New Marlin 40-65

[coxhaus]

I just bought a converted 1895 Marlin to 40-65. The rifle is in nice shape. It is my first big bore lever gun. I am excited to shoot it but can't find ammo locally. The end of the barrel checked out to be .400 and .405. Is this going to cause a issue being so small? I only found one supplier, with PMC ammo which was .406. All the rest seemed to be .408. How over sized can you shoot? My other issue once I get it shooting is sites. It has the standard Marlin sites and I can no focus them. What are my options? No scopes please. What is a good weight bullet and load when I reload my own?
I think 40-65 is going to be the perfect caliber. I don't know why Marlin does't offer this caliber as standard affair.

[kimwcook]

Congratulations on your new acquisition. Welcome to the fire. I can't answer your ammo questions, but you should be able to get a Williams/Lymans receiver sight or tang sight for your open sight issue. Someone will come along and answer your ammo question.

[Bear 45/70]

[Don McDowell]

The PMC ammo is lead bullet so it'll work in your rifle. You'll need to get a set of reloading dies for the 406 diameter.You can check with Buffalo Arms to get those and also to get into bullet molds with the right diameters.

[coxhaus]

Ok. I have a few pictures. The rifle has a new barrel. I don't know who did the work. It is not labeled.


The pictures did not take. It said it was uploading them. I wonder what is wrong?

[Griff]

Don's right about those cast loads, but if you're going to try any jacketed, you should stick to .406

Good thing you mentioned those pics, otherwise you were going to hear:

[Old Savage]

Marlin chambers popular calibers in it's production guns.

[Stone Fence]

Barnes used to have a jacketed 260 grain .406 flat point, but it appears they dropped it.

I make custom jacketed levergun bullets for .38-55, and could tool up to do it for .40-65 if enough guys had rifles-- the demand is not there to make it worth it at present. I agree that it is a good caliber, especially for eastern deer and bear hunting. The oldtimers in the early 1900's thought the cartridge was a great close range black bear number.

-Stone

[Ysabel Kid]

First - welcome aboard!

Second - congrats on your new gun!

Third - as you can see, we are all addicted to leverporn here (and gunporn in general). Please post pictures!!!

[perry owens]

Track of the Wolf sells 40-65-260 WCF by PMC for $11.99/20. I think a number of people on this board have bought some. You are lucky to have a 40-65 with a "standard" bore size - my 1886 has a bore of 0.408 so I had to get a custom mould.
Perry Owens

[Sixgun]

A buddy of mine had a Marlin converted to 40-65. His uses the faster twist so if he wants to, he can use the heavier bullets and I believe the only twist you can get is the faster twist (1-21?). I'm not sure what his slugs out at, but I do know he uses .406 as a sizing diameter. Black is his prefered propellent.

In an original 1886, I use a 270 gr. NEI fpgc sized to .406 as that is the groove diameter. My load is 24 gr. of 5744 for 1425 fps @ 85 degrees.

My suggestion is to use a gas check bullet as this eliminates lots of aggravation and you can be a little "sloppier" in your loading techniques. I run everything through an RCBS Pro-2000 progressive.------------Sixgun

[otteray]

Mine was made in 1898 and is .411"; takes a .412" or so cast lead.
Likes 5744, SR5749 and IMR3031.
Kinda like an early .41 Magnum