I recently started reloading for my wife's new Marlin 1895 SBL in 45-70. I'm using Rainer Plated FP 350gr bullets over 44.2gr of IMR 3031. Basically max for an 1873, but a few grains below starting for my particular rifle.
Using data from the Lyman 49th ed, I loaded to the recommend COAL at 2.550" which also happens to be max COAL.
The first time out I immediately noticed that these rounds gave me some trouble chambering without squeezing the level pretty significantly. I realized something wasn't quite right, so I ejected the round before firing it and double check I had the OAL correct. That also required some force to get the round out which seemed to have firmly engaged the rifling.
Next time out, I re-adjusted a new batch to around 2.545" to 2.540" thinking that would do the trick. Although the lever was definitely easier to close this time, it still required a fair amount of force to go into battery. After test chambering a couple of these, I popped them back out and measured the setback. I was a little surprised to find they had set back down to "2.534 to "2.520.
Firing these showed no pressure signs which was not surprising given that they are already a pretty light load. However, since I'm not nearly as experienced a reloader as many here, I wanted to get some feedback to see if this sort of thing is normal? Do you guys think it would be OK to try a new batch using this short of an COAL? This is also a Freedom Group produced Marlin and, given the problems they've had in the past, I'm wondering if maybe my chamber is possibly a a few hundredths shorter than spec?
Using data from the Lyman 49th ed, I loaded to the recommend COAL at 2.550" which also happens to be max COAL.
The first time out I immediately noticed that these rounds gave me some trouble chambering without squeezing the level pretty significantly. I realized something wasn't quite right, so I ejected the round before firing it and double check I had the OAL correct. That also required some force to get the round out which seemed to have firmly engaged the rifling.
Next time out, I re-adjusted a new batch to around 2.545" to 2.540" thinking that would do the trick. Although the lever was definitely easier to close this time, it still required a fair amount of force to go into battery. After test chambering a couple of these, I popped them back out and measured the setback. I was a little surprised to find they had set back down to "2.534 to "2.520.
Firing these showed no pressure signs which was not surprising given that they are already a pretty light load. However, since I'm not nearly as experienced a reloader as many here, I wanted to get some feedback to see if this sort of thing is normal? Do you guys think it would be OK to try a new batch using this short of an COAL? This is also a Freedom Group produced Marlin and, given the problems they've had in the past, I'm wondering if maybe my chamber is possibly a a few hundredths shorter than spec?
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