Boolits: 45-70-405, .461" Dia, Lrg Meplat, Hard Cast, Bore Rider for Marlin 1895

[Walstr]

______ Squib of new casting __________ Crimped for service ___________Batch lubed w/Delux Alox

Greetings; I've read several nice blogs here re: "correct boolits for the Marlin 1895", diameter recommendations, hardness, etc. May I add my experience.

I designed my Mountain Mold 'cause I couldn't find anything commercially available to size @ .461" Dia. to fit my Microgroove bbl. I slugged it with a "disturbed" [hit with a hammer] boolit, loaded w/2gr Unique. I like this "squib" process.

MY groove dia. is .461"

The bore riding portion is .450"-.451" dia. & approx. .168" 'long'.
NOTE: My bore riding dia. is intentionally undersized a few thou, so as not to impede chambering.

OAL approx. .960".


If you need some of these, let's PM.

Wally

[stubshaft]

PM sent

[Midohhntr]

If that first pic of the boolit is out of your barrel, that doesn't appear to be micro-groove. I had a micro-groove 30-30 and there's twice as many grooves or more as a button rifled barrel. Nice boolit though, looks like a thumper..

[RickinTN]

That bullet reflects Ballard rifling, not micro-groove. It should be a good bullet for that rifle if it will chamber. I must ask, I many times see the phrase "Hard Cast", What exactly is Hard Cast? I have 3 Marlin 45-70's and all are Ballard rifled. I had Tom at Accuratemolds.com make a mold for me which is a gas-check bullet that drops at approximately 365 grains with his "Marlin Nose". No resistance chambering and it is very accurate. So far I have used an alloy which is 1 1/2% sb, 1 1/2% sn, and 97%pb. I think this alloy would be anything but the "Hard Cast" referenced. I have not connected with game as of yet but am expecting expansion when I do. I'm in the process of switching to 20:1 or 25:1 binary alloy but haven't decided between the two.
Good Luck with your rifle and new bullet,
Rick

[Walstr]

If that first pic of the boolit is out of your barrel, that doesn't appear to be micro-groove. I had a micro-groove 30-30 and there's twice as many grooves or more as a button rifled barrel. Nice boolit though, looks like a thumper..

Not being a gunsmith, I surmised it's Microgroove based on discussions & a historical documentation.

"In 1972, Marlin introduced the Model 1895 chambered in .45-70. Initially, these rifles were made with 8-groove Microgroove barrels, with grooves that were .060" wide and .003" deep. The next year this was changed to a 12-groove barrel, with the other specs remaining the same. Again, groove diameter is spec-ed out at .4587", so oversized cast bullets are called for in these guns. All of these .45-70 Microgroove barrels had a 1 in 20-" twist."

My S/N is 97200xxx, which I'm told is 100-97=3 or 2003. My bbl slug does not have 12 grooves, but would seem to still be considered 'microgroove'? Confusion led me to 'slug' it, then proceeded to design a 2 cavity mold of my own. I regret the lrg Meplat. Was I dreaming of harvesting the last T-Rex in Wisconsin? Really? ...and then standardizing of increasing COWW to 4% Sn. After being aged 3 months, I'll wager ya can't flatten it with 5 strokes of a 16oz. hammer! Mayhaps not ideal for hunting? Thanks for discussion.

Wally

[tmanbuckhunter]

Marlin dropped microgroove in the 1895's and 444's years ago. They've been ballard rifling for a long time and yours is too.