Thinking HARD about getting back into a Marlin lever action 44 Mag. How does the micro-grove rifling handle cast boolits versus conventinial
rifling? Whats the twist rate on the Marlin?
Or is there a better lever gun in 44 Mag?

Are they still using micro-groved barrels? I thought they had stopped that a while back. Might be wrong, I am often enough.

I have a .45 colt Marlin which I use cast bullets exclusively and they shoot very well indeed. A .45 colt in a Marlin can do some special things. You might consider going that route.

absolutly! I was ignorant about the 45LC being an option. Thats the route I will go. Thanks Larry. You da man.

The micro-groove rifling is not the problem with cast bullets, it's the large throat. Once I learned that, all went well, keep your bullets fat!

My 44 mag doesn't have micro groove rifling. I think I got it around 2002.

I was thinking everyone's biggest beef with the .44 mag lever rifles was the Rate of Twist they are in.

Local gun store has a '72 Winchester 94 in .44 ...... Would look nice beside my Winchester .30-30, .357, and my 2 Marlin 1895's

marlin had a deal where they thought the 44 mag was a 44-40 and put the twist rate in for 200 gr bullets.
remarlin might still be doing this.

I had a few 340 grn LBT LFN bullets. They shot wonderfully in my pre safety Marlin at 50 yds. They may have become unstable at longer range, I didnt have enough to find out. I'm not sure what twist rate it does have.

My 44 is microgroove 1 in 38 twist. That said it shoots leads 200 to 250 very well and jacketed 180 to 300 very well. I do not know why there is a thought that microgroove is bad? Maybe I just got a 'good one'. Mine was made in 1984.

My Marlin 94 does have microgroove rifling. As long as I keep the bullets at least .431" and fairly hard, it will shoot them into small groups. I shot cowboy action with it for many years. It does not however like to feed semi wadcutters. RFN's work great.

quote:

As long as I keep the bullets at least .431" and fairly hard, it will shoot them into small groups

The same for mine.

As said above keep the bullets fat, 432 or 433. Some molds will not cast large enough in diameter to work.