Speaking of barrel twists...

[Rusty]

Does anyone know what the rate of twist would be for a Puma/EMF/Rossi in .44 mag?

[Sixgun]

I'm not 100% but most likely the Rossi's are industry standard, which is 1-38----------Sixgun

[AJMD429]

My "Legacy Sports 2008 Retail Catalog" shows 1-30" twist for all .44 Mag, .357 Mag, .45 Colt, .454 Casull, and .480 Ruger in barrel lengths from 16" to 24" - in both round and octagonal barrels. The only levergun listed otherwise is a ".17 Rem" model PUMA40005 with a 20" 1-9" twist barrel.

Do they mean THE ".17 Remington?" The magazine is tubular and holds 10 rounds!

[Rusty]

I have the Marlin Cowboy II in .44 but I'm looking for something that will handle the heavier slugs a bit better and thought the Rossi might be the ticket. I understand the Marlin is 1:38.

[Rimfire McNutjob]

... The only levergun listed otherwise is a ".17 Rem" model PUMA40005 with a 20" 1-9" twist barrel.
Do they mean THE ".17 Remington?" The magazine is tubular and holds 10 rounds!

Wow ... that would scoot pretty good for a lever gun. I wonder how they manged to mangle 17HMR or 17HM2 into "17 Rem".

[AJMD429]

I have the Marlin Cowboy II in .44 but I'm looking for something that will handle the heavier slugs a bit better and thought the Rossi might be the ticket. I understand the Marlin is 1:38.

If indeed the Rossi catalog is correct, and it is 1:30 vs. 1:38, that should give you 38/30ths or about 27% more twist rate. I'd think that would help. As I understand (or don't) it, the relationship is LINEAR between length of bullet and necessary twist, if velocity and bullet diameter are constant.

See http://www.lasc.us/Brennan_2-3_Twist.htm.

According to the table in the above link, It looks like a 313 grain slug would be ok with 1:30, and the 1:38 isn't even on the table, but would appear to be about ok with a 247 grain slug. The latter seems to be what most people say about the Marlins - "stick with 240 grain or maybe 265 max" - and single shot gunners with some 1:20 barrels say they use VERY heavy 350 grainers. So it seems to jive with what the real-worlders are saying.

I think it is weird Marlin uses the faster twist only for the .45 Colt barrels, but I suspect the 'cowboy' loads are half the velocity of the .44 Mag loads, so NEED a 'faster' twist to achieve about the same rotation rate (since they go down the barrel so much more slowly). But a HOT .45 Colt load would really benefit from the twist, it would seem like, and could take advantage of the ability to use a longer bullet, with enough velocity to spin it. (All conjecture - ask the folks who shoot .45 Colt alot!)

By the way - the table in the above link looks like a Marlin 444 (1:20") SHOULD stabilize bullets up to 470 grains, providing you can get them to feed, which means seating them REALLY deep, and therefore delving into uncharted load/powder territory, but think of what a heavy .429 slug like that could do!