cast bullets marlin 1894 44 magnum

[rp85]

hello;
 
need help with shooting cast bullets in a marlin 1894, 44 magnum, micro grove barrel.  bullet i been using is a ohause plain base, keith style swc, 259 grain, sized to .432".  think barrel twist is 1 in 38.
 
no luck using alliant 2400, ww231, green dot.  groups at 100 yards = 8-10".  barrel has gray streaks along the inside of barrel.  up to 18.0 with 2400 and 8.0 with ww231/green dot.
 
accuracy is my goal.  be nice if i can get the ohause bullets to shoot well, but if i have to switch to gas check design, don't care.
 
with the twist at 1-38 do i need a lighter bullet???
 
like the idea lee mold's light weight.  weight becomes an issue if casting for several hours.
 
any suggestions???
 
thanks for any input.
 
rp
 
 

[GH1]

Microgroove bullets typically require a larger diameter bullet, have you slugged your barrel? I think the .44 bore should be .429, but yours may be larger. I really don't think a lighter bullet is called for, more often than not leading-accuracy issues with cast bullets are caused by improper bullet fit. 
GH1

[Nobade]

Bigger bullets  (.433 - .434 as long as they will enter a fired case) , granular filler (only w/ slow powder like H110) or paper patching. All work, how you go about it is up to you.

I also find my pistol caliber lever guns shoot much more accurately using black powder instead of smokeless, but that isn't for everyone.

[mattmillerrx]

My own experience with this has been my gun prefers lighter bullets, something in the 200 to 225 weight range works best for me.  The 240's did ok, but I was not satisfied and the 300's I tried where horrible on accuracy.


I will follow this thread as I am still experimenting with mine and hoping to pick up some new tricks to try.

[Lloyd Smale]

Ive had 3 marlin 44s. two were microgrove and the one i have now is a 44p that has conventional rifling. Actually out of the 3 the two microgroved barreled guns shot better. None of them were exceptional though and all three of them shot good enough to take deer out to a 100 yards and thats about all that combo is good for anyway. Id have to check all my data but off the top of my head the 240 rcbs swcgc was about the best bullet in all three. It will help to cast them as hard as possible and size them as large as possible. It will also seemed like my guns did better with full power loads then they did with reduced loads. Micro groved guns can shoot. My 35 rem is one of the most accurate cast bullet shooting rifles ive ever owned and ive had 357s that would shoot 2 inch 100 yard groups with cast but the 44s allways gave me fits.

[ihookem]

I had a Marlin lever in 44 mag. With cast bullets it had terrible accuracy.

[mauserand9mm]

I had a 357mag in a Marlin with microgroove rifling but it just wouldn't shoot lead as good as jacketed - about 10 MOA for lead with 4 MOA average for jacketed (2 MOA best group with jacketed). Apparantly it is easier to get good accuracy from lead with standard rifling than the microgroove, but I was using off the shelf projectiles so maybe it was a bore size thing rather than just the microgroove.

[Richard P]

More information is found at  www.marlinowners.com   in the 1894 section.

[Nobade]

Ranch Dog's .433" 265gr. shoots really good in my microgroove 44, loaded over Blue Dot. Accurate and no leading. But I am soon going to attack that mould with a fly cutter and remove the gascheck shank to make a bit lighter design that is plainbased. No great need to do so, other than I don't like shooting gascheck bullets without the checks because they're messy to lube. (I run them through a lubrisizer) and I want to see if it shoots any better with a shorter bullet. Oh, I do seat them out to engage the rifling when the bolt is closed. Too long to feed through the magazine, but very accurate when single loaded.

[luckydawg13]

in my 1973  1894   in 44 mag cast sized to .432 250gr boolit worked well
not a bench gun but at 50 yrds i can play kick the can no leading

[Mikey]

rp85:  Marlin barrels are known to be oversized and it is not uncommon to encounter a a 44 mag or 444 Marlin to wear a barrel with a .431 - .433 diameter.  You should slug your barrel first to determine the actual diameter and then I strongly recommend you bore lap/fire lap the barrel and use gas checked slugs; the accuracy will improve noticeably. 
Your rifle may shoot jacketed bullets with good accuracy but lapping the barrel to remove obstructions, burrs or roughness left by or due to factory machining will enable you to shoot cst bullets with (usually) better than jacketed bullet performance. 
I have 3 444 Marlin rifles.  Two of the 3 wore micro groove barrels.  Jacketed bullet accuracy was passable, about what many would consider 'good enough' for a lever action, but cast bullet accuracy, even gas checked accuracy, was near abysmal. 
I fire lapped the bores according to Veral Smith's process and the improvements in accuracy nearly floored me.  I lapped my bores to .432.  I used .430 jacketed and .433 cast.  The jacketed bullets grouped under 2", most near to 1.5", but the gas checked cast bullets, those weighing 300 gn  and those weighing 335 gn grouped in less than 1", time and time again.  My 26" Montana Rifleman barreled Winchester Big Bore in 444 pushes the 335 gn slug at close to 2400'/sec; the 20" micro groove Winchester Big Bore pushes the 300 gn slug at 2300'/sec.  Both drop 5 rounds into 1" at 100 yd, and it is due to fire lapping the bores I firmly believe. 
I would drop down to Veral Smith's forum and cruise through the pages until you find the posts on bore lapping/fire lapping and then go to the Beartooth Bullet website and read what Marshall Stanton has done with bore lapping.  He quotes Veral Smith quite frequently.  HTH.

[D Crockett]

RP85 I took my son to the range 6/23/02  he ussually does not want to go but this time he did . he got hold of my marlin 44 and was shooting a 240 gr rnfp with 6.5gr of win 231 sized at .429 he tore up the center of that target. granted it was only 25 yards but it is a good light load . I took it out to 50 yards and the same thing for me . D Crockett