Thou shall not ignore thy mag tube.....

[adirondakjack]

lest thy carrier smite thee.

EVERYBODY knows Marlins get out of time when there is something wrong with the carrier. And yes, sometimes that is true. We take it for a given, that if all the screws are tight yet the gun no longer feeds ammo it used to be happy with, something has gone amiss with the carrier.

Well we would be wrong, or at least potentially.

My current "go to" rifle is a Spur Special Marlin, specifically Cowboy .45 Special #2, so named because after #1 (which is also in my safe), it was the second such rifle built. Two weeks ago it went "t"s up in the middle of a match, requiring "double clutching" 8 of ten rounds to get through a stage. I stuffed it into the cart disgusted, and put #1 to work.....

Upon disassembly a very mild peen line in the usual "marlin jam" location on the carrier was found, so I pinned and ground that, adding back the proper geometry. NO GOOD, still the same symptom. I found one other slight wear area, so I pinned and ground it as well, still no good.

Then I noticed that although it would frequently glitch when running normally, if I laid the rifle on its side on the bench and cycled it, it worked fine. "World Train Federation, Over?" I mixed myself a drink, set the rifle aside, and surfed the net a while before retiring to bed.

In due course, about 5AM it came to me. The mag tube follower was dragging in the tube, causing the incoming rounds to get behind the timing curve and gnash when the carrier tried to lift a round not yet fully clear of the mag tube bore. When flat on the bench two things were different. I was running the lever very slow, and the "bottom" of the mag tube suddenly was the "side" and vise versa.

So tonight I took the mag tube off and eyeballed it. It looked like the inside of a city water main. UGLY. A dowel with a split end, some plumbers cloth and a drill motor were employed to get the rust, great piles of rust like working on old brake drums, out of the tube. I chased it with coarse steel wool spun on the dowel to get a shine that was oh so nice inside the tube, then waxed it well with Butchers Bowling Alley Wax, which was also applied to a cleaned up SS follower and spring.

Put er back together enough to try some rounds, and she feeds OH SO NICE again, as the rounds can keep up with the carrier......



Thou shall not ignore thy mag tube.........

[iceman]

And yet another in the bag of tricks. Thanks

[piller]

As I have said many times before, I learn a lot from this website.

[J Miller]

lest thy carrier smite thee.

EVERYBODY knows Marlins get out of time when there is something wrong with the carrier. And yes, sometimes that is true. We take it for a given, that if all the screws are tight yet the gun no longer feeds ammo it used to be happy with, something has gone amiss with the carrier.

Well we would be wrong, or at least potentially.

My current "go to" rifle is a Spur Special Marlin, specifically Cowboy .45 Special #2, so named because after #1 (which is also in my safe), it was the second such rifle built. Two weeks ago it went "t"s up in the middle of a match, requiring "double clutching" 8 of ten rounds to get through a stage. I stuffed it into the cart disgusted, and put #1 to work.....

Upon disassembly a very mild peen line in the usual "marlin jam" location on the carrier was found, so I pinned and ground that, adding back the proper geometry. NO GOOD, still the same symptom. I found one other slight wear area, so I pinned and ground it as well, still no good.

Then I noticed that although it would frequently glitch when running normally, if I laid the rifle on its side on the bench and cycled it, it worked fine. "World Train Federation, Over?" I mixed myself a drink, set the rifle aside, and surfed the net a while before retiring to bed.

In due course, about 5AM it came to me. The mag tube follower was dragging in the tube, causing the incoming rounds to get behind the timing curve and gnash when the carrier tried to lift a round not yet fully clear of the mag tube bore. When flat on the bench two things were different. I was running the lever very slow, and the "bottom" of the mag tube suddenly was the "side" and vise versa.

So tonight I took the mag tube off and eyeballed it. It looked like the inside of a city water main. UGLY. A dowel with a split end, some plumbers cloth and a drill motor were employed to get the rust, great piles of rust like working on old brake drums, out of the tube. I chased it with coarse steel wool spun on the dowel to get a shine that was oh so nice inside the tube, then waxed it well with Butchers Bowling Alley Wax, which was also applied to a cleaned up SS follower and spring.

Put er back together enough to try some rounds, and she feeds OH SO NICE again, as the rounds can keep up with the carrier......



Thou shall not ignore thy mag tube.........

And we all say: AMEN!

Joe

[rjohns94]

wow, learn something new everyday. thanks

[bdhold]

Butcher's Bowling Alley Wax is excellent stuff. I use it on 70 year-old reels and bamboo rods, leather - I can't think of anything that won't be improved by a rub with this stuff.

Another really good product is Boeshield T-12 spray. It dehydrates rust and aluminum clays and leaves behind corrosion inhibitors and wax. I sprayed a frozen solid fishing reel one evening just to help me loosen up the screws so I could disassemble it for a rebuild. The next day, the reel was spinning like a top

I bought a stainless mag follower and spring from Evil Roy for my 1873 - solved the rust problem before it started.

[Griff]

New dog, old tricks. My '73 suffered from the same malady... similar fix... but after a 2nd reccurence I keep inside clean and dry. Oil, wax & their ilk tend to attract dirt and other "gum up the works" items.

[Pete44ru]

Amen, Amen - And, when it is said unto you: "Clean thy gun", it means EVERYWHERE ! !

.

[bhk]

My 1894 .44 is less than a year old. I had a lot of feeding problems when I bought it. I finally took off the mag tube and peered down it, only to find it was very 'out of round' about half way down the tube. The follower was hanging up, not allowing any or very limited spring pressure on the cartridges in the magazine. Marlin sent me a new tube and all has been well since.

[otteray]

Excellent advice. I have neglected my magazine tubes far too long. Thanks for the reminder!