?? for owners of Marlin 1894s in .45 Colt

[J Miller]

What is the maximum COAL and bullet style your rifle will function reliably with?

My 2005 1894 Cowboy will reliably feed big nosed SWCs of 1.675" OAL.

Just curious.

Joe

[Chuck 100 yd]

Joe , My 1894 Marlin Cowboy will feed the Lyman Keith 255 gr. seated to crimp in the crimp groove and shoots it so well I have never gone to another bullet in that rifle. They are at 1.640" OAL .

[adirondakjack]

That's one of the bugaboos of the Marlin. They have significant variance in the critical distance between the carrier pivot screw and the back end of the magazine passage (front of the receiver cavity). the tolerance can be as much as .035 from one gun to the next, to the eternal consternation of marlin shooters who set up ammo for one gun, then run it in another. Max is not only critical, but the shortest reliable OAL that won't "hiccup" when run fast (as in CAS) also depends on that dimension (which governs the carrier positon relative to the magazine). We got into this big time when woring to "short stroke" the marlin for use with short cases. Parts absolutely won't "drop-in" fit, but need to be tailored to each rifle. When we couple that set of facts with Marlin's carrier design, (a stamped MIM part), there's nothing much that can be done to "standardize" two rifles to get em the same, except scrap the carrier and make one from scratch.

[J Miller]

When we couple that set of facts with Marlin's carrier design, (a stamped MIM part)

A-Jack,

Stamped-MIM ???? I've seen MIM parts in S&W revolvers and the carrier in my 1894 does not look like that at all. It's not stamped either.
It does appear to be cast, but not by the MIM process. Just commenting really, mine could have been an older part for all I know.

As for the variation in tolerances that's a bit on the ridiculous side I think. .035" difference in placement of the carrier screw? Geeze, and we thought Winchester was bad.

Joe