Modifying the Marlin 1894 for a longer cartridge OAL

[JesterGrin_1]

Okay looking forward to it. Hey you threw the ball lol.

[JesterGrin_1]

OK Monthly BUMP

[358wcf]

Excellent-- I will keep this thread for future use, for sure!!
Has anyone found a way to modify a Winchester 94 to properly feed a cartridge such as the 357 Maximum???? If this can be done, I have one ready for rebore to 35 caliber any moment-

358wcf

[NHlever]

There must have been some changes in the .357 Mag Winchester 94's along the way. My Legacy (cross bolt safety vintage) feeds about anything including the RCBS 35-200 seated to the crimp groove. It would be interesting to see my carrier beside one that has problems with longer rounds.....

[imashooter2]

The Winchester rifles are all made on the same receiver that feeds .30/30 and the like. They've never had an OAL problem to my knowledge. The Marlins, on the other hand, use a smaller receiver in their pistol cartridge 1894 rifles than their full size 336 and 1895 rifles.

[hollow-point]

i like my little marlin it does all it should and then some. very informative.

[Char-Gar]

I did this modification on my .357 and 44 Mag Marlin leverguns. Worked like a charm both times.

[enoch59]

I just found this thread. WOW, Awesome advise. I can't believe I haven't thought of this before. Thank you so much. I'm going to zip into my 444 first because it hangs a little on most of the ammo I reload for it. I can't wait for tomorrow morning to get with it. I'll post results. Great thread.

[imashooter2]

LOL! Zombie thread...

For anyone still on the fence, many thousand through the rifle at this point. Long ones, short ones, it feeds them all.

[308w]

Bump for a great post!!

[fecmech]

FWIW My Winchester94AE will feed 358429 in the crimp groove in mag cases. Plenty of room in that action.

[Walter Laich]

This is certainly a do-able' mod

[enoch59]

I just finished pulling apart my Marlin 444 and lo and behold this mod is not possible on its carrier or if it is possible it's beyond my capabilities at this point. There is a spring loaded catch at the end of the bullet ramp and so I would move on to my Marlin 44 CL but I've never experienced a problem not having enough room to load whatever I chose to. Ergo I will keep this mod for work on other rifles that are brought to me for light gunsmithing duties and or when I get another 1894 CL in .357 mag. Thanks again for an awesome thread.

[phaessler]

Isnt the 444 on a round bolt action? similar to the 45-70?

[imashooter2]

The Marlin .444 is chambered in their 1895 receiver. The gun does have a round bolt, but it is a lever action.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Both the 336/1895 and 1894 actions work exactly the same way. However I don't see why you would need to lengthen the lifter on a 336/1895 simply because they are already feeding cartridges that are as long as the action will swallow.

With the 1894 action moving the cartridge stop back .100-125 will allow the gun to feed longer boolits like 300+ gr LFN's and such. However since the gun has a 1:38 twist it is not going to stabilize them so going too far is kind of pointless. Mine is stock length and it will feed 429244's which are 1.670 long. I will probably cut the stop back a little just so it won't hang up inadvertently.

However the biggest problem with running Wide Meplat or WFN style boolits or SWC's is getting the edge of the meplat gouged out by the sharp edge of the chamber mouth. This usually stops the gun until you back the lever out a little and go forward again.

The fix for this problem, which should be done along with any mods to the lifter, is to chamfer the mouth of the chamber .050-.060. This allows the cartridge to smoothly enter the chamber without gouging into the boolit..

It is a simple fix and will make your 1894 run much smoother with anything you try to shoot in it. People who don't do this simple mod are pretty much restricted to RNFP style boolits which just aren't that much fun. A Lyman 429244 SWCGC at 1600+ fps is a very formidable round and will punch thru meat and leave a 7/16" hole behind. Since the same boolit at 900 fps from a revolver will go clean thru an Elk in any direction I see the extra 700 fps as insurance. This also opens up the use of other SWC's like 429421/H&G503 for use in your rifle. Midrange loads from your revolver will now run perfectly in the rifle, so there is a double duty thing there as well.

Get on board with this chamfer mod, it really makes the guns work better and it is simple to do. I really don't see why they don't do it at the factory.

Randy

[JesterGrin_1]

I had very good results if you call 2 1/2 groups at 100 yards with the Marlin 1894SS .44 Mag with the Lee 310Gr RNFP/GC. I guess I was just to new to the game to know that 300+ Gr Boolits would not work in the Marlin.

[imashooter2]

While I have nothing against adding a chamfer to the chamber, I'll point out that my unchamfered 1894C feeds WFN designs very nicely. Top is the Larson design Lee group buy, bottom is a design by member Crabo and I have also used NOE's 360-180-WFN.

[seaboltm]

This needs to be a sticky.

[dragon813gt]

Mine has fed everything except a 358180 RF. That is strictly a revolver bullet design for me.