.38/.357 Lever Action Rifle Question

[luckyrxc]

Hello,

I am considering getting a lever gun in .357.

I have a couple of questions and I am hoping someone can offer me some insight.

1. Confirm that I can shoot .38 special brass. Or do I need to load .357 brass?

2. I load .38/.357 for pistol on a D 550B and want to confirm I can use the same ammo. Can I get away without trimming case length if my loads are low pressure plinking rounds?

3. Am I ok to load 38 round nose bullets considering the magazine tube orientation? They look to be similar in profile to the 30-30 bullet so I am guessing I am ok here.

4. I am open to any other nuggets of help as well.

Many thanks,

Lucky!

 

[ThrottleJockey]

I've been looking at them too, and it is my understanding that they will run both .38special and .357mag both right out of the box. I'm not into reloading, but I would assume you just load them exactly as if they were intended for a pistol. I've found a couple NIB(not easy to find right now), but would much prefer a gently used rifle. I plan to make it my "camp" rifle. Along side my .357 wheel gun it should be perfect for plinking and defense against natures campsite intruders.

 

[luckyrxc]

Agreed

Thanks for your reply Throttlejockey,

I am interested for the same reasons as you. Additionally, I love shooting my 30-30 lever actions but they don't see much action due to ammo cost. I could start to reload for them but I am already set up for .38 and the production cost is reasonable.

 

[HuntAndFish]

I have a Winchester 94 in .357 Magnum and have shot factory manufactured .38 special out of it for years with no problems. Low power LRN bullets too.

 

[dave from mesa]

Lucky
1. Yes either will work
2 Yes. I don't trim pistol ammo but you will get diff answers to that question. You're 550 will work fine.
Make sure the rounds are powerful enough to have the bullet make it out the barrel. They don't have to be hot but really light loads may not make it out the barrel.
3. Round nose as well as flat nose will work fine.

Good Luck

 

[luckyrxc]

Thanks All

Hi Hunt and Fish and Dave from Mesa,

I appreciate the help. Goodness, looks like an excuse to go shopping!

Thanks again,

Lucky

 

[easyrider604]

My replies are based on my experience with the Marlin 1894C only.

1. Confirm that I can shoot .38 special brass. Or do I need to load .357 brass?

My Marlin 1894C will jam the lever solid in half stroke position if I feed it .38 special ammo. This jam will happen before 9 rounds are fired, in other words, within the first magazine load. It has never jammed using .357 magnum loaded to 1.58 inch OAL.

2. I load .38/.357 for pistol on a D 550B and want to confirm I can use the same ammo. Can I get away without trimming case length if my loads are low pressure plinking rounds?

A lever rifle is manually operated so "low pressure" will not matter. Case length will matter, it even says so in the owner's manual for Marlin 1894.
You may use your pistol ammo, keeping in my that f you load to OAL within 1.59 inch +0 -.01 inch, I think you will be fine.

3. Am I ok to load 38 round nose bullets considering the magazine tube orientation? They look to be similar in profile to the 30-30 bullet so I am guessing I am ok here.

Not sure about RN bullets. The rounded nose may cause primers to detonated, too risky for me. I only use SWC to ensure that there is no way for bullet noses to detonate primers under recoil, especially under magnum recoil.

4. I am open to any other nuggets of help as well.

I have heard that the Puma 92 rifles are not prone to jamming with 38 special OAL. The 92 action is much smoother out of the box than 1894, in my opinion. Check them out.
If you really want Marlin 1894C, do some research with 180 grain LSWC loads in 38 special brass. If your OAL reaches 1.58 inch, you should be free from the Marlin jam. I have not tried this yet.

 

[woof]

There is plenty of factory .38sp ammo with sufficient overall length to keep the 1894 from jamming. I have had two and neither ever jammed.

 

[76shuvlinoff]

I have a 77 Marlin 94c. I picked it up last fall. I do not reload but factory .38 spcl ammo has not be an issue as long as I operate the lever firmly (not yanking on it, just smoothly with authority)

 

[ilmonster]

I have a Marlin 1894C and it feeds both .38 and .357 just fine. As someone else said, it's lever action so pressure doesn't matter. Load them up however you like and enjoy.

 

[edrice]

The Marlin should be able to fire both without jamming. If it won't there's a timing issue and it needs to see a gunsmith. I have the 1894C but I also have the 1894P in .44mag/.44spec. At first the 1894P used to jam with the .44 specials but was fine with the .44mag. I took it to a smith and he adjusted the timing and now it cycles both without a hitch.

Another issue can also be bullet type. Some flat nose or semi-wadcutter bullets may be prone to catching on edges. Be careful that you don't cycle these too hard and push the bullet deeper in the case. I don't know if that can happen or not, but I'd be wary.

Ed

 

[JWF III]

Wadcutters?

Also considering the purchase here.

Are wadcutters reliable in them? Or do I need to stick with LRN or LSWC?

My guess would be that they'd be hard to get to feed properly. I load the WC for practice, and would enjoy shooting all the same ammo and not have to reload something special.

Wyman

ETA-What about the "Lightning" pump rifles? With .38 Special? With wadcutters?

 

[mdThanatos]

I use my Marlin 94 for CAS in .38/.357. I use RNFP bullets in mine and have had no issues. The only thing that I have changed is I cut the mag spring a little to allow me to hold 10 .357's incase I want to shoot those for my matches.

 

[Lovesbeer99]

I wouldn't use anyting but a flat nose bullet in a tube mag. SWC for instance.

Also, if you relaod already, get some 170gr hard case bullets like you can get from laser-cast. I load mine with 7-9gr of unique so it's basically like a hot 357 mag. The load data is almost identical.

So if you already have a 30-30 and already relaod, the simple solution is to just relaod at .357 mag pressures and hard cast bullets. The cost is also way cheap compared to 30-30 rounds. Not much more than 38's and the same for .357 mag.

good luck.

 

[bpl]

I have a M94 in .357mag and it seems to feed .38 specials just fine.

 

[ArmedBear]

My Marlin 1894C feeds anything I've ever put in it, including .38 LSWCs. Shoots them accurately, too.

I haven't found my full-power .357 or .44 Magnum cases to stretch appreciably, so I wouldn't sweat resizing cases. I doubt you'll ever need or want to.

RNL bullets probably depend on what "round" means. There are plenty of bullets with flat points (oxymoron, I know), and therefore there is no need to load round nose bullets anyway.

 

[Blueduck]

Weirdly my Marlin 94C feeds SWC even smoother than RNL bullets.

A lot of people got confused when Marlin listed that it would not work with 38 Specials under "xxx" length (forgot the exact figure).

The length was incredibly short and basically equated only to FULL wadcutters (bullet even with case) loads. People not really knowing what the figure meant assumed a lot of 38's would not work.

Edit: BTW Thousands of 38/357 loads down range, never trimmed a case in my life.

 

[LoneCoon]

My Marlin feeds .38/.357 just fine, but it WILL NOT feed wadcutters. The jam up the works.

 

[sadp40]

my EMF hartford will feed

148gr full wadcutters..heck it feeds empty cases.

but my older rossi puma doesn't like the wadcutters.

so you pays your money you take your chance.