Marlin 1894 44 Magnum loads?

[joshb]

Looking for guys that have them to mention what works in your guns. I just picked up a JM Marlin Stainless Steel 1894 made in 2007, one of the last ones made before Remington took over. It is not a micro grooved barrel. Any help will save time and components.
Today I picked up some supplies to try in it. I bought a 500 box of Xtreme plated 240 grain bullets for plinking, along with 2 boxes of Hornady 180 FP , 2 of 240s and a box of 300 grainers for serious stuff.
I have H110 and I bought some AA 7 and a pound of IMR 4227.
I’ve been shooting a Smith & Wesson 629 44 Mag for 30 years and wanted to try a lever gun.
Thanks!
Josh

 

[drop_point]

H110 and 240 gr XTP worked well for me.

 

[nakneker]

Looking for guys that have them to mention what works in your guns. I just picked up a JM Marlin Stainless Steel 1894 made in 2007, one of the last ones made before Remington took over. It is not a micro grooved barrel. Any help will save time and components.
Today I picked up some supplies to try in it. I bought a 500 box of Xtreme plated 240 grain bullets for plinking, along with 2 boxes of Hornady 180 FP , 2 of 240s and a box of 300 grainers for serious stuff.
I have H110 and I bought some AA 7 and a pound of IMR 4227.
I’ve been shooting a Smith & Wesson 629 44 Mag for 30 years and wanted to try a lever gun.
Thanks!
Josh

What are you looking for Josh? Plinking loads, serious business loads and what kind of business would they be for, subsonic, give us an idea. I don’t have a ton of experience with that cartridge but I have been having a lot of fun with 240s and 300s both subsonic and stout stuff.

 

[joshb]

What are you looking for Josh? Plinking loads, serious business loads and what kind of business would they be for, subsonic, give us an idea. I don’t have a ton of experience with that cartridge but I have been having a lot of fun with 240s and 300s both subsonic and stout stuff.

Hey Sean! I’m looking at mild plinking and heavy hunting loads. I’ve been sitting here doing research on the gun. I always wanted the old JM in Stainless and got it. I’m reading that it has a 1/38 twist, so I’m thinking it will do better with lighter bullets with lite loads for plinking and the 240s driven hard. I’ll try the 180s near max, too. They should be fine for Coyotes.
I’m also finding out that the new Ruger/Marlins have a 1/20 twist, so I think I need one of those too!

 

[nakneker]

Hey Sean! I’m looking at mild plinking and heavy hunting loads. I’ve been sitting here doing research on the gun. I always wanted the old JM in Stainless and got it. I’m reading that it has a 1/38 twist, so I’m thinking it will do better with lighter bullets with lite loads for plinking and the 240s driven hard. I’ll try the 180s near max, too. They should be fine for Coyotes.
I’m also finding out that the new Ruger/Marlins have a 1/20 twist, so I think I need one of those too

Good excuse to buy a second one! I’ve been shooting mostly jacketed bullets in 240 and 300. I have the 1/20 twist, it’ll stabilize those 300s. I’ve been using a variety of powders including AA#9, IMR 4227 and Unique, the unique is for the sub stuff. Nice thing about IMR 4227 is the high fill rate, I’m using over 20 grains of it with a 300 grain bullet mostly because I have a pile of it buts it’s been doing a really good job. AA#9 also have a good amount of fill and lessens the chances of a double charge. H110 and 296 seem like the powders most guys use, that with 2400 but my accuracy has been good in 240 grains and 300 grains with both of those.

Unique is dirty but it’s good for the bunny fart loads, I don’t have my suppressor yet so I’ve just been having fun with the mild loads of the porch.

Good luck, let us know how it goes and congrats on a fun rifle!

 

[mmcu]

Yup! Nothing gets loaded if it’s over what my manuals say is max.
I’m hoping someone has found a bullet/powder combo that shines.

With a 240 grain jacketed bullet, 23.5 grains of H110, or W296, has worked well in all of the 44 Magnums I've loaded for. These include a S&W 629, an Encore 10" pistol barrel and a 24" Encore rifle barrel. They hit hard and anchor what your aiming at.

 

[chop house]

interesting you bring this up right now. i have been sorting out ammo i loaded from the 80's when i shot both 1894 and super blackhawk. i am going to hunt with the rsb this year. back then i used 2400 exclusively, and with 240 gr jhp (usually hornady version) went with 21.5 for rifle, 20.5 for revolver, and 19.5 for revolver practice loads - to work on my flinch. hahaha. ymmv.

which brings me to two questions.... ramshot enforcer looks (in the books at least) a lot like 2400.

1. how much has 2400 changed over the years (or is it simply new more conservative data being published)?
2. what success have people had with enforcer?

 

[RegionRat]

@chop house
Sometimes its the powder lot-to-lot variations.
Sometimes it is the test barrels being used to develop the data.
Sometimes it is the bullets, brass, primers, methods, etc.

Some variation is normal, but they don't publish the statistics on how much noise there is in their published values. Any time you look at load data, behind it is a statistic and they don't tell you how they handle it most of the time.

 

[bozo699]

Looking for guys that have them to mention what works in your guns. I just picked up a JM Marlin Stainless Steel 1894 made in 2007, one of the last ones made before Remington took over. It is not a micro grooved barrel. Any help will save time and components.
Today I picked up some supplies to try in it. I bought a 500 box of Xtreme plated 240 grain bullets for plinking, along with 2 boxes of Hornady 180 FP , 2 of 240s and a box of 300 grainers for serious stuff.
I have H110 and I bought some AA 7 and a pound of IMR 4227.
I’ve been shooting a Smith & Wesson 629 44 Mag for 30 years and wanted to try a lever gun.
Thanks!
Josh

Josh,
I have a Henry 44 and it really likes H110 with 240xtp’s W296 is the same as 110 , I have not chronographed it but it’s on the upper end in Hornaday manual, I can look but I think one charge down from the top, at 50 with open sights I can keep it under a inch probably is better than that but my 60 year old eyes can’t do any better. Also AA #7 & #9 work well in it.
Wayne

 

[bozo699]

Hey Sean! I’m looking at mild plinking and heavy hunting loads. I’ve been sitting here doing research on the gun. I always wanted the old JM in Stainless and got it. I’m reading that it has a 1/38 twist, so I’m thinking it will do better with lighter bullets with lite loads for plinking and the 240s driven hard. I’ll try the 180s near max, too. They should be fine for Coyotes.
I’m also finding out that the new Ruger/Marlins have a 1/20 twist, so I think I need one of those too!

Josh,
You mentioned it didn’t have the micro groved barrel, you can shoot cast in that one no problem for your plinking loads and save a bunch on projectiles. The micro groves had problems lead fouling
Wayne

 

[RegionRat]

Looking for guys that have them to mention what works in your guns. I just picked up a JM Marlin Stainless Steel 1894 made in 2007, one of the last ones made before Remington took over. It is not a micro grooved barrel. Any help will save time and components.
Today I picked up some supplies to try in it. I bought a 500 box of Xtreme plated 240 grain bullets for plinking, along with 2 boxes of Hornady 180 FP , 2 of 240s and a box of 300 grainers for serious stuff.
I have H110 and I bought some AA 7 and a pound of IMR 4227.
I’ve been shooting a Smith & Wesson 629 44 Mag for 30 years and wanted to try a lever gun.
Thanks!
Josh

Josh, if you have a set of handgun loads in the same bullet weight, then I would give those a try first.

Often as not, a companion lever rifle is going to do at least decent with the sister handgun load.

I used full pressure H110 with magnum primers, 240 gr JHP, and used a good crimp on those loads. That brass was trimmed to tolerance in order for those crimps to be identical. That detail isn't normally sensitive, but it is with 44 Mag at full pressure.

ETA: and for less expensive plinking loads, if leading becomes an issue... keep the polymer coated in mind, and also the copper plated.
Those options are less expensive than JHP and they bypass the leading issue if you can live with plinking at reduced pressures where these run.

 

[jsn]

1. how much has 2400 changed over the years (or is it simply new more conservative data being published)?

This guy on the Cast Boolits web site has pressure test equipment and did a test on 1982 Herco 2400 versus 2019 Alliant 2400. Quite a bit of difference. I realize he did this for 357 magnum but I can't imagine the result in 44 magnum would be different.

Test of Hercules vs Alliant 2400 in the 357 Magnum with 6 different primers

This the result of a test I conducted in response to a discussion which posed several questions on the CBA forum. I thought it may be of interest here also. Test of Hercules and Alliant 2400 powder (14 gr each) in the 357 Magnum with a 358156 GC’d cast bullet using 6 different primers...

castboolits.gunloads.com

 

[Tangent]

Mine shoots 240gr cast bullets very accurately with light loads of Unique. It will not shoot exactly the same bullet but 200gr. I also use a 255gr GC cast bullet for magnum loads that shoot very small groups. All are sized to .432, the barrel slugs to .431. The first bullets I tried were hard cast .429, like a shotgun pattern! My light target loads use an alloy of about 15 Brinell hardness.

 

[spudgun]

I have a 1971 Marlin 1894, 44 mag. My pet load for it is:

240 Gr, 21.0 Gr 2400, Mag primer.

Cant remember what the FPS was but it is a easy load to shoot.

 

[vonb]

For plinking, a 240 gr bullet with 9.8 gr of Unique yields me 1,285 fps with a 240 gr jacketed JSP. This is my accuracy node and is a hoot to plink with. Most guys will tell you that somewhere around 10.0 gr of Unique with a 240 gr bullet is the sweet spot.

A max charge of H110 with a 240 gr XTP yields me 1,765 fps out out of my Rossi R92 20" 44 mag. That is my hunting load. This isn't a fun load to shoot on the bench or for extended range sessions.

Lastly, I found that a 200 gr XTP with a max charge of H110 was also really accurate. It was breaking 2,100 fps but felt it was too hot for my needs.

With the slower burning powders, you'll find it will net you up to 500 fps over your revolver. It really changes things.

 

[joshb]

Thanks everybody for the input! I really appreciate it. A few things got me fired up about this. I’ve always liked thumpers. I shot my 44 revolver a lot, back in the day. I have a couple rifles in 45/70 and shoot them but my stores of H4198 are running low. I did a recent inventory and found over 1000 44 magnum reloads with various bullets in them. I decided I should scratch the itch for a lever gun.
I’m going to pull the jacketed bullet reloads apart for the components and work up some loads. I’ll shoot the cast bullet reloads for plinking.
My Hornady book load info uses WLP primers. I used to use Magnum Pistol Primers. I picked up 1k of each to try. I’m going to grab another box of plated bullets that are lighter and try those too.

 

[dhagerty40]

Hey Sean! I’m looking at mild plinking and heavy hunting loads. I’ve been sitting here doing research on the gun. I always wanted the old JM in Stainless and got it. I’m reading that it has a 1/38 twist, so I’m thinking it will do better with lighter bullets with lite loads for plinking and the 240s driven hard. I’ll try the 180s near max, too. They should be fine for Coyotes.
I’m also finding out that the new Ruger/Marlins have a 1/20 twist, so I think I need one of those too!

I learn something new every day! I always thought the JM marlins had a faster twist! Now my Remington/Marlin 1894 in 44Mag likes these loads which also has the 38 twist:

Light load: 200gr polymer coated cast bullet with 8.2grs of WW231. chrono's just under 1300 Fps. My problem is the company stopped making this bullet and after the 700 i have are used up, I need to find a new load

Heavy load: Nosler 240 Gr JHP Or a SRA 240gr JHC with 23.5grs of H110 with a heavy crimp. in The 20" rifle, it chronographs at 1781 Fps. This same load in my 10" Freedom arms 44M revolver chronographs at 1525 Fps.

Now, a hint that I learned for Micro-groove barrels and cast bullets in 44M was to size the bullet to .432" They stated that the accuracy will go up and the leading will stop.

 

[distinguished]

Watching. Picked up an old Marlin .44mag really cheap ($200) several years ago and have not shot more than a couple of rounds of factory ammo through it.

 

[Tangent]

Now, a hint that I learned for Micro-groove barrels and cast bullets in 44M was to size the bullet to .432" They stated that the accuracy will go up and the leading will stop.

Exactly. Mine now shoots a nice ragged hole at 25m offhand if I do my bit.