jaysouth

Jeff, A lot of folks try to make a big deal out of shooting cast bullets in Microgroove barrels. You are OK as long as you use hard alloy or use soft alloy with a gas check and an oversized bullet. I slugged my barrel and it was .3087. The 309 sized bullets did not do well with any powder load/combination. When I got into the loads with .311 bullets, things began to tighten up. The magic sweet spot on this gun in this pressure range/velocity is 7.2 grs. of Green Dot. Go to this site: http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm Go to the left side and click on 170rnfpb under 30-30, you will find lots of loads for Unique and Bullesye. It may take several tries but you will find a combo that your rifle likes.

Thanks for the sharp eye. You are quite right about centerfire rifle in TN. However, the state where I have roaming rights on a large tract of land is on the other side of the river.

My hat is off to you if you can HIT a squirrel with a bow and arrow.

I also have a 'backyard' load. In the subdivision where I live, there is 20 feet between me and adjacent houses. I have good neighbors but I go out of my way to not alarm them. I have a single shot H&R 223 that I load 4 grs. of clays under a 45 gr HP bullet. No neighbor has complained and it is deadly accurate to 50 feet. It is my urban stealth load and makes about the same amount of noise as a pellet gun.

For several years I hunted small game with a .357 H&R Handi-rifle. I used factory equivalent 148 wadcutter loads at 6-700 fps. The trajectory was a rainbow, but a squirrel hit with that load dropped DRT. Much better killer than a .22 and the maximum range of the fat slow wadcutter was much shorter than the .22. I felt better shooting it at a squirrel up in a tree than a .22.

Dismayed with the ammo situation with .22 rf, I decided to go another direction for an equivalent round in my Marlin 336. I loaded up some .30-30 brass with 6-9 grains of Green Dot. Bullets were cast 150 Lee flat nose and 165 Ranch Dog flat nose. After posting targets at 50 yards, I started my testing. Recoil and report were mild to say the least. I did not set up a chrony, but I estimate the velocity at 700 fps. This was my best group of the day, and my future small game, pest control, and plinking load. The scope was a V-3 Weaver set on 3X. I will install either a receiver peep or red dot on the gun. Powder, primer and lead for this load run right around a dime each. Now to develop a load as accurate to shoot in my single shot Topper 30-30.

Out of stock at amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_4?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=hodgdon%20powder&sprefix=hodg%2Caps%2C215

Brass has ammonia, internet wisdom says do not use on cartridge cases. I use lizard litter from the pet store and a cap or two of DuPont chrome polish. For each batch, I add a dryer sheet to clean up the dust and dirt, which prolongs the life of the media. I chemically clean my brass with citric acid before tumbling. If you put dirty brass into a tumbler, there is an airborne lead hazard. If I clean with citric first, I tumble in the garage. If starting with dirty brass, on an open balcony. Flitz will certainly do the job, but is very pricy. My chrome polish does a good job and 2 bucks worth lasts years.

My new ".22lr" is a 30-30 case with a 113 gr. cast bullet launched at 800 fps.

I went to A-H reloading looking for Unique. My luck, nada, however he was stocked with almost every powder I have ever heard of, including Varget. There were also two 8 pounders of Red Dot. WC 846 has gone up to $139 for 8 pounds. I bought IMR 4350 and Bulleye for decent prices. If you know where to go, it looks like some things are getting back to normal. However my favorite local gun has not gotten a shipment of powder in 6 months.

DLMeadows, Are you affiliated with Falcon Bullets? I have heard nothing bug good news about the products.

The old marlins were made on antique machinery whose skilled machinists kept running with patches and fixes. They were within months of completely wearing out a complete factory. The new owners set up a factory using state of the are CNC equipment. At time of transition, none of the old hands wanted to move to NY and most were leery of relearning their trade and making the transition from skilled machinist to computer operator and material handlers. The new folks had a long difficult time 'getting it right'. The CNC programming required a lot of fixes to get it right. As has been observed above, there were lots of problems learning to fit wood to metal. Slowly they got it to the point that a decent product would be shipped, after shipping products for almost a year that were sub-par. For a number of reasons, mostly subjective, I consider the older Marlings to be better rifles. However a 336Y that I just bought appears to be a strong, smooth, and well fitted rifle. If you are looking at a 'remlin' pay attention to wood to metal mating and smoothness of cycling the action. If it passes those two simple tests, you should have a good rifle.

I have one (not for sale) it is a great rifle and very reliable (as are most bolt actions). However, I would buy your son a Ruger American or Savage Axis. There is nothing to 'fix' on one of these. They are accurate shooters right out of the box. Buying a used Belgian mauser with hi-standard chrome lined barrel assembled over 60 years ago makes it hard to find a used one that won't require some "fix". After buying a Timney trigger, bedding the action, freefloating the barrel and lopping off a couple of inches of the barrel because of a damaged muzzle was the fix it to make mine a decent shooter but won't shoot as well as a used Ruger American that my brother picked up for $300. Ugliness factor......The cheap wood stock on the Sears makes it a contender for being as ugly as a plastic Ruger or Savage. There are two on gunbroker right now. One for $325 and one for $400. Both have what appears to be aftermarket stocks which is probably an improvement over the original. At these prices, I would go to Bud's and buy a Ruger or Savage and know for sure what you are getting and more importantly, get factory support. I would pick the ruger over the savage for purely subjective reasons.

Many years ago, I bought an EAA TZ 75. After shooting for a couple of years, I gave it to my son in law. That boy is hard on metallic objects. After many, many thousands of rounds of M-882 ball and less than stellar maintenance and cleaning, the TZ 75 is still ticking and doing quite well. I can't say that it is better than a CZ but the rougher finish makes it easier to abuse.

Here is the 1911 that I carry on occasions when I carry a big gun. It is a Norenco done by a friend. The sights are Millette that appear to be speced by Col. Cooper. I had to stipple the front and rear strap. I used the AP core from a .50 cal. round. It took me several months. My friend tigged up the barrel lugs and then fitted them. He installed a new barrel bushing that is just barely finger tight. The gun shoots far better than I can shoot it. It was parkerized and then Dura coated. The illumination for this photo was from a 400 watt work light. You can see how the finish ate the light. Interesting how closely this gun resembles the one in the article by Cooper.

Here is my GSP that I bought at Gunsite in 2001. It is built on a Colt 1991. Here is it is with the accessories. The mags were 8 round McCormacks with King followers. Interesting that they could have speced any magazine on the market and chose these and stamped the Gunsite logo on them. This is the photo of the GSP in the GS catalog from 2002. The only difference that I can see between the catalog illustration and my gun is the shade of the grips.

Have you slugged the barrel of your Marlin? Before I loaded any cast bullets, I would know the diameter of my barrel and mike the bullets to make sure the bullet caster got it right, and make sure that the bullets were a thou or two larger than the barrel diameter.

A buck a pound at A-H Reloading. There was more powder in stock than I have seen in a year.

These are some good folks to deal with and their 180 cast works well for me in a Handi-rifle. Also, check pennbullets.com for heavy .357 bullets. http://www.bslbullet.com/185-grain-rounded-flat-point-plain-base-p-24.html

Frankford Arsenal makes this aerosol 'soot' that they named after my high school career. Works well and sells for 8.99 a can at the Reloader's Bench in Mt. Juliet. http://www.midwayusa.com/product/763758/frankford-arsenal-drop-out-bullet-mold-release-agent-and-lube-6-oz-aerosol

In your price range, Fobus paddle. The best for me are Kramer, Kramer and Kramer. Since I don't carry all day, every day anymore, Fobus is great to slip on and go at a moment. It is not any sort of a retention holster, keep it concealed under a garmet. Great range holster.

Any idea of what weight recoil spring you are using? a 1911 in .45 at the velocities you are loading to might not need more than a 14# spring. Swap springs with another of your .45s and see if that makes a difference. I keep a bag of recoil springs in the shop in weights from 11 to 18 pounds. For a "standard" 16# should handle medium reloads (like yours) to factory ammo. Is there a shok buff in your gun?

I would think that Miculek, his wife Kay, and brother in law, Jim Clark, Jr. could afford to shoot factory ammo or get a sponsor to provide free ammo. I remember Miculek's first video when he was shooting reloaded .38 wadcutters that looked like they were reloaded with black powder. It wears me out to watch Jerry shoot. I can't imagine how anyone could shoot that fast and accurately with any gun that he handles. I have heard him claim that he can pull the trigger on a revolver faster than an auto can recycle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5y_dsP3dsM

Jonathon, RE: Falcon Bullets Did you remove the factory lube before you coated, or did you depend on the agitation of thinner and bullets to remove it? I have a pile of factory cast bullets with lube in the grooves and can't figure out how to remove the lube short of boiling. thanks