I am a tiny group spoiled long range shooter, but I am also a bit of a history buff. I recently got on a kick for the old 25-20 WCF. A little history, the world famous Jordan Buck of 1914 was taken with the cartridge, and held the title as worlds largest typical whitetail for almost 80 years! No, I don't plan on shooting deer with mine, but I love the history. Its fun to form brass and pleasant to shoot, I hope my son will learn the basics of firearms safety and reloading with it.

Anyways, this rifle of mine shows hardly any signs of use, but I am struggling to make it shoot well. I topped it with a 2.5-10X scope, and have been trying to shoot groups at 100 yards. I'm not expecting minute of angle, but right now I am minute of basketball. Baseball size [~2.5"] at 100 would be nice.

Old factory loads are a little better, but are getting increasingly tough to find. My 85gr Meister cast loads and 60gr Hornady loads arent very good. I am seating to the crimping groove or the cannelure with a very light crimp. Tried a wide variety of charges of IMR 4198. Nothing seems to make a difference.

Just curious if others have had the same struggle? Is the 1894CL capable of decent groups? Any suggestions for loading 25-20 cartridges? Open to suggestions. I dont hardly ever play with lever actions, so anxious to hear some thoughts.

Mine shoots very well with the 86g jacketed rem. bullets. Either factory or hotter handloads.

I havent tried cast bullets but I've been warned that most dont do well, throat problems I believe.

My older 1894 Marlin has a rough bore, so I haven't tried cast bullets in it, but it does shoot 60 gr Hornadys better than minute of basketball. After fiddling with many powder combinations I have settled on 13 grs IMR 4198 as a consistent performer.

I'm using Starline 32-20 brass formed to 25-20 (easy), CCI small pistol primers and a fairly firm crimp. I use the small pistol primers rather than small rifle primers for a several reasons: the primer pockets are cut for them, the pressure of this load is much less than a typical 9mm Luger load using small pistol primers, and the case is so small and the bullet so light that I think small rifle primers could actually blast the bullet out of the case before the powder is reliably ignited.

For whatever reason, this load has worked consistently well for me.

I also usually don't shoot further than 50 yards because the wind here is not kind to bullets with the ballistic coefficient of a dish pan, so I'm not sure how well they would do at 100 yards; they group very nicely at 50, though.

Try lapping your barrel. It may be grossly oversized, accounting for the lack of use, the previous owner couldn't get it to shoot. Once you determine the bore diameter you can cast bullets and size them to fit your barrel.

Suggestion
Visit the Marlin Owners forum then the 25-20 thread there.
Much information about loading (cast & jacketed).
Suggested loads with what powders and primers that can work well
Good luck
Jim