Range Report Two Marlin Antiques

[delta-419]

A few weeks ago I got in a day at the range shooting two of my antique rifles; a Marlin 1889 in 38-40, circa 1894 and a "new to me" Marlin 1889 32-20 rifle circa first year production. The 38-40 was on target at 50 yards and the 32-20 was all over the target. What to do? The rifling in the 32-20 is very strong although bore is typical of a black powder dark bore. I know that antique rifles often have bores all over the map when size of bore diameter is in question. I was shooting .312 diameter cast lead bullets with poor performance as seen in the photos. The 38-40 gave me no problems and printed good groups at 50 yards (top half of target). A lot of the .312 bullets tended to tumble or keyhole (back of target). My first response was that I needed to slug the barrel. That was the next step and looking at my stash of 32 cast bullets I chose 3 to slug down the barrel. See bullet photos. All of the cast bullets were scored by the rifling, some more than others. I have been trying to decide which diameter is best to reload for an accuracy test or just load a dozen of each and do some bench type shooting at the next range visit. These two rifles are a piece of history, the
38-40 is 129 years old and the 32-20 is 134 years old. What do I do to make the old 32-20 shoot better?

 

[delta-419]

Additional Bullet Sizes

I slugged several cast lead bullets and here are three and what the slugs looked like after the process> Which looks best for stable flight?

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I size my 32-20 bullets to .314" in a Lyman 450 bullet sizer. I use a full wadcutter bullet punch since they are flat point bullets. Bullet alloy should be pure Lead or no more than 5% Tin and avoid wheel weights, they and Lyman #2 are too hard for the old Ballard rifling.

Mine is about 100 years newer, but they work the same.

Ivan

ETA: I use the Lyman 3115 bullet mold in a Gas Check version (which doesn't matter) but the 115-117 grain weight is important. The Lyman mold is the gold standard, the copies are merely copies!

Ivan

 

[dwh]

Delta, as Ivan suggested go with the.314s and a softer alloy. I have a high wall in 32-20 with an absolute garbage bore. It's dark and pitted. At 25yards the target looks like I threw a handful of bullets at it. I tried some 100gr. .32cal XTP's in it and now I get 1/2inch groups at 50yards. I know it goes against conventional wisdom to shoot jacketed bullets in an antique firearm. But if it's not shooting it worth a try, 15 shots are not going to ruin the bore.

 

[Alk8944]

Many years ago I had a .32-20 1892 Winchester rifle. It simply would not shoot cast bullets no matter what, and the bore looked fine. It would shoot jacketed .32-20 bullets, Remington 100 grain when you could get them, just fine, but cast were a dead loss.

From the looks of those slugs that bore is not nearly as good as you seem to think it is!

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

Perhaps a dumb question on my behalf but are the bullet diameters noted in your pics the bullet diameter before slugging, or are they the measured diameters after slugging?

The .311" certainly was certainly cut by the rifling but it doesn't look to have sealed the bore in the groves. the .313" look marginally better but the .314" is hard to tell by the picture. Did you measure any of the slugged bullets for bore diameter?
When you slugged the barrel, were there any looser sections, or tighter? And how does the muzzle crown on the 32-20 compare with the 38-40?

I recently had my model 92 Winchester in 38-40 re-lined after giving up on getting it to shoot well. It had a section of corrosion about 3-4" from the chamber which could easily be felt when I slugged the barrel and while cleaning with tight patches. The bore otherwise look fair but dark, similar to that of my model 92 32-20, which shoots 2" groups consistently at 50 yards.
After the re-line, the 38-40 went from 2 foot groups to 1 1/2" at 50 yards with open sights. And that is without a properly crowned muzzle.

I shoot the Lyman 3118 and have also used the swaged Hornaday 90 gr SWCs in my 32-20. The only time I have ever experienced tumbling in a good bore is with light powder loads.

I hope you can find the right bullet/powder combination for your 32-20, but sometimes
a re-lined barrel is the only solution.

John

 

[delta-419]

Bullet Measurements

The bullet size as written on the pink slips was the size before they were slugged in the barrel.

 

[TIMETRIPPER]

Try the .314" bullets. Hard to tell from the pics but the slugged .314" bullet looks to have the best bore contact. Appears shiny in both the lands and groves which indicates a good seal.
And again, take a good look at the muzzle crown. If it is worn and off center accuracy will suffer.

John