Just picked up a nice Marlin 1894 in 357 mag for my grand daughters to shoot.My question is it safe to shoot round nose .38 specials in it,or do they need to be flat nosed bullets?Thanks PJ

Why take a chance? Lotsa flat nosed 38s.

Please ignore what I posted the first time. For some reason I had pointed bullets in mind. Round nose bullets should be perfectly safe. Round nose bullets have been loaded and shot from Marlins for generations. It's the pointed bullets you don't want to use in tube feed rifles. You shouldn't have to worry, I've never seen a .38 or .357 with pointed bullets.


Bob

I shoot LRN 38 specials in my 1894 regularly and have had no bad experiences. They are very mild and very accurate.

I shoot whatever 357 Mag or 38 Spl, sometimes +P ammo that I have on hand (for my revolvers) in my Marlin 1894-C - including Lead, Full Metal Jackets, Hollow Points, Etc.

It ALL works fine and I never gave it a 2nd thought ... until now.

A few years ago there was a write up in one of the gun rags about testing done in various tube type magazines and lever guns that dispelled the myth of discharges in the tube from pointed bullets, etc. It basically concluded that you really have to work at it to make a round go off from the point of the bullet impacting the next primer. I have never tried it though. All my lever guns use FP bullets of HP as that is what I also load in my handguns

As far as RN bullets in lever guns , the Federal 170 grain .30-30 ammo I have bought at Walley World is RNSP .

I figure , if Federal's lawyers are not worried about RN bullets , neither am I .

I load RNL bullets in .38 & .357 .

God bless
Wyr