Marlin 1894 44 Magnum Leading

[Mike95]

Can you get gaschecks in this calibre..??.I personally have had problems with microgroove rifling with Marlin 30-30 and .22lr...given up on it.
I understood that Marlin had switched to Ballard type rifling for all pistol calibre in the '90's.
Even very soft cast, well lubed, no gascheck, will not usually cause leading up to around 1300fps...provided they fit. My shooting friend uses the Shellhouse in .432 with no leading problem...but his rifle has Ballard type rifling.

Another possibility could be chamber erosion if the rifle is very old. Seen this on 30-30.

Could try the H and N plated jobbies...no leading there.

Mike95

[FredB]

For the last 30 years I have been using |Plastic Padding for chamber casts or car body filler. These products are designed to fill holes without shrinking when they cure and give better accuracy than cerrosafe.
Fred

[dromia]

You are right there Fred, Cerrosafe is not fit for purpose.

[TomH]

Thanks all. I think I'll consign it to the back of the cabinet for a while. I've put a lot of effort into it with little reward in the grin factor stakes. Time to concentrate on the guns I have that do make me smile.

[Alpha1]

You are right there Fred, Cerrosafe is not fit for purpose.

That dreaded word (Cerrosafe) I still have nightmares about the stuff. Its horrible.

[gashtyke]

Tom, is it a new gun? Sometimes a barrel needs a good few jacketed rounds down before it performs with cast. This is my experience ---- could not get a new 8mm to stop a lead/antimony wash until I shot a couple of hundred ball ammo through it ---now perfectly accurate, no leading, easy clean. Hope this helps.

[TomH]

Tom, is it a new gun? Sometimes a barrel needs a good few jacketed rounds down before it performs with cast. This is my experience ---- could not get a new 8mm to stop a lead/antimony wash until I shot a couple of hundred ball ammo through it ---now perfectly accurate, no leading, easy clean. Hope this helps.

I've read of that theory. This is a JM Marlin bought new just after the pistol ban. It's only ever shot lead according to the original owner and 0.429 GM bullets at that before I had it. Not seen a lot of use and was still pretty stiff in operation until I slicked it up a tad. Certainly looking at the rifling, you can still see machining marks.

[TomH]

Machining chatter marks I mean.

Perhaps I should get some jacketed bullets and test this out with some full house rounds? Should be a giggle if nothing else.

[Alpha1]

You definitely won't get it to work with hard cast bullets.

[dromia]

Don't spoil the barrel with jacketed, it will copper foul the bore which will then need to be removed before reverting to cast a gain, copper jacketed bullets are just a chew on and more trouble that they are worth.

If you feel that smoothing the barrel is necessary then have at it with some lapping compound either on a tight fitting patch or firing cast bullets dipped in the compound.

However as you problem seems to be down the chamber end then there may be more to your issue than lapping will cure, as I said before a an alloy wash in the barrel that doesn't build up isn't anything to worry about, do you worry about the copper wash in a barrlel shooting jacketed?