I have a 92 in 45 Colt but it won't feed the Heavier Buffalo Bore loads (too bad shoots them great single feed) Does anyone know if the 1894's in 45 colt or 44 mag will relably feed the heavier Buffalo Bore or Garrett loads.
I really want a lever gun that will shoot what my revolver will so I can carrry just one load. any ideas short of carrying a High Wall.

First assumption here is that you're talking about a Marlin 1894 instead of a Winchester '94. Given that assumption I would say that it is less likely that the Marlin will feed a round. My Marlin .44 mag is very finicky when it comes to feeding rounds that are longer than a standard 240gr round. My '92 seems to be less rigid (granted it's a different chambering) so I'm not basing this on empirical data.

Now that I think about it, a Win 94 might be more tolerant of a longer round because it's made for a rifle cartridges like the .30-30 but I'd be more cautious about using heavy loads in this action than with the 92.

marlin or winchester?

Marlins can be altered to feed quite a range of COL. Mine will feed .44special wad cutters through .44 mag 320grainSWC. That comes out to a .550" differance in COL.; and it will feed anything in between these extreams.

The Winchester '94 is very poorly manufactured but it will run circles around the Marlin 1894. They used the slogan "The guns that work" for a reason. Marlin 1894's don't work. Period.

I asked similar questions about the 92 and eventually found out that it can be altered to take 1.73" OAL. The Marlin 1894 can also be altered and if you are handy with your hands and want to DIY, then there is an excellent post on the castboolit.gunloads.com site. Its under gunsmithing section. I'd put the link thingy in but my computer skills are crap.
Joe

CXL, you have obviously never run either action in high volume, high speed competition like Cowboy action.
I'll just say this, I respect your opionion, but it's 180deg incorrect.
If you've had problems with factory Marlins I completly understand where you are coming from, and completely uderstand your frustration, a new gun out of the box should work, period. But trust me on this, with a little work by a smith that KNOWs marlins they will run and run and run and will far outlast the win '94, by 10's of thousands of rounds.
I know this for fact, I've been there done that.

Had both a .44 and a .357 Mag Marlin 94. Although not a gunsmith, with judicious use of stones and a dremel mototool, was able to modify both to feed longer cartridges and to feed them with total reliability. All bullets (except one) were either semi-wadcutter cast or jacketed. Tried to shoot wadcutters, but just couldn't get them to feed reliably. Oh, the .357 loved a 200gr cast roundnose that I hollowpointed.

Why not buy a Winchester 94 chambered for the 45 Colt? The 94 is or was available in 16", 20", and 24" barrel.


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I shoot .44 in both revolver and levergun. I haven't shot the marlin but my winchester 94 trapper likes many different bullets seated at a variety of depths. Never had a jam. I put a williams peep on it for a longer sight radius and the thing cloverleafs at 50yds with the right load.
The winchester action feels quite loose compared to the marlin, but it does load reliably and shoot well.
My biggest gripe with the winchester is the chamber is pretty sloppy. So if you want to shoot the same ammo in both lever and wheelgun, you have to full length resize.IME