I know you guys hold back on your opinions, but I'd like to hear what some here think with more experience than me...
I bought a Marlin lever gun in 44 mag and I probably don't have to say it's a fun shooter. I've been shooting a 240 LSWC with 19.5 grains of #9. This is close to the 20.2 grain max and Accurate's load book shows about 1400fps from a 8" barrel. At 25 yards I shot clover leafs from a bench rest. At 50 yards it opened up to 2" but most likely more me than the gun. At 100 yards I can't get it on the paper! What happened at 100 yards? This is my first time with buckhorn sights and I'm not thrilled with them. I do have a rear peep coming, but still! Am I pushing lead to fast? Is 100 yards to much for a SWC bullet? Maybe I should try a box of factory ammo and see what happens? What would you guys do to logically work this out?

Collo, your experience mirrors mine, so I am not going to be any help. (although, I could hit the paper at 100)

I have put the AO rail and sight on my 1894, but I haven't mounted a scope yet to see what happens at 100. I suspect it will be a lot better than what I can do with either the peeps or buckhorns... I would like to see what the more sage members have to say.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ

Always nice to know your not alone.

It's you. Buckthorns take a Little getting used to if you shoot peep or partridge.

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NRA Cert. Inst. IDPA CSO

Try a 240 gr jacketed with the recommended load.

I would expect 3 to 4 inch groups with a scope. The stock iron sights look a bit big at 100 yards. Hard to index properly. A rear peep sight and a thinner Patridge front blade will help. Check out the Skinner set of sights.

Used to be pretty good with my 94 30 years ago.Tried my sons new Henry the other day and its a bear trying to see that front sight...

I have a Skinner lo-pro on order.

Check if it has traditional "Ballard" rifling, or polygonal rifling like a Glock.

Lead bullets supposedly don't work well in polygonal rifled barrels.

Just a thought.

It's not the front sight, it's the rear buckhorn. I have no problem focusing on the front but when I do I can't tell were that little notch is in the rear. I have peeps on my AR and M1a. I'm not bad with either one of them so ordered the skinner. I was thinking maybe changing bullet to a RN. I have a recollection of reading about SWC's not flying straight after a distance. Am I wrong?

+1 on this. Also rifles often have a .432 size barrel. You might have to try some larger bullets if you want to use cast. Slug you barrel to find out. I like the special slugs from Lead Bullet Technologies. No hammer required.

Some Marlin .44 rifles are known to have an oversized groove diameter, which will cause the bullet to tumble or yaw. You may need a lead bullet sized to 0.431" or 0.432" to seal properly. (q.v. Hickok45 on this subject). Jacketed bullets have more friction, and upset for a good seal as small as 0.429". It's not necessarily a microgroove v Ballard thing.

Marlins also have a 38" twist, which will barely stabilize a 300 gr bullet, much less anything heavier. A light load may have some stability issues at longer range as well, due to low velocity.

I have the same rifle and my usual load is nearly identical to yours, except I use a truncated cone bullet instead of a SWC.
I haven't finished my testing, but I think the accuracy of pistol caliber carbines could be summarized as 1 minute of a deer at 100 yds. Actually I can get consecutive shots close, but the barrel is thin walled so the barrel moves a lot as it's temperature changes.

Suggest trying a box of factory ammo, or handloading the Hornady 240 gr XTP. You'll have to wait a while between shots to allow the heat to dissipate.

Everybody that slugs a Marlin barrel seems to come out at 432, including me. I've shot 430 and 432 cast and the 432 groups a little better. There wasn't any leading in either case. Penn Bullet alloy seems to hold up just fine with velocities in the 1600 fps range.

My Henry .44 was all over the place and leading in the first 1.5 inches of of barrel in front of the chamber, until I went to .432 sized cast bullets, I use a custom mold from Accurate Mold its a 240gr LRN-FP. Now no more leading and shoots great now. Just a note one of my loads is 16.2 grains of AA#9 behind my 240gr LRn-FP that run 1440 fps out of my Henry verified across my chrono on many occasions. If you running 19.5 grains of AA#9..a 240 gr bullet is zooming, Accurate ARms used a 8.75 test barrel and shows 20.5 grs running 1450 fps out of it...... our rifle barrels are twice the length and some. your load is likely close to 1600 fps with 19.5 grs out of a 20 inch barrell

Just fyi, the SAAMI spec is actually different for the bore of a 44 rifle vs pistol. It may not be that they are oversize.

Thanks! With your suggestions I did some research and it didn't take long to find out Marlins, Henrys and Ruger rifles seem to slug to .432. My 240gr. LSWC's are .430. I can say they're not tumbling as when I do hit paper it's a perfect hole!
My Marlin (probably like yours) is ballard rifling, 6 groves, 1:38 twist. I guess I'll have to spend some money as I don't cast and cheap bulk bullets are all .430 sized.
May I ask with 1:38 what weight bullet would you guys recommend? From what I've read it seems to favor lighter bullets.

Pistol bullets are not as aerodynamic as rifle bullets and no matter how fast you start them, they slow down quickly.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Your Marlin 44 mag shoots as great as mine did. My hundred yard target was 4 FEET square, but my Marlin shot 60" patterns . If there were any bullet holes, the holes were round. My Ruger Super Black Hawk with the same ammo could shoot 12" groups at 100 yards on that 4 foot square target.

I traded that Marlin for a Remington XP-100 in 223 Rem. A five shot group shrank to 1/2" at 100 yards with a 4X Leupold scope.

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S&WHF 366

The old normal bullet weight range of 240-270 gr should be fine. 38 twist is marginal at 300 gr and too slow heavier than that. Personally, if I wanted to hurl 300+ gr pills I would be getting a 444 (which I have on order at the LGS). Just need Marlin to make some!

re: "Tried my sons new Henry the other day and its a bear trying to see that front sight..."...wa....wait.....You say there's a "front sight"??? When did that option appear???

re: hitting paper?

I had a 45-70 Marlin that absolutely did NOT like lead anything. At 50 yards I repeatedly got key holing (IF it hit the target at all) with any of a half-dozen recipes & boolit weights.

Switched to FMJ style and factory loads, 2" at 50 yards all day long.

Yes, it was their much touted 'micro'whatever they called it. <grumblegrumble>

Buckhorn sights do require some practice as well.

Good luck.

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Dum vivimus Vivamas

I would get a good reloading manual that has cast bullet info for rifle loads and follow those instructions. The Lyman Cast Bullet handbook is a good one.

I find that Dardas Cast bullets link offers the greatest range of bullet diameters. In your SWC they offer up to 0.433".

In several 16" carbines in .44 mag, .45 Colt and .357 mag the average velocity increase with a load fired in a 6" pistol vs the rifles was 300 fps.

So I use that as a guideline.

I would go to one of the Cowboy Action Shooting forums, or the Cast Boolits site and inquire there. The Marlins are unique. Between the 1 in 38" twist and the OVEREsized bore...they can be tough to make shoot.

Great gun. Wish I wouldn't have sold mine. But now I have a .45-70 Guide Gun.

Thanks! I've been looking and they have the best prices of anybody that offers different sized bullets.

I give up shooting lead in the various 44 rifles. I load a lot of 44s, Ruger Carbines (3 of them), Marlin 1894s (2 of them) 629s and a Super Redhawk. The handguns are the only ones that get fed any lead bullets. I load pretty much all 240gr Jacketed HP or SP with a very near max load of W296. All but 1 of the Marlin rilfes have Williams peeps, the 1 Marlin has a 2.5X Leupold. Just a guess, but I would say they all (the rifles) can hold a 3-4" group at 100 if I do my part, a little better with the scope. They all have accounted for their fair share of venison!

I own a Henry 44mag I could hit the side of a barn if I was inside of it. I changed the buck horn for a pep site and now I can hit the barn from the outside. The 100 yd. shots are still in the 10 in. group

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Carpriver.

Try 200gr or 225gr. My Ruger Deerstalker is 1:38 and I can barely shoot a eight inch group a 100 yards with 240's. It snugs down to a more reasonable 2-3" group with 200gr. Hornady and peep sights.

I bought a 1894 in 1973 used. I put a Williams Foolproof sight on it right away. To this day it will shoot 2" groups at 100yds from sandbags. It likes 240g JSP's with hot loads. I tried lead years ago, with fair results. I now only feed it what it likes. I like it so much that 2 years ago I had Turnbull clean it up a little. Now it looks as good as it shoots!

I have owned a couple Marlin 1894's in .44 mag., so I'll chime in. The slow twist usually limits you to under 300 grain bullets for accuracy, which is OK, as most Marlins will not feed bullets 300 grains or over. Some have problems feeding SWC period. One of mine did. The cut Ballard rifling is usually more cast friendly, though the Micro-Groove system works well, it just needs bullets sized closer to bore for a good fit.

The fact that you are getting good groups at 25 and 50 yards tends to indicate the lack of precision in your factory sights. Peep sights will make a real difference. Results with a high power scope might surprise you.

If your gun is .432 / .434, using hard cast bullets of the proper size will help. Most likely a gas check will as well when shooting at top velocities, especially if you are experiencing leading.

There is no reason your rifle cant shoot 2 to 3 inch groups at 100 yards using cast. Mine would using properly sized hard cast 240 / 250 grn. SWC's and RN's over healthy charges of 296 powder, at about 1800 fps.

Just like any rifle load where accuracy is important, experimenting with powder charges, primers, weighing bullets to weed out the over / under weights, inspecting bases for deformation, checking bullet run-out, etc., all contribute to accuracy.

With a little experimentation, there is no reason cast cannot shoot just about as well as jacketed in these guns. A SWC bullet is not a slippery as a boat tail 30 cal. jacketed rifle bullet, but they are stable at the ranges and velocities we are talking. My Ruger Redhawk pistol, with a 6X scope mounted, will shoot cast SWC's into 3 inches at 100 yards from a bench, with loads it likes.

Let us know how it works with those Skinners...

Larry

I thought I'd give you guys an update. Received the Skinner lo-pro rear peep yesterday and installed it this mourning. Like very much! Sighting through it with the rear buckhorn folded though made me realize I was not sighted down the middle of the folded buckhorn! After playing with string and straight edges I found the leaf spring that holds the sight has a twist to it. The notch is to the right and the rear buckhorn is not level with the receiver. No wonder I wasn't hitting the paper!
I picked up some lead sinkers from Walmart to slug the barrel. With the peep sight and some proper size bullets I hope to have a rifle that will put a bullet some where close to where I aim.