Originally Posted by
Pb2au
Remiel, i apologize if my response seemed a bit flip.
44man as usual hits the nail on the head! ^
Remiel,
With Marlin's, the rifling is simply shallow. So this is why getting your boolit fit spot on is so important here. (also read into this a bit further, booolit fit is the key to the kingdom in all cases. In Marlins, they simply can be more sensitive to it.)
In the beginning, we learned to slug the bore of a rifle or handgun, measure that slug and size at least 0.001" over that for our boollit diameter. In most cases, that will get you off and running without leading up the barrel.
Now to expand on that, we learned that understanding the dimensions of the throat of the rifle was indeed even more useful. This allowed us to size a boolit even a wee bit bigger to promote an even better fit to the bore, and to in addition to that, coincide the centrality of the projectile the best we can to the axis of the bore. Remember, our lead projectile doesn't have a copper jacket to deal with errors in loading technique, errors in machining in the firearm and so on and so forth. So we are rewarded with even better accuracy by removing as many variables we can.
So, to better answer your question from before, yes, you can absolutely shoot boolits from your Marlin with great success and without leading.
Again, I apologize for coming off a bit snarky. Please ask questions, we are all here to help one another.
I also bow my head for the thread drift.