Marlin 1895 and COAL question

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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?
 
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Saami specs list 2.490 as minimum length so if the bullet is interfering with the throat/rifling adjust back to that dimension to see if the round loads freely. If it does adjust the round back out until you feel the slightest resistance and then back it down a few thousandths for the final seating depth adjustment, good luck.
 
Saami specs list 2.490 as minimum length so if the bullet is interfering with the throat/rifling adjust back to that dimension to see if the round loads freely. If it does adjust the round back out until you feel the slightest resistance and then back it down a few thousandths for the final seating depth adjustment, good luck.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I just gauged the overall length of the chamber using a dummy round w/ 10 different bullets of the same lot and they measured between 2.518-2.510" after chambering. As cold1 mentioned, I'm guessing that the ogive of these particular plated bullets sit a bit further forward than similar FMJ data. I'll probably do some more research to confirm, but am thinking now of trying a oal of around 2.505 or so.
 
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