet others will jump on the wagon as well

[Doc Highwall]

Here is a picture of the RCBS 45-500-FN and Lyman's 457125 that both weigh 527 grains so you can compare nose lengths.

[bigted]

Doc,,, thanks for the comparision of these two boolits. lyman and rcbs make good stuff and this really shows the diff between nose lengths. i find it odd tho that "both" cast the same grains and almost 30 gr over advertized.

[Denver]

The Lee 405 FP and the 405 hollow base should cycle trhough your Marlin when boolits are seated in the crimp groove and will be closer in weight to the mold you're waiting on. I have the 405 hollow base and use it in my HiWall Uberti and as I recall, I used it in a Marlin 1895 that I breifly owned. The 500 gr Lee has an overall length close to 2.870 when seated to the crimp groove.

:cbpour:

[Doc Highwall]

bigted, I should have mentioned that my alloy is 30:1 but even then the weights of most moulds vary between lots of the manufacture even with the same alloy.

[rhead]

I have one of the custom Lee paperpatch molds that have a 520 and a 420 grain cavity. Both will cycle in my Marlin when seated to between 2.54 and 2.55 inches. The heavy bullet does not give me as good of accuracy as the 420. Just the weight does not cause a problem.

[bigted]

Here is a picture of the RCBS 45-500-FN and Lyman's 457125 that both weigh 527 grains so you can compare nose lengths.


doc...i have since obtained the rcbs 45-500 mould and like yours ...mine cast 525 +- 1gr in ww's. i love this boolit in my marlin SBL. this is a hammer for sure and it functions thru the action like greese. i lubbed it with lymans "super moly" and loaded it to 1450fps. this boolit and rifle comes to life when the trigger is squeezed on this boolit and i doubt that any north american aminal would stand this kinda punishment. not a bench round but wowww what a aww inspiring round with this super boolit.

[Doc Highwall]

bigted, I am glad you like it and you are right it can be a thumper. Before you try pushing it faster consider the velocity that the 45-70 would shoot this at and all the bison that were killed at black powder velocities. What size are you sizing to and what powder,primer are you using?

[Old Goat Keeper]

Crabo tdhem some mice lookin boolits. What mold my friend?

Tom



Randy, send me a pm with your address and this weekend I'll try to send you something to play with.

I know you want to shoot. These will feed through your guide gun. 36 and 420 grains.

[bigted]

doc...i use this load;

rem case fireformed and no resizing , crimped just enough for the powder not to enlongate aol.
45-500 rcbs cast with ww at 525 =_1 with horn gc's
42gr of imr 3031 powder , this is slightly compressed.
cci large pistol primer.
book velocity advertised at 1450 fps have not checked it for myself.

this is a wake up load and ill probably cut it back some as i really like this long boreriding style boolit. also your rite with the buff that have been taken with 1100 fps loads...these should be very comfy load with this boolits.