Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers 1895 rifiling question

Hi everybody, i was looking at a older 1895 precrossbolt safety,pre micro groove 1895 in 45/70 when i looked in blue book for a value it was noted that the pre microgroove rifles command a 10% premium but it was also noted that they were suitible for cast bullets ,my questions are will the microgroove rifles shoot cast bullets ok? and secondly will the older rifles shoot jacketed bullets well and from a accuracy stand point which tend to be more accurate ? any input would be greatly appreciated

Rick
I don't know where to start--Yes Micro groove barrels will shoot cast if you move the bullets fast. Go to Marlin Owners.com and you can drown in the discussions on this topic.
The bottom line is with proper handloading M.G. barrels are no less accurate than Ballard cut barrels. Cast or jacketed shoot well.
Find a good rifle and have fun

From my experience, I'd say "Ballard" style rifling is more forgiving; that would be my first choice.

Microgroove will work fine, if not just as good, but I think more attention to detail must be paid for correct bullet sizing.

As a whole, I'd say Ballard does a great job with slow and soft bullets, MG does well with hard and fast.

IMHO, the reason for the "10% premium for Ballard/pre-MG rifling" M1895's was that, at the time, Marlin had dropped the Ballard rifling in favor of MG across-the-board.

Since then, however, Marlin has re-instituted Ballard rifling in the .45-70's - but the value premium wasn't updated.

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I think the reason for the 10% premium (actually a bit higher in my experience) is that the "Ballard" rifled guns were only made for part of 1972. The Microgroove rifles in the same configuration were made from late 72 to 1979.