357 Mag Carbine

bgcameron

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Hey guys,

I have a Marlin 94 with an 18.5" microgroove barrel. I am about to do some shopping for components but I thought I'd stop here first.

The google webs have told me that 2400 is a great powder and to avoid cast bullets. I read good things about the campro 158g truncated cone plated bullets. Would this be a good start?

Thanks!
 
The micro groove barrels can do well with castbut it usually needs a bullet a bit more oversized than usual. Not sure if 2400 would be the right powder for cast though. That's pretty high pressure stuff.
 
Hey guys,

I have a Marlin 94 with an 18.5" microgroove barrel. I am about to do some shopping for components but I thought I'd stop here first.

The google webs have told me that 2400 is a great powder and to avoid cast bullets. I read good things about the campro 158g truncated cone plated bullets. Would this be a good start?

Thanks!

2400 is good in that you can run it somewhat lighter than you can W296/H110 which requires near max to max loads with a reasonably tight crimp. I have only tried cast a few times in my Marlin .357 rifle and they were with lighter loads of 2400 keeping velocities into what I consider more reasonable range for lead. For jacketed bullets, I run H110. I have never tried Campro plated in my .357. In my now sold Marlin .44, I tried Campro plated but I was less than impressed with the results. Not sure I would blame the bullet. I never did find much that would work in that rifle. It seemed to be well overbored. I suspect some .430 or .431 cast would have worked better with 2400 in that rifle. I sold it and sort of regret doing so; looking back on it now, it would have been fun to figure out what would work.

Yes, give the 2400 a go with the Campro. Load them up a little on the lighter side and see what kind of performance you get. Just don't buy 1000 of them until you know for sure that they will work!
 
2400 should work well for cast(over sized a thou or two)or jacketed. 158 gr bullet full power loads(14.5gr) or downloaded quite a bit (8gr(38 spl load))and still get a good burn.

2400 is one of my favorite powders
 
My experience is with a .44 mag, not a .357, but same rifle.

One thing to note is all the micro-grooved barrels I've seen slugged and mic'ed are quite a bit larger than traditionally rifled barrels meant for the same cartridges. My .44 mag barrel slugged at .4315" when normal .44 mag barrels are .429". So it's a full .0025" larger than nominal groove diameter.

I never tried Campro but Berry's plated bullets patterned like buckshot above ~900fps. The .004" copper plating is just too thin for the micro-groove rifling. Campro are twice or more thick copper and I've heard of a lot of guys having success to mid-magnum loads but not always performing with full-house magnum loads. I struggled to get cast to work in my rifle and eventually gave up and started powder coating. I tried three different molds, several different hardnesses of alloy, .001" oversized and .002" oversized, gas checked, nothing worked. They would all work with low-end .44 special loads but even a warm special or a low end magnum would end up with many hours spent scrubbing lead out of the bore and a target that looked like it was hit with buckshot from a cylinder bore. The only bullet I cast that work with magnum loads is powder-coated. I use the Lee 310gr gas-checked mold. I cast them from melted extra hard target load (water quenched they're .431" as-cast), powder coat them (brings them to around .433"), then size and apply gas checks with a .432" custom made push-through sizer. Since stumbling upon over 1k Nosler JHP's at an estate sale for barely the cost of the lead, I haven't shot much cast though.

I've talked to several other local guys who have micro-groove barrels on Marlins and they all report similar things. Some guys have good results with heat-treated cast bullets to make them extra hard but for other guys even that doesn't work. Maybe yours works well with cast, maybe it doesn't, only way to know is to try. Either way if you're going to try cast I'd at least try to find something minimum .359" if not .360" for your rifle. My guess with the Campro bullets is that the groups will remain somewhat similar as the load increases but at some critical point the groups will really open up. That would likely be the point when you're pushing the plated bullets too fast for such shallow rifling such as the micro-groove barrels have.

2400 as mentioned is a beautiful powder since it can be loaded down nicely. I still prefer H110/W296 for full-house loads with jacketed bullets and find it still gives me the best velocities. Other powders I've liked in .357 mag revolvers and .44 mag revolvers and rifles is BlueDot, HS-6, and Longshot. Those three are good for special loads as well as low-mid magnums.
 
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Thanks guys.

Hmm...everything is pointing to 2400. Unique sounds like it may be a good contender as well but it seems like I can get better velocities with 2400. I plan on using this for blacktail next season so velocity would be nice.
 
I have been fire-lapping my rifle barrels for two decades now, and it does cut down fouling and stabilize accuracy with my cast loads.
I don't like the Micro-groove rifling and have never loaded for one.
I don't know how well the m/g would take to lapping so perhaps check it out on the net.
 
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