1894 in .44 Magnum

[scrounger]

I know Marlin is making .44 Mags with Ballard rifling now but what is the twist? Last I heard they were still making them 1 in 38 inches. If they changed, when?

[Harry Snippe]

Just had a 1894 44 Mag follow me home. Ballards rifling,1/38 twist.
Tried 200 and 240 RNFP bullets over 5.5 grs of bullseye which I had loaded for the S&W model 29.

Very happy with the feeding and extraction of the cartridge's . Groups were good as I could hit a 3" steel plate @100 yards off the shoulder . I am far from being a Marksman and I could not do it with my winchester trapper.
The Marlin is not supposed to handle the 180 gr. bullet and better suited to the 240/250 slug. Well I was happy with the results of my revolver loading with bullets sized to .430.
Think I got a shooter.
Happy

[Kingfish]

I've had a Marlin 94S in 44 since '98 and it's got the ballard rifling with the 1 in 38 twist-20". Mine shoots 180grn bullets just fine. I've only shot a few 300grn hard cast bullets in it but it shot them OK if I loaded it up to max with H110 or LilGun. The heavy bullets are the ones that have to be shot fast to get them to stabilize. I wouldn't be without mine and used to live where I could shoot it like a 22 in the back yard.

As a matter of fact, I bought a box of 500 hard cast plain base Laser Cast bullets for it and they are very accurate but I load them up to the max jkt bullet velocities. Am now casting with the Lyman #429421 mould and that is a Keith type bullet that is now my favorite. It weighs around 245grns and I'm getting around 1800fps with 23.5 to 24.5grn of LilGun and regular primer. I was worried about the OAL being 1.695" and catching the crimp groove but it will cycle through my Marlin.

Bill