Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General What works in your Marlin .45 colt?

It's time to work up some loads for my 16.5" Marlin carbine. Last year I lucked into one of "The Marlin Limited" guns, NIB. I'd like to shoot cast bullets between 300 and 350 grains. What nose profiles and weights have worked for you gents in the Marlin 1894?

Unfortunately for me, no cast load worked well in the two Marlin .45 Colts I've had, they both had tight spots in the barrel immediately under the barrel stamping. This caused the bullets to squeeze down to below nominal bore diameter for the rest of the trip down the barrel. You may want to check that in your gun before trying cast. Jacketed worked fine. I imagine I could have lapped out the constriction, but chose not to. I used 250 (XTP), 255 grain SWC bullets, and a 260 LBT WFN and 2400 for my hunting loads, and they worked well enough. All nose profiles fed well, but the WFN was OAL sensitive.

best to slug the barrel.....Marlin likes 'em fat....

1-2 thous over..... Dardas has got selection..but not over 250gr

interesting read..one guy here says he uses .458" in his 45 Colt

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...ve-diameters-for-44-and-45-cal-leverguns

On yes, I plan to slug the bore to find out about constriction and true diameter. Beartooth will make custom diameters. I'm interested in what nose shapes feed well with heavy bullets for those who have them.

I've got some Dry Creek 260gr Keith style bullets and I just ordered some 280gr WFN from Beartooth. I'll post my results in a few weeks when things slow down enough for me to test them out.

I had the same model a while back but never used such heavy bullets routinely. I did load some RCBS 300 SWCGC but that was the heaviest.

Cast bullets were sized .454" and those definitely shot better than .452" bullets. Sized large like that plain base bullets could be driven well upwards of 1500 fps and never showed any leading - I'm thinking of the RCBS 270 SAA in particular. I liked that bullet, it didn't kick as much as the heavier bullets but still seemed like a real flying brick. Most loads that worked for .45 revolvers worked in the Marlin. Win 296 at max charges produced the best accuracy with the Hornady 250 XTP and the aforementioned RCBS 300 grainers. Otherwise I used my old .45 standbys - 9 or 10 grains of Unique or 8 grains of 231 under a 250 grain cast. Never tried more modern powders in it than those.

One nice thing about mine that hopefully yours does too was that it fed everything well. That big chamber gobbled up every nose shape I put in it, from a Lee 250 RNFP through the big sharp shouldered RCBS 270 SAA and 300 SWC and all points in between.

At least some of these Marlins had really large barrel dimensions. As suggested best to slug your barrel first. I had someone who had trouble getting any normal sized cast pills to work in his Marlin 45LC. I suggested he try some 350 gr 458 cal cast pills designed for the 45/70. He could not believe the difference the larger bullet diameter made. That model I believe has a 16" twist so it can stabilize heavier bullets.

Before buying a heap of 458 pills I'd suggest seeing whether that size bullet will chamber.

I went out this morning with a few different loads that usually perform well in my 45 Blackhawk. I'm not sure if I'm just accustomed to more accurate rifles but the best group I could get was 4.5" at 50 yards. I was shooting a Marlin 1894 with a 4x Leupold. The best load was 22gr of H110 under a 315gr gas checked Keith style bullet from Montana Bullet Works. I used magnum primers.

I had 3 loads to test, 21gr, 21.5gr, & 22gr of H110, and I was disappointed with the accuracy. The bullets were sized at .453. I'm thinking I might need to slug before loading anything else.

Am I being unrealistic in hoping for a 2" group at 50 yards with this bullet?

Would I be better off using regular large pistol primers rather than the magnum primers?

-Keith

I'dslug the barrel as you suggest, but look for tight spots. Mine had a very noticeable tight spot under the barrel stamping. No way a cast bullet would shoot accurately once it crushed its way through the there. Jacketed did ok-ish. It never shot better than 6 moa, though.


Old70

Will do. Can anything be done to fix a tight spot?

Might consider fire lapping.

Fire lapping or regular lapping are probably your best options short of a new barrel. However, if the constriction is too big, they may not work well. I tried firelapping on a Marlin .44 Mag that had the same problem, and it worked fine. The .45 Colt was too much for it.

Old70

I know you might not like this but the rifle might not like bullets that weigh that heavy.

Something you need to consider. It appears ALL .45 Colt lever guns have very large throats.

https://www.shootersforum.com/marlin-1894-lever-guns/22882-lyman-457122-m1894.html

Take a look at this thread which starts a bit slow but works into some load testing. I loaded the Lyman 457122hp at .459" in the Winchester Trapper. John Kort is the guy with knowledge On throat size for the .45 Colt rifle.
Marlins are know for tight spots under she stamps on the barrel, under the rear sight dovetail and under the front sight.
If you want accuracy from cast bullets you must seal the throat. There are pictures in the thread to give you an idea about pushing a large bullet down a smaller bore.

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My rifle likes 300 Gr. Lasercast bullets over 10 Grs, of Herco powder....very accurate.





My rifle/rifles need several fouling shots to settle down after a cleaning. The Marlin CB requires as many as 20 shots before any accuracy is seen.

Above target is at 50 yards with the Marlin, load testing for best powder. Quite obvious what it likes.


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Good stiff load for the 300-grain bullet.
In a Marlin CB is this a 1,500 fps load?

21gr of H110 under a 315gr Keith style averaged 1455 out of my 20" barreled 1894.

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I don't have the data at hand but the Herco/300 cast is trucking along at over 1400 fps. As you can see, the upper Herco group is 6 shots but the lower group is only 3 shots ( ran out of ammo). Is that called planning ahead?

I like 250gr RNFP. I haven't tried cast 300s. But I have had good luck with Laser Cast.

You've definitely got a winner!! Nice shooting too....