Chamfering the Chamber Mouth on your Marlin 1894 rifle.

Many people experience poor feeding with lead boolits in the Marlin 1894 series of guns. Lots of people promote only using Round Nose Flat Point boolits to get around this. However the real performance from these pistol calibers is in using Semi Wadcutters like Lyman .429421 or 429244 or clones. As we all know these boolits were designed by Keith and Thompson for hunting but give superior all around accuracy in both Revolvers and Rifles. They will go clean thru just about anything in the US and similar sized game anywhere else. IMHO they are the best boolits for these cartridges there is.

There are about 8-10 different versions of these boolits from 215 gr (in .44 cal) to over 260 gr. with various HPs and Gas Checks, etc..44 cal SWC moulds are available from Lee Lyman RCBS, and all the custom mould makers my personal favorite being the excellent moulds by Mihec.

The biggest problem in trying to use these boolits in Marlin Leverguns is the fact that the chamber mouth is left sharp. When the Cartridge Lifter pins the new round against the top of the receiver and the bolt pushes it forward towards the chamber, the sharp edge of the chamber mouth digs into the boolit and stops it.. This is especially true with SWC's as they have a nice little step to catch on the Chamber Mouth.

I first experienced this in 2004 with my 1894 CB in .44 caliber. I wanted to use some LBT 250 gr. Wide Flat Nose Boolits I got from Beartooth Bullets but the Meplat was so wide that the chamber mouth gouged into it and stopped every round from going in the hole.

I had a real good look at what was going on and decided to break that sharp edge. On my gun I really wanted a Radius but had no way to do it without getting a special cutter made, so I used a 6 flute Severance Countersink on an extension and turned it by hand until I had enough chamfer.(.040-.050.) It took about 5 minutes to get the chamfer large enough as the barrel material is pretty soft.. I then smoothed out the edges of the chamfer with 400 grit W or D sandpaper and the result is in the pic below which I have posted here no less than 50 times!

My gun will cycle any .44 Magnum or Special cartridge, with any boolit I choose to use, as fast as you can run the lever. With no sharp edge to dig into the boolit the cartridge just slips right into the chamber. It feeds RN style boolits just as fast and there is no lead shaving to affect accuracy.

The Extractor Groove on these cartridges is .060 in width. Thus that area of the case is not supported in any way by the chamber. Also inside the case the extractor groove is actually in the sold base of the case so it doesn't need to be supported in any event..

This is not hard to do, and it works great, and is completely safe, and I hope the Mods will make this a Sticky so I don't have to post the picture and explanation 50 more times.

That's all there is to it.

Good luck

Randy

great work, and a great tip! Thanks!

That tip isn't only for rifles, I had it done to an Ithaca Ultralight shotgun (by the factory).

(Copying my post from the other thread)

"They already come like that from the factory
Attachment 241771
The feeding length problem is also different, mine will feed atleast a full 100 thousandths more than what posts from 5-10 years ago say

Unless your buying an old one most online info is outdated already"

I just dont want people to be confused, everytime i say i have a 1894 they assume i have a sharp chamber mouth, can only feed 1.58 length and have a microgroove barrel. None of those 3 things are true of mine that i purchased new in 2018. I dont want people considering buying one to change there mind because they think it needs work.

Does anyone else have a newer one that can confirm what year changes happened?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bmortell

(Copying my post from the other thread)

"They already come like that from the factory
Attachment 241771
The feeding length problem is also different, mine will feed atleast a full 100 thousandths more than what posts from 5-10 years ago say

Unless your buying an old one most online info is outdated already"

I just dont want people to be confused, everytime i say i have a 1894 they assume i have a sharp chamber mouth, can only feed 1.58 length and have a microgroove barrel. None of those 3 things are true of mine that i purchased new in 2018. I dont want people considering buying one to change there mind because they think it needs work.

Does anyone else have a newer one that can confirm what year changes happened?

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I had a lengthy discussion with Remington's Vice President of sales at the SHOT Show in 2017 about doing this.

I can't believe they actually did it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a simple fix only requiring that the chamfer be integrated into the Chambering Reamers when they were ground. No increase to production time whatsoever as the chamfer was cut as the reamer came to it's nominal depth. I actually suggested a ..050 Radius, but a chamfer is easier to grind and just as effective in the end.

I have had an effect!!!

Wow maybe they'll change the rifling twist which I have complained about every year for the last 6-8 years. Also prominent gun writers like Brian Pearce have suggested going to a 1:16-1:20 twist for the .44's for many years. Maybe they'll actually do it?

I was told that at Remington any change to the production procedure virtually took an Act of God himself, as all of the ramifications up and down the line had to be considered. Thus any changes took forever to be incorporated into the production program.

However this does show that Remington is actually interested in improving their products and willing to take input from customers.

Still, all of the guns made before this change will benefit from the operation.

As far as the OAL length feeding is concerned mine was made in 2004 and it has always fed my SWC .44 Magnum loads which are 1.680-85. This is all about the length of the step on the lifter and many of the older modded ones will feed rounds as long a s 1.750. Point being, this is nothing new.

Randy