- Location
- Vancouver Island BC
In the 45/70 Marlin rifles is there any noticeable difference between Ballard rifling and Micro-Groove for cast or jacketed bullets.....
Ballard rifling vs Micro-Groove
- Thread starter 303carbine
- Start date
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
Ballard for cast
Micro for both, but more for jacketed. But some folks shoot cast, no worries
And their may be a twist differance , not sure though on that.
Frank
Micro for both, but more for jacketed. But some folks shoot cast, no worries
And their may be a twist differance , not sure though on that.
Frank
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
Yes it don't matter with the ballard, missed that , just put cast because folks looking for this type of rifling, they are interested in shooting cast bullets, but jackets have been run through those for some time now.
Good pickup Ted.
So to simplify
Ballard - cast
Micro- jacket
but you can drive whatever type in whatever type barrel. Now there may have been tests done that it just don't matter, for ref. I shot a fellas marlin in Ottawa when I was up there, it was loaded with cast out of a micro barrel , it shot wonderful, heavy loads , it sure snapped back. Accuracy was excellent.
Frank
Good pickup Ted.
So to simplify
Ballard - cast
Micro- jacket
but you can drive whatever type in whatever type barrel. Now there may have been tests done that it just don't matter, for ref. I shot a fellas marlin in Ottawa when I was up there, it was loaded with cast out of a micro barrel , it shot wonderful, heavy loads , it sure snapped back. Accuracy was excellent.
Frank
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I have both types of rifling on different guns but honestly I haven't shot enough cast yet to form an opinion from experience. I've read tons on this though, as I'm interested in Marlins.
To make a long story short with microgroove rifling and shooting cast you need the bullet to be very close to the diameter of your barrel. This is why you hear of guys slugging their barrel to find the exact diameter. If the bullet diameter is a few thou under the bore (or a bit 'loose'), often accuracy won't be good as the microgroove rifling cannot stabilize the bullet properly. Ballard rifling is much more forgiving and is able to stabilize 'loose' bullets much better.
Edit to add: I can say that both types of rifling shoot all jacketed bullets that I have tryed quite well...
To make a long story short with microgroove rifling and shooting cast you need the bullet to be very close to the diameter of your barrel. This is why you hear of guys slugging their barrel to find the exact diameter. If the bullet diameter is a few thou under the bore (or a bit 'loose'), often accuracy won't be good as the microgroove rifling cannot stabilize the bullet properly. Ballard rifling is much more forgiving and is able to stabilize 'loose' bullets much better.
Edit to add: I can say that both types of rifling shoot all jacketed bullets that I have tryed quite well...
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- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
Which is most likely why copper jacketed work so well in Ballard rifling because of the dia. of much of the bullets on the market, that come in sometimes a bit under size. Is the rifling not cut quite a bit deeper than most also.
Frank
Big time. I can't remember the depth of Ballard rifling but I can see 6 squared and deep grooves at the muzzle easily. With the microgroove rifling there's 12 grooves that I need a lot of light and have to tilt the angle back and forth to pick them all out with my naked eyes.
Micro-groove will shoot ok with cast--but the bullets usually have to be short for the diameter and not of the long bore diameter nose shape--usually must be groove diameter or slightly larger and hard cast. 45-70's seem to work best although I have had reasonable success with 30-30, .357 and .44 mag's.
44Bore
44Bore
