Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing Marlin 1894 Cartridge Carrier Questions...

Gentlemen,

1): I've heard that the "1894 Marlin Jam" can sometimes be repaired by some judicious sanding/polishing in the right places on the carrier and the "snail drum" part of the lever. What do y'all know about that and exactly where would these two places be on the carrier and lever? I've worked on a fair number of 336's, but somehow never an 1894 for this exact problem.

2): I've found an "improved carrier" made from stainless steel available on Ebay, that's made in Great Britain. Anyone have any experience with those?

3): Is this 1894 .44 Mag, made in 1974 (S/N 26136XXX), supposed to have a carrier rocker part in it? If so, it doesn't have one presently.

The rifle in question belongs to a friend's father. My friend brought it to me after his father had taken it to a shade-tree "smith" a couple of counties away, and it came back more hosed up than it was before. Unfortunately, that particular "smith" has the reputation of being much more of a blacksmith than a gunsmith. Friend's father had taken it in for a thorough cleaning and to fix the jamming problem. It would eject spent cartridge cases normally, but then jam when trying to close the lever. When brought to me, first things I noticed were that all the screw heads were buggered, some were obviously not the original screws, and the loading gate was twisted axially and off to one side. Then I cycled the action and it was very rough and gritty. The trigger felt like pulling a cat off a screen door, but the son said it used to be light and crisp. The owner takes pretty good care of his stuff and I knew that he didn't do these things to his rifle. The son said that the "smith" told his father that he had to replace the carrier with a used one out of another 1894 and "fit" it to his rifle, and charged him accordingly.

I disassembled the rifle and found the following right away: The loading gate mounting screw was cross-threaded and somehow the spring section between the screw and the gate itself was twisted somewhat. There were crude, coarse file or scrape marks and burrs inside the receiver that very obviously had been put there recently. Most of the parts had at least some coarse filing and burrs on them. A coarse file had been drug right across the sear engagement surface of the trigger, probably carelessly done by accident. The rear of the magazine tube wasn't properly seated in its recess in the front of the receiver and the slot in the front for the barrel band was buggered. There was at least one other cross-threaded screw, and there was still a fair amount of old, dried out gun oil and gunk in various places in the action.

I carefully and properly cleaned, stoned, and polished the parts and inside the receiver, repaired the loading gate, un-buggered several things, then put it all back together and tested it. This is where my original question comes from: The rifle runs smoothly and feeds cartridges now when you cycle it at what I'd call a "normal" speed. HOWEVER, if you run it slowly, like you might do while hunting, it still jams because the carrier doesn't lift the nose of the cartridge quite high enough and the bullet nose catches on the rear, lower lip of the breech (what would be the feed ramp of a pistol). I carefully polished that lip, but the carrier lacks about 1/16" of lift for the bullet nose to clear the lip so that the bolt can push it into the chamber. When you cycle the action at normal speed, momentum puts the nose of the bullet right where it needs to be.

My friend's father was aggravated that he never got a satisfactory explanation from the "smith" as to why he replaced the carrier in the first place, but I've known for years about the 1894 jamming problem due to wear on the carrier, but somehow this is the first one I've personally gotten into very far. I believe the other "smith" was trying to do the right thing, and I've found myself defending his decision, but he sure royally botched the execution of it and nearly ruined a nice rifle.

The carrier probably has the spring loaded button in lieu of a dog or rocker. Same function, cheaper part. To get the carrier higher you need that button to ride the lever longer as you stroke the lever back toward the closed position. If you’ll look at the end of the lever with it out of the gun you’ll see below the very end that fits into the bold a flat on the front of the tab that extends up towards the end until there is a notch cut on an angle. That is the surface the button rides up until it reaches that notch wherein it allows the lever to bypass the button allowing the carrier to pivot back down. It’s sort of hard to describe without having you and your parts in hand.

I have in the past TIG welded and refit the timing surface on the lever. You could also braze it up and fit it down or solder a piece in place.

The areas needing attention for the “Marlin jam” are unrelated to what you describe and deal with the timing of cartridges leaving the magazine tube.

Yes, this carrier does have the spring loaded button or plunger. I can see exactly what you describe about the button riding up the lever until it encounters the angled notch and drops out, allowing the carrier to pivot back down. I've thought about TIG welding that notch to build it up some and then refitting it, and am glad to hear that you've done it successfully. I'm guessing that you did NOT have to re-heat treat the end of the lever?

Thanks for the clarification on the "Marlin jam". Was aware of the timing issue of the cartridges leaving the mag tube and sorta expected that that was what I'd find here, but didn't know if the carrier button problem with this rifle was part of the "Marlin jam" issue or not.

Thanks Again,
Tim