What would be the ideal twist rate for a 44 mag shooting 300 + hard casts in a 20" barrel ??????

chuck

Many of todays lever guns(Marlin& Winchester) cant shoot the longer 300gr cast bullets because of the longer length of the bullet.For instance Federals hard cast 300gr bullet will not cycle in these guns because of a long OAL. If you handload em to the correct OAL they usually infringe on too much powder space.The 300gr Hornady JHP/XTP will function just fine and would do for about 99% of the big game out there. There is also the 300gr Speer gold dot factory load, either would be awesome in a 44mag carbine.

To answer your question a one in 20" twist rate would do it for a 300grainer but i believe that Marlin and Winchester use a one in 38" twist rate, my M94 trails end has this rate.As far as i know only Ruger uses a one in 20" rate for all their 44mag guns.

I had recently called Winchester about the Trails end model and was told that the 44 mag has a 1/26 twist. The Marlins with the Micro Groove rifeling like mine are 1/20 while the cowboy models with the Ballard rifeling are 1/38. I'm certainly thinking the 1/20 is the best of the 3 to propel a 300 grain at max speed although the 1/26 should do fine as well. I have been shooting Buffalo Bore 305 grain Hardcast with poor accuracy but no problems at all with the COAL. I have no interest in jacketed ammo at this point for my project. I had the entire gun apart yesterday and did a complete action polish. One of the things I found was that the action was so full of burrs that the bolt was not completely closeing by about 1/8 ". It now cycles like a hot buttered knife ! I have also removed the cross bolt safety, ordered a plug screw a one piece fireing pin as well as a new trigger assembly from Wild West Guns. A complete Fire Forming kit from Beartooth Bullets is also on the way. Additionally I removed the forend and did some interior sanding to relieve pressure from the forestock on the barrel. I also removed the barrel band and hollowed it out with a dremel moto tool. It is now just for looks. Before this it was drawing the barrel down noticeably. After I fire form the barrel I will be reloading Beartooth bullets to check on the results of my efforts. I'm thinking about the 325 grain WLN but I'll have a better idea after fire forming, slugging and taking a chamber impresssion.

Are you happy with your Trails End and are you getting decent groups at 100 yards ?