Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin Talk Mod 62 cal. 256 win mag

Is it true this particular rifle often has an oversized chamber? I am getting many split cases.

i had one years ago. it was not real accurate and i suffered the same split case problem. not only in the neck but also in the body.

I never had the splitting problem until my brass began to age. Besides making new from 357, I candle anneal often. SW

Never have had that problem with mine. Are these cases splitting after you reload them or are they factory cases? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

mine were factory ammunition and had not been reloaded

I make the brass from three different brands ( IMI, Rem, and Win .357) using an RCBS conversion set. All the splits are in the body (none on the rim where you would expect them to be if it is caused by overworked brass). I get about 60 percent split with IMI, around 40 percent split with Rem and 30 percent or so with Win. brass. It happens on the first loading of new brass and only in the M. 62--not in the contender barrel nor in a universal .256 ferret. I do not anneal the brass--since the split does not take place in the rim area, I do not think annealling will help.
NebrHogger--what the heck is 'candle annealing??????'

I had 1 for awhile and it never split a case, that I recall. I had good success shooting turkeys with the 86 grain Remington 25-20 bullets.

Jeff

Steve, don't know, but it may help to try setting your sizer die (a FL I presume?) out a bit long, and then turning it 1/16 of a turn at a time until the sized cases just chamber chamber easily with the faintest "feel" to them.

Also, I wonder if you're using the cases interchangeably between the Marlin and the other gun? One's chamber may be longer, and I'd guess the Marlin's in your case, which can result in the splitting you're getting. Just set up the die for the longer chamber, and your case splitting may go away. Of course, then you have to either reset for the shorter chamber, or have another die set dedicated to the shorter chamber. I think someone (Hornady?) makes reasonably priced non-custom order dies for the .256 still, don't they? All you'd need is just the FL sizer die, I think. Sure would be a lot better option than those split cases!

Chamber specs and reamers can vary, and if you have two guns in any caliber, and one's at the short end and the other at the long end, the longer chamber's gun will split cases sooner than those dedicated to the short chamber, if the shorter chambered gun is the one you size for - which is the only reasonable thing to do, since setting your FL die for the longer chamber may not allow the shorter chambered gun to fully accept the longer rounds.

One other option would be to get some 2" wide metallic tape (THIN here!) or a spacer made of thin steel shim material, and try putting that between the press and lock ring of the die. If you can find just the right thickness of spacer, that sould aleviate your problem, or at least minimize it. Combine that with some neck anealing and your problem may largely just go away. Make sense?

Just a thought and a possibility, anyway?