rebarrel in a marlin 1894
- Thread starter bandit86
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Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
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Ron Smith can.
Didn't know they had a gunsmith. Do you know if he has his manufacturers licence?
Suspect you've been looking for something that doesn't exist. Longest factory barrel on an 1894 Marlin is 20". Any particular reason for a 24"? Just curious.
A .44 calibre 1 in 18 blank will be a problem. Typically they're 1 in 20. Adapting a .444 Marlin barrel(still 1 in 20, but there is such a thing as a 24" barrel. .429" ID too.) might be your best bet. Assuming you can find one.
A .44 calibre 1 in 18 blank will be a problem. Typically they're 1 in 20. Adapting a .444 Marlin barrel(still 1 in 20, but there is such a thing as a 24" barrel. .429" ID too.) might be your best bet. Assuming you can find one.
Sunray: The Marlin 1894 CB was available in both 20" and 24" version. The 20" being a Short Rifle. The gun was also available as a Carbine with a 20" BBL, and I have owned all three at one time or another. The CB versions were both Ballard Rifling and the Carbine was Microgroove. All had 1:38 twist barrels. The one with the sling is the 1894 CB and the other is an 1895 CB .45-70.
I have since sold both of the 20" guns but still have and shoot the 1894 CB24".. I do all my own work on these guns and they can be made into the slickest Leverguns out there with about 2 hours of simple to do work, just deburring and smoothing out some of the high spots. Info on how to do this process is available at www.leverguns.com.
Bandit: you would be much better off just buying a .44. Converting a .357 will entail many changes to the insides of the action and not really be cost effective. Just getting the barrel isn't enough, and it will probably cost a bunch anyway. I have looked at doing this for many years and it is simply a loser. Just find a .44 and buy it.
There are outfits that can bore out your barrel as well. about $250 and then you need a new lifter, bolt, (which must be fitted) magazine tube and all the small pieces that are different between the two models.
Any of these guns come up on Gunbroker daily. I don't know if you can import to Canada, nice unfired ones tend to go for a lot more than they should but as soon as Remington conquers the quality issues completely,,, prices on the older ones will come down. The newest guns I have seen on Dealer shelves are as good or better than anything Marlin ever made at the old plant.
There has been talk of Marlin changing the twist rate on the 44's to 1:20 for several years now but they haven't actually done it. Although now that Remington owns the outfit and makes all the guns in Illion NY, they are sounding more receptive to the change. They have recently came out with some upgraded models with nicer wood and the gun parts are all made with CNC Machinery now, so tolerance wise they are pretty good.
Barrels for .44 Magnum Rifles typically run .431 +/-.002. Mine is dead on .431 so a boolit of at least .432 is necessary to seal the bore properly and prevent leading. The company has been encouraged by many learned people to change the twist rate and tighten the bore to .430 owever as of yet we haven't seen any.
You will find that any of them will shoot up to 250 gr boolits pretty well. Most guns will shoot up to 265 or 280gr boolits if they are short and fat. However they have to be driven hard to get tight groups. 1600fps or above. but still you are looking at 2-3" at 100 yards being the best average accuracy you are going to see. However, and this is a big point, These are 150 yards guns at best, and 3" at 100 is more than adequate accuracy for all intents and purposes one would use one of these rifles for..
There are two ways to stabilize a larger bullet,,, faster twist or higher velocity.
As far as rebarreling to a faster twist, the gains you would see will only show up with longer boolits like 300+ gr out to 340WLFN's.. Brian Pearce of "Handloader and Rifle Magazines" has a custom built 1894 SS with a 1:16 twist barrel. It is a one of a kind made by David Clay and he told me he paid $alot for it... That gun will put 5 shots inside .75" at 75 yards with 340 gr boolits, with boring regularity. However this is well into .45-70 ballistics so one must ask why? He's a big guy and can take what this gun dishes out on the back end. It is a 6.5 lb gun!
You'll notice I keep saying "Boolits." These guns are best used with Cast boolits, and just so you understand why, a 250 gr Semi Wadcutter boolit will go clean thru an elk in any direction at 900 fps. I can get this out of my revolvers with midrange loads. Expansion is not necessary, you are leaving a 1/2" hole behind.
Here's a few to choose from and I have several more. Except for the short one they are all around 240-260 gr.
Sorry I can't get these pics to come up , thought I had this beat.
http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/hh568/buchananprec/ParaLDA1640163_zps52c3e0b3.jpg[IMG]
My standard load of 22 gr of H110 runs a 260 gr Lyman 429244GC right at 1600fps. My standard load for these boolits used to be 24 gr of H110, however the extra velocity gained by the larger charge only drives the boolit further into the dirt on the back side of the animal, and it is already going in pretty deep with the lighter charge. Recoil is noticeably heavier with no real payback. Accuracy is good enough to hit a 6" steel gong at 100 yards with iron sights every single time off a rest, and most of the time offhand.
I ask you,,, what more do you need?
Randy
I have since sold both of the 20" guns but still have and shoot the 1894 CB24".. I do all my own work on these guns and they can be made into the slickest Leverguns out there with about 2 hours of simple to do work, just deburring and smoothing out some of the high spots. Info on how to do this process is available at www.leverguns.com.
Bandit: you would be much better off just buying a .44. Converting a .357 will entail many changes to the insides of the action and not really be cost effective. Just getting the barrel isn't enough, and it will probably cost a bunch anyway. I have looked at doing this for many years and it is simply a loser. Just find a .44 and buy it.
There are outfits that can bore out your barrel as well. about $250 and then you need a new lifter, bolt, (which must be fitted) magazine tube and all the small pieces that are different between the two models.
Any of these guns come up on Gunbroker daily. I don't know if you can import to Canada, nice unfired ones tend to go for a lot more than they should but as soon as Remington conquers the quality issues completely,,, prices on the older ones will come down. The newest guns I have seen on Dealer shelves are as good or better than anything Marlin ever made at the old plant.
There has been talk of Marlin changing the twist rate on the 44's to 1:20 for several years now but they haven't actually done it. Although now that Remington owns the outfit and makes all the guns in Illion NY, they are sounding more receptive to the change. They have recently came out with some upgraded models with nicer wood and the gun parts are all made with CNC Machinery now, so tolerance wise they are pretty good.
Barrels for .44 Magnum Rifles typically run .431 +/-.002. Mine is dead on .431 so a boolit of at least .432 is necessary to seal the bore properly and prevent leading. The company has been encouraged by many learned people to change the twist rate and tighten the bore to .430 owever as of yet we haven't seen any.
You will find that any of them will shoot up to 250 gr boolits pretty well. Most guns will shoot up to 265 or 280gr boolits if they are short and fat. However they have to be driven hard to get tight groups. 1600fps or above. but still you are looking at 2-3" at 100 yards being the best average accuracy you are going to see. However, and this is a big point, These are 150 yards guns at best, and 3" at 100 is more than adequate accuracy for all intents and purposes one would use one of these rifles for..
There are two ways to stabilize a larger bullet,,, faster twist or higher velocity.
As far as rebarreling to a faster twist, the gains you would see will only show up with longer boolits like 300+ gr out to 340WLFN's.. Brian Pearce of "Handloader and Rifle Magazines" has a custom built 1894 SS with a 1:16 twist barrel. It is a one of a kind made by David Clay and he told me he paid $alot for it... That gun will put 5 shots inside .75" at 75 yards with 340 gr boolits, with boring regularity. However this is well into .45-70 ballistics so one must ask why? He's a big guy and can take what this gun dishes out on the back end. It is a 6.5 lb gun!
You'll notice I keep saying "Boolits." These guns are best used with Cast boolits, and just so you understand why, a 250 gr Semi Wadcutter boolit will go clean thru an elk in any direction at 900 fps. I can get this out of my revolvers with midrange loads. Expansion is not necessary, you are leaving a 1/2" hole behind.
Here's a few to choose from and I have several more. Except for the short one they are all around 240-260 gr.
Sorry I can't get these pics to come up , thought I had this beat.
http://i1252.photobucket.com/albums/hh568/buchananprec/ParaLDA1640163_zps52c3e0b3.jpg[IMG]
My standard load of 22 gr of H110 runs a 260 gr Lyman 429244GC right at 1600fps. My standard load for these boolits used to be 24 gr of H110, however the extra velocity gained by the larger charge only drives the boolit further into the dirt on the back side of the animal, and it is already going in pretty deep with the lighter charge. Recoil is noticeably heavier with no real payback. Accuracy is good enough to hit a 6" steel gong at 100 yards with iron sights every single time off a rest, and most of the time offhand.
I ask you,,, what more do you need?
Randy
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I dont want to convert a 357, i sold the 357 to fund the project. I want a factory 44 mag 1894 24" barre and .429-.430 borel, but since I can't find one (1:20 twist) I'm about ready to get one made.
Why the 24 inch barrel? Because I like long barrels. Always had. Love the 12"mares legs and the 24 inch long rifles, even get a 26 since its a custom because I'm not much for anything in between
Why the 24 inch barrel? Because I like long barrels. Always had. Love the 12"mares legs and the 24 inch long rifles, even get a 26 since its a custom because I'm not much for anything in between
Them is really nice shootin' irons! And an excellent blurb as well. Good to have another confirmation that "Remlin" has sorted out its quality-control problems. My next-door neighbour picked up a "used-like-new" 1894 .44 a couple of years ago. It looked like it had never been fired and it was pretty dire. The wood was barely ordinary and the action, even allowing for its lack of use, didn't feel great. It functioned OK but it was far below my c.1990 model.
I remember that Brian Pearce article on his custom Clay .44 mag. and must look it up again. Wasn't it also a takedown? I recall something about it being useful to take along when he was travelling places where he couldn't take a handgun. That was one very slick rifle and yes, I'll bet it didn't come cheap.
EDIT: I just pulled the article on that .44 (Rifle Mag. Issue 237, May/08) That is a VERY nice piece of workmanship. Can even be taken down with rounds in the mag. tube. Clay installed a Shilen 1:16 twist barrel so he's good to go up to 340 gr. Targets show three rounds touching @ 75 yds. using the XS aperture sights.
Stuart
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There are a lot of custom barrel makers around. I assume at least one of them can make a .430 barrel and give it a fairly fast twist if that is what turns your crank.
The barrel would need chambering, threading and a bit of work to hang the mag, etc.
I can see why you want a 24" barrel. With a rear peep it would be an accurate rig. Especially with a quality custom barrel.
Have you checked with Krieger, McLennan, Smith and Gaillard about 44 cal barrels?
The barrel would need chambering, threading and a bit of work to hang the mag, etc.
I can see why you want a 24" barrel. With a rear peep it would be an accurate rig. Especially with a quality custom barrel.
Have you checked with Krieger, McLennan, Smith and Gaillard about 44 cal barrels?
I found a place that will do what I want, but doesn't polish or blue barres so I may have to go stainless steel. Hadn't thought of stainless yet, kinda more bling than I wanted, but it,might look alright. Is there a way to darken stainless? I'd hate to rattle can a 900 dollar barrel job.
