I've been thinking about building some plinking loads for my Marlin lever gun, and would appreciate any and all advice. Some time ago I think "Handloader" had an article on just such a thing, but I'll be darned if I can find it.

I've got two ideas in mind for economical plinking:
i)jacketed pistol bullets?
ii) LRN, hard cast, but in what weight??

It is my understanding that it takes a little finesse to make things work with the micro-groove barrels. I'd like to use the Pb, as I've got a ton of it.

Packrat, I can talk about this one from experience. RCBS 35-200-FN and a MG bbl work great! Just recently have gone through this process. My Marlin is the first MG bbl I ever owned and it shoots this boolit like a house'a'fire. Make sure you use a really good lube. I run my boolits thru a .360 sizer to set the check and lube. No sizing. I use FWFL and have NO leading problems and accuracy is superb to 2K fps. Go fer it! The 35 Rem is a phenominal cast boolit cartridge. Don't know why I didn't have one sooner! sundog

My experience is less direct than Sundog's, but backs him up. I've been swapping bullets and tips with some guys who are shooting NEFs with microgroove barrels rechambered to .357 Max. Marlin owns NEF, and we presume they make the barrels.

We've been shooting Lyman 358315 sized and GCed at .359 at 1900 fps + with groups about 2" at 100 yards. If I had a .360 sizer, I'd use that. It's important that those bullets be fat.

I'll have my eye open for a .35 Remington after the season closes here.

Don't forget the gas checked pistol boolits. They are great in those 16 twist Marlin barrels. Saeco makes a couple of 180's, and Lyman makes the 160 grain Thompson (not Keith, but close enough). I think the number is 358156, and it will shoot inch groups at hunnert if you can hold the gun at full recoil. 2200-2400 fps at that. ... felix

Gents, you have given me most excellent advice.
Thanx much, packrat

I shoot Lyman's 358315 200 grainer and the 358318 250 grainer out of my 35 remington contender and it's just too much fun! You can push the 250 grain cast bullet faster than the factory 200 grain stuff and do it accurately too!!! I also have a custom ordered Lee 200 grian Bator bullet that really runs about 230 grains and it is a great bullet too. You've got a great caliber for lead.

regards,
Graycg

I recently started using the RCBS 35-200-FN -wheel weights, in my 336-.35 rem. micro groove lever carbine, with 11.5 gr of GreenDot sized to .358 with Lee's alox.



I was blown away at 3/4" center to center group at 50 yards, as this rifle never shot off-the-shelf Rem Corelokt 200 grners', worth a dam. I havn't got to see what it will do at 100.



But the GreenDot is real sooty, and I can't find load data to get the velocity up in 2,000's. Is there any for GreenDot?



What powders and loads are you guys using?



I need an accurate dear load.



Thanks

ML, spring for a can of H335/BLC2, and load 38 grains for starters. If accurate enough, then OK. We're talking the 200 grainer or less. Work up, if necessary for accuracy with the lighter boolits. We're talking 2000 fps minimum here. 150 yards deer load for sure. ... felix

packrat -

If you're looking for plinking loads (a la 1000-1250 fps), we have quite a few (200ish) on our site (url below, look under levergun data/studies - though in this case the 336 was sufficiently old as to still have full Ballard rifling - but at plinking velocites, we find little performance difference btwn MG and Ballard). In term of bullet selection we found the 140 shot the best. Though the 125's required very light loads to get the velocity, they have too little bearing surface to maintain alignment in the bore (our speculation) and shoot less than well. The 180's are sufficiently heavy as to require higher pressures to get the desired velocity, and as such it is too easy to overpressure/smash the bullet which means (very) poor accuracy. The 140's seem to be a good compromise and as long as one keeps the velocity down they shoot well. The bullets used were off the shelf hard cast PB .359"'s. As far as GreenDot being sooty, have to agree, but with the right loads it will shoot well. If you're looking for more velocity, then sizing becomes much more important. If you're looking for jacketed velocities, then GC's become necessary (or maybe felix's super lube).

do shoot straight,
greg
www.gmdr.com

Reguarding pistol bullets in a 336, I still have a box of hornady 180 gr hp/xtp's I got for plinking but I ran into feeding problems with them. They wouldnt seat out far enough and this allowed the next bullet in the tube to prematurley begin to advance onto the feed ramp while another was already there and cause the rifle to jam. The bullet was long enough to be seated out far enough but the ogive is too short, so the bullet would begin to contact the lands before I could seat it out far enough to prevent the problem. The same thing happened with Lee 90322 158 grn bullet, I altered the mold and made the bullet longer into a 180 grainer but got rid of the rifle before I learned if they would shoot or not, but that did solve the feeding issue. Ive been thinking of getting another caues they are great fun to shoot.