How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

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Bill in Oregon
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How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Just wondering if anyone has had issues, especially with the various Model 92s.
I just watched my Steve's Gunz 92 video and he warns that some 92s can be fiddly in this regard.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by JerryB »

Years ago my son had a Marlin 1894 .44 mag that ran them real good. We ran 240 grain swc bullets with no trouble at all. My grandson son has an old Marlin 1894 .357 carbine and it will run a 180 grain swc ok but my Rossi 92 src will not chamber them. The old Marlins had something going for them.
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Malamute
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Malamute »

Browning 92 does fine.

The couple of older Marlin 94s from the 70s-80s also did fine.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Bronco »

I don't have a special ! Sooo I load 44 special power in mag cases, Don't have to fidget with the dies or have an extra set for special cases. Call me lazy :mrgreen:
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vancelw
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by vancelw »

Bronco wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:40 pm I don't have a special ! Sooo I load 44 special power in mag cases, Don't have to fidget with the dies or have an extra set for special cases. Call me lazy :mrgreen:
Or a loser :D EVERYONE needs a Colt SAA in .44 Special.

I agree with you though.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by JerryB »

The Marlins That I talked about are that age. The .44mag was made in 1975 and the little .357 is an early eighties model. YES every one should have at one .44 special, I had an early Charters Arms Target Bulldog, it was stolen and now I carry a Taurus 431. To me it is just about the perfect carry gun with the old Skeeter Skelton load.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Bronco, I asked because I am loading .44 Special with the 250 Keith for a Ruger Bisley Flat-top -- and hope they will run through the Rossi 92 in .44 Magnum.
I have .44 Mag brass on the way just in case; Graf's has Prvi Partizan on sale for half price -- $14.99 per 100!
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by 2ndovc »

My Marlin 94P cycles both very well. I had a Rossi 92 that was a little picky but if you went "Chuck Connors" with the specials it would not work well. The older Rossi .357 I have needed to be sent to Steve/Nate for it to work with 357 Magnums but it would work just fine with .38 Specials. Go figure. Works perfectly now and has become a woods walking favorite. :D

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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by mikld »

My Puma feeds 44 Special LWCs good as I remember. But it doesn't like 44 Magnum SWC ans will choke on most. I fiddled with seating depth/OAL but they won't feed consistently. I discovered Ranch Dog's RNFP in 265 gr. and later in 240 gr. These bullets work quite well in all my 44s....
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Old Savage »

B92, yes.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by piller »

Don't have a levergun in .44 Mag, but my Ruger semi-auto in .44 Mag needs magnum level loads to function. Low power loads don't produce the gas pressure to cycle it. The loads don't need to be maximum, and the Winchester white box works great with accuracy enough for anything you might want. I should get a .44 Mag levergun just because. I am sure there are some of those leverguns which are sitting lonely on dealer shelves and in need of a home.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by GunnyMack »

Only 44 rifle I have is a Ruger DEERSTALKER, I've fed it mostly 300 gr XTP's, made bacon real fast! But I don't use that load in my 629. However my Ruger Single Six .32 that John Gallagher & I converted to 44 special is about the only thing I shoot specials outta!
One of these days I'll find a 44 lever that I just can't live without!
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Nate Kiowa Jones »

Bill in Oregon wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 5:02 pm Just wondering if anyone has had issues, especially with the various Model 92s.
I just watched my Steve's Gunz 92 video and he warns that some 92s can be fiddly in this regard.
OK, The thing to keep in mind is these modern straight wall pistol caliber ammo leverguns (all, not just the 92’s) are a lot like semi-auto handguns. There’s just some ammo they aren’t going to work well with.
All leveraction, pump action and semi-auto guns (long guns or handguns) are ammo length and bullet shape sensitive. Some more than other. For example, you don't think about it much if you are dealing with a rifle cal. like 3006, 308 or 223 and even 30-30. Those are bottleneck calibers. Bottlenecks always feed better than straightwall ammo, whether it is a rifle cal or a pistol cal. That's because you have a small diameter bullet going into a really big hole by comparison, the bottleneck chamber being much like a funnel.
The original Winchester 92's were designed to work with bottleneck ammo in the 1.5" to 1.6" OAL with round nose flat point bullets. Ammo like 44-40, 38-40, 32-20 and 25-20.
What that means is they may not work well with really long ammo. (They tend to hit the top inside of the chamber before they make the turn into the chamber) or really short ammo.
The most common problem with the shorter ammo like specials is the gun will throw out, flip or stovepipe live rounds with the empty's. This is because the shorter ammo coming on to the carrier from the tube can bounce forward enough that the rim is too close to the rim slots in the guides and when you lever it fast the carrier just catapults them up or out with the empty. (One of the things Rossi did years ago was redesign the cart guides by changing the angle of the rim slots so the back end comes up sooner. So they tend to be less ammo sensitive than other pistol cal 92 leverguns)
Also, bullet shapes can make a difference. Bullets other than the round nosed flat point profile they were designed for can cause issues. The truncated cone or TC style bullets will work but can end up too long for some guns. As for SWC, the cutter bands tend to hang going in the chamber.
Just like a 1911 pistol some ramp work will greatly improve feeding. For the 92's and marlin 1894's slightly ramping the bottom of the chamber mouth and loading to about 1.5" OAL usually cures the SWC problems.
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claybob86
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by claybob86 »

Bronco wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 8:40 pm I don't have a special ! Sooo I load 44 special power in mag cases, Don't have to fidget with the dies or have an extra set for special cases. Call me lazy :mrgreen:
Same here.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by buckeyeshooter »

My 1894 marlin is 1984 year of manufacture. It feeds specials and magnums fine at normal levering speeds. I do use this rifle for cowboy action shooting. When I abuse it cowboy shooting, I only use 44 magnum cases. At warp speed, the specials do jam on occassion if they are not round nose or round nose flatpoints seated long.
As an aside, I modified this one with a spring kit and it really smoothed the action, a happy trigger smoothed it more and a 1 piece firing pin made the action so quick you can cycle it easily with 1 finger.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by missionary5155 »

Good morning
Years back when I was doing the Cowboy shoots with 44 Russian S&W #3 revolvers I wanted a lever rifle that would cycle those stubby little cartridges.
Contacted Marlin, Rossi, Winchester and Henry asking if they had researched the possibility of their lever rifles cycling 44 Russian.
Only one company responded. Henry. Mr. Anthony Imperato himself asked how to do so and where to find ammo to test. One week later he responded saying they purchased two boxes of ammo from Navy Arms. Both boxes were loaded and fired through a standard 44 mag rifle removed from the line without any problems cycling, firing or ejecting. This is one of the reasons we own Henry Rifles.
So I guess the Henry rifles would do just fine with 44 Special.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Malamute »

Bill in Oregon wrote: Sun Dec 24, 2017 5:02 pm Just wondering if anyone has had issues, especially with the various Model 92s.
I just watched my Steve's Gunz 92 video and he warns that some 92s can be fiddly in this regard.
Bill in Oregon wrote: Mon Dec 25, 2017 9:30 am Bronco, I asked because I am loading .44 Special with the 250 Keith for a Ruger Bisley Flat-top -- and hope they will run through the Rossi 92 in .44 Magnum.
I have .44 Mag brass on the way just in case; Graf's has Prvi Partizan on sale for half price -- $14.99 per 100!
Are you calling any generic SWC bullet a Keith bullet, or are you talking about the actual Lyman 429421 bullet that Keith designed or close copy by RCBS or Saeco? Most common SWC bullets on the market arent Keith bullets, and the difference is significant in regards to the question asked. None of the 92s I'm aware of will work with the true Keith bullet in magnum cases without significant work on allowing longer cartridge OAL to work in the gun, lke cutting the stop stud on the carrier back quite a lot and other possible work. However....the same bullet loaded in 44 spl cases works perfectly in my Browning 92, the difference in bullet nose length of the Lyman bullet compared to common bullets available is almost exactly the length difference between the 44 spl and mag cases. The cartridges come out to about perfect OAL for factory spec magnum loads when loaded in spl cases with the Lyman 429421 bullet. Theyve also fed fine in mine, but I havent tried to break any speed records for cycling the action yet.
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Bill in Oregon
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Bill in Oregon »

Malamute, I have the RCBS Keith mold. I know it is very slightly different from the original Lyman, but still mighty close -- just the double bevel in the crimp groove as fas as I can tell..
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Griff »

I bought a 1969 Winchester 94 in 44 Mag when I was in the Navy. Kicked like a mule with Magnum loads, I tended to keep it to Specials. It didn't care for SWCs in the Magnum, but did ok with Specials. I was 22 when I got it... and probably wasn't as discerning a levergunner as I am now. The gun was stolen a couple of years after I got it... so I'm dealing with 35 year old impressions. But... what does remain is the frustration of dealing with SWC bullets. Factory 240 jacketed HPs or SPs were like popcorn thru a goose. As long as you worked the action smoothly. If you fought the action, or didn't cycle in a single fore and aft arc, the round bounced around on the carrier... a function more of its long action vs. anything to do with the round.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by RIHMFIRE »

I dont feed mine 44spl
I just load the 44mag down....to 44 spl
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by mikld »

I read this thread and went out to my shop and tried some 44 Special dummies. I had some with Lee 240 SWC seated to the second groove from the top and some fed fine, many didn't. They didn't seem to be pushed high enough and jammed on the roof of the chamber. My Ranch Dog RNFP all fed fine. Of course I reload and haven't tried any 44 Specials in my Puma for many years, just vary charges for lighter "Special" velocities...
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by JohndeFresno »

Excellent info - archived!
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Paladin »

I have an 1894 Marlin in .44 and it would feed .44 Russians and shot .44 SPL Blaser 200 grain Gold Dots into a 2-inch group at 100 yards.
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by Ji in Hawaii »

Back when I first moved to Maui a large sporting goods chain was going belly-up so was clearing out their ammo at half price. I wanted 44 mag but all they had left was 44 Special Winchester Silvertip ammo. I bought the last few boxes they had left. It was a gamble but I found that my model 1894 Marlin fed them just fine. On a side note my Winchester 94AE Trapper chambered for 357 magnum feeds 38 Specially just fine too.
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pricedo
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by pricedo »

My Henry Big Boy All-Weather in 44 mag is very versatile in regards to what it will cycle (44 specs & slightly over SAAMI COAL custom loads) :mrgreen: .
My best load is a slightly over SAAMI COAL load based on a full length Hornady case, H110/W296 and the Hornady 265 grain FN which was designed for the 444 Marlin.
It doesn't expand much (doesn't really need to) but it sure penetrates and is as scary :shock: accurate.
Wouldn't want to push much heavier stuff with the 1:38 ROT of the Henry. I mean if you want to push 400 grain bullets get a 45-70.
And my Henry BB A-W will chuck 44 spec ammo all day long though I don't see the need. :?
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Re: How does your .44 Mag lever gun feed 44 Special?

Post by CalvinMD »

Does great.. 94 Marlin..the critical defense rids my yard of gophers like a charm too
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