I have a friend that wants to sell me his old Marlin 1894 in 44magnum and he doesn't know if has Ballard or Micro-Groove rifling. It seems that he's somehow verified that it was made between 1969 and 1974 although I don't know how reliable that is.

I don't want to get into the age old argument about whether Micro-Groove rifling is as good as Ballard or not. I just want what I want and do NOT want a rifle with Micro-Groove rifling.

Other than inspecting the rifling is there any way to tell? It seems that I once had a Marlin with Micro-Groove rifling and it said so on the barrel but the memory fades with age.

Any help would be appreciated. I'd rather not have to drive 2 hours to his house and inspect the rifling only to find it was Micro-Groove.

Thanks,
LDHunter

I could be wrong but don't most Micro-Groove guns say it on the barrel?
My 444 does along with a few other 336's I've seen.

All you have to do is look at the muzzle. I is so obvious and antigunner would recognize it! Be Well, RZ.

Thanks.... Hopefully that works for him. He's even older than me.... LOL

All JM's were microgroove. Remlins are Ballard. As Rusty stated pretty easy to tell looking into barrel

I have an old Marlin 44 magnum and to tell you the truth. I can't remember if it was micro-groove or not. I sold it because I couldn't get Keith style cast bullets to feed due to the length of the loaded cartridge. But I'd guess that ghostman is right.

I have a new Marlin 44 Mag, that I really like. It was manufactured in the last couple of years. It's accurate with jacketed bullets and I've learned how to modify the feed so that it will load the longer bullets. It has Ballard rifling.

Some of you missed this part evidently:

This is not true from mid to late 90s to 2009 44s and 357s were Ballard I have PG and a CS made in this time frame both are Ballard and both are JM marked

read here for some info

https://leverguns.com/articles/fryxell/marlin_history.htm

Easy to look down the barrel, if you see 4 grooves it is ballard, if a bunch of little grooves, it is microgroove.
But I thought all the old ones were micro groove from that era.

Not all JMs were microgrooved. My 1894 44mag wasnt microgrooved and its a JM Marlin. Like said above, look at the muzzle and it will be obvious.

Seems like I remember reading there was "Modified Micro Groove with 8 grooves for the first year of the modern 1895.

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Did Marlin use 'stars' on the caliber stamp to designate Ballard rifling??