I just picked up a new Marlin 1895 in 45-70 a few days ago. I LOVE this gun, it's already my third favorite, but it doesn't seem to feed reliably. Doing dry runs with my handloads, about 1 out of every 3 shells will bind up when being fed from the magazine. I have to drop the lever and try to close it again. When it jams it also puts a slight dent in the brass. The OAL is 2.35", which is under the 2.55" max my loading manual states.

Is this just an issue that I'm having with my particular gun/handloads, or is this a common problem? What should I do about it?

In a few days I hope to have an answer for you.
My Marlin Guide Gun (one of my all time favorites) jammed up on me during a hog hunt in Argentina. When I got home I sent the gun back to Marlin and it has been returned, with the problem corrected, but I have not had a chance to test it. Will report back this next week.

I had a 1895 in .444 Marlin, which tended sometimes to jam the round when it had exited the magazine tube halfway out on its way to the chamber. It would then be jammed by the feed ramp and not move to any direction. To sort out the jam I needed to unscrew the lever and lock and use some force also. Not an easy thing to do in the midst of hunting.

The problem eventually turned out to be in the magazine tube. Although the gun was in mint condition otherwise, the magazine tube had somehow got rust inside. The inside of the tube was so corroded, that the magazine spring would get jammed to the eroded parts of the tube so it coudn't push the rounds powerful enough, so they got "late" from the feed ramp. This typically happened when there were 1 or 2 rounds left in the magazine.

To fix it I cleaned the magazine tube and tried to polish the corroded parts which helped a bit, but it never got perfectly reliable. As I also got tired of the .444 marlin round, I sold it away and have since relied on my another 1895 - a Winchester, that is, in .45-70.

It has been my experience that handloads can also be too short. An oal of 2.35 could very well be causing the problem. Try some factory loads and also some handloads of 2.50 to 2.55 and see if the problem disappears. My thought is that it will.

quote:

Originally posted by buckeyeshooter:
It has been my experience that handloads can also be too short. An oal of 2.35 could very well be causing the problem. Try some factory loads and also some handloads of 2.50 to 2.55 and see if the problem disappears. My thought is that it will.

The problem is that the 2.35" OAL is the result of seating my Hornady 300JHPs to the crimping groove. If I seat them any shallower or deeper, my bullets will be crimped on the flat part of the jacket, instead of the crimping groove. Any suggestions?

Many here use the lee 'factory crip die' for bullets with the crimping groove in the wrong spot. I generally shoot the hornady 350 grain round nose-- or you could use the fp design. This gets me the extra length to make the gun cycle smoothly.

I have a 70's production 95 that fed very poorly. If longer cartridges don't correct the problem, you could try looking at the extractor,
changing extractors on mine cured the problem.

Tim

Sorry to be late in getting back to you.
Marlin I was finally able to test my 1895G today and it still does not work. This after a trip back to them.
It remains one of my favorite rifles, and I have friends who have same with no problems. But one has to wonder if they test them well after they fiddle with them.
Initial problem....after a shot fired, and lever worked to re chamber, lever stuck in down position. Now .... after shot fired lever will not even move, until I pull back the hammer, and then it works and new round chambered!!
Back it goes again....

I had a similar problem with my 95. When I took it to the gunsmith he said that it was a common problem due to the heavy recoil. Then he laid it on a rubber mat and took a proper fitting screwdriver and tightened all the screws in the receiver!!! Works like a dream now and the cost of repair was NC. Frank