PC Boolits and MicroGroove Rifling?

[Gazz]

I have a Marlin 1894 in .44 Magnum with micro groove rifling and an older Marlin 1895 (1970s era) that does not say micro groove on the barrel but neither rifle will shoot lead boolits well, that is traditionally lubed lead boolits. I have acquired the necessary stuff to PC cast boolits and wonder if they would perform better than lubed boolits in these rifles. Would the PC provide enough localized hardness to stabilize them in the shallow rifling? I'm guessing that somebody has tried this and wonder about their results. Thanks for any comments!

[BLAHUT]

I found bullet size and speed made a big difference ? Try them fatter and slower ??

[Castaway]

Look at the muzzle of your rifle. If you have 12 or more grooves, it’s micro-grooved. The patent says 5 grooves per 1/10” of barrel diameter.

[Ed_Shot]

I've had my 1894C .357 for over 40 years. Countless 358156's and 358477's in .357 and double countless 358311's and 358429's in .38 Spl. Outstanding shooter right out of the box and remains so. Yes, it shoots PC's boolits just fine.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

The Marlin .44 Mag and .444 usually need .432, sometimes .433 bullets. I am using .432 with good results. My Marlin .45-70's, a 1980 and a Remlin Cowboy get .460's for good accuracy. You need 'fat' bullets for most Microgroove, I also use .311 in the 30-30, .323 in the .32 Special and .360 in the .35 Rem. Hard to find commercial cast that are fat enough, Bullshop, GT Bullets, Matt's Bullets do have some of them.

[popper]

PC works fine in MG barrels but the standard rules apply, correct size and alloy. PC pretty much guarantees you bullet doesn't run out of lube. It allows a tad weaker alloy. It is NOT a copper jacket.

[Gazz]

Okay, thanks for the responses. It will be a bit before I get to casting and powder coating do to other less fun important stuff to do but I'll let you folks know how it works for me.

[truckjohn]

Generally, there's no magic silver bullet in terms of fixing all the world's accuracy or leading problems. There are a bunch of best practices - barrel quality, barrel vs bullet dimensions, lubrication, chamber dimensions, velocities and powder burn rates, brass prep, etc.

If you can't get a rifle to shoot conventionally lubed and gas checked cast, powder coating isn't magically going to fix that.

Now... Say you just go coat unsized bullets you already cast and performance improves. What happened? Chances are that the unsized bullets were too small, and adding 0.002"+ of diameter "fixed" that.

The question then becomes... What would have happened if I had the right size bullets from the start? Would there still have been a performance gap between PC and conventionally lubed?

Some rifles just don't like cast for whatever reason. Often, what I've seen is undersized chambers for the diameter of bullet required, or oversize barrels for the available reloading dies or cast sizes. So there's some mechanical reason you can't get there... My experience is to sell that gun and move on.

[Rapier]

Hard cast, real hard, water dropped, size to actual groove diameter with a GC and LBT blue lube. I use Unique and a 240 and 210 Lyman SWC bullet out to 200 meters. Soft lead tends to skid over the lands.

[GregLaROCHE]

My Microgroved 45/70 shoots a lubed or PCed well. Usually a little fat works best.