Lee 340 gr. bullet in the Marlin 1895

[Capt. Augustus]

Anyone using the Lee 340 gr. bullet in the Marlin 1895? I have shot the Lee 405HB in it and it did pretty good. I am target shooting at 200 yards at steel targets, as in cowboy shooting. I am shooting smokeless.

[Capt. Augustus]

Well, I found 10 340 gr. bullets that I had cast years ago and ran them through the Marlin.  They shot well, sounded sharper, almost a crack, and shot close to where the 405's were shooting at 100 yards.  I know they were .457, I wish Lee's moulds threw them a little bit bigger like .458-9. oh well.

[aussie rich]

Hi Capt.A

I was just walking through a local gun shop and I saw a Lee 405 Hollow Base mold that was really cheap, so I just had to have it. I had been thinking about getting a mold for my new 1895 but wasn't sure which one, but the price made the decision for me  . And I guess I have never used this type pf projectile before and I was curious.

I gave it a quick clean and molded a couple from some spare fishing sinker lead I had already in the pot,( I would use wheel weights for a shooting specimen ), I just wanted a bullet to see what it looked like and measured up to be. The mold worked really well, the very first bullet looked almost perfect, (threw a beautiful .460)  but the shape raised a few questions for me and as you mentioned in you previous posts you had used this projectile before and I was wonder if you could share some of your experiences.

Firstly I molded a few and noticed the hollow base wasn't always consistent, and it had a slight lip, is this normal, or is it the type or temp of the lead that make a difference?

Secondly the research I have found in the net about this bullet suggests it was a reproduction of original Trapdoor projectile, designed for a single shot rifle, eg the flat nose of the bullet is quite small, and there is no dedicated crimp groove so I was wondering did you load these in the magazine of your Marlin ?

The second question is not that really important as I would plan to use this bullet on a range only, and most of our ranges over here are single round loading only on the bench anyway.

The intended use for this bullet would for plinking and a cast bullet silhouette match they have at a range near me, the match has a similar velocity restriction as CAS, less than 1400fps, I have a heap of Trail Boss I want to experiment with , so the velocity I expect to use this bullet is around the 1000fps mark.

Thanks and regards

Rich

[Capt. Augustus]

Rich,
After I read your questions, I had  to look over my loaded rounds.  When you talk about the base of the bullets are you talking about the skirt itself or flashing on the base.  When casting I noticed you had to make sure the mold was closing tightly of you would end up with a thin flashing at the base.  After casting I threw any with a bad base back in the pot, that is moreless dents in the skirt.  The rest I loaded up and shot plenty of them in both my Buffalo Classic and Marlin 1895.

Although the flat is smaller on these bullets I felt they were big enough, and other folks said they were using them in their 1895's.  I have been crimping them in the top lube groove using a Lee FC die, none have pushed back yet.  I am using Rooster liquid lube on the smokeless load.  I tried Trail Boss at about 12.5 grains, which other folks said they were using, but found Unique shot smaller groups and I had 4 pounds of it anyhow.  I'm shooting 13 grains of Unigue with a fifth of a cotton ball loosely packed as a wad, so far all looks well.  On my BP loads for the BC I am using 55 grains of Cowboy grade and it actually shoots to the same point of aim and tighter, on this load I am using BP lube.  Let me know how it goes.

[jlchucker]

I had the Lee hollowbase mold a while back. When I cast some bullets from it to try out at my local range, I became aware right away that they wouldn't feed from the magazine of my Marlin, but worked OK single-loaded. They shot pretty well loading them that way.  Later, I compared the bullets dropped from this mold to the ones cast from the Lee plainbase 405 mold, and noticed a difference in groove placement.  Both hollow and plain bullets shot equally well, and I kept the plainbase mold.  I swapped the hollowbase mold to my gunsmith buddy who had acquired a Buffalo Classic.  He was at our club range when I was first trying the hollowbase mold, and we exchanged some ammo while plinking that morning. From my observations, the hollowbase Lee bullets shoot well, but can cause problems feeding through a Marlin 1895.  Some have had good luck with that bullet in Marlins, I've read--but I didn't and will stick to the plainbase bullet for my rifle. I might get another hollowbase if I had a single shot rifle, depending upon if I got a good deal on a mold or not.

[Capt. Augustus]

The cartridge length worried me also.  It was just over maximum for the 1895, but luckily fed fine in the rifle.  In the meantimeI picked up a mold for the 340 gr.  and will probably shoot it in the 1895 for plinking and try to tune it for accuracy.

[BBF]

Capt A
When you get a load worked out for the 340, please post it here.

[aussie rich]

Thanks for the replies, I just realized Captn A that I have hijacked your thread talking about the 405s rather than the 340s, sorry about that. I think the 340 would be an interesting bullet weight to use in the Marlin and I would be interested in hearing some reports about it. Apart from lower recoil, for every 1200 405s you cast, you can get 1429 340s (working on shooting 100 a month). A big saving considering how much time and effort it can take from wheel weight to holes in paper.

I might start another thread about the 405s HB, they are an interesting concept.

Regards

Rich