Lever Loads

That bullet should work just fine in your marlin. I use the Lee 113 RNFP in my 94 with light charges of unique and it makes for all day fun.

150 & 170 grain Core-Lokt full power 30-30 has been loaded by Remington for longer then I have been eating solid food.
Those bullest are both round nose.

The recoil of a Unique/115 light gallery load would stand no chance of setting off a primer in the mag tube.

Gofer It!

rc

Missouri Bullets has the proper profile bullets sized to .309" in both 135gr and 165gr. I have been shooting the 165gr bullets but I'm thinking about buying the 135gr bullets for exactly what you want to do, plinking... The 165gr bullet shoot very well so I see no reason to doubt the 135gr bullets. I push them to just below 1400 fps without leading. I'm thinking 2400 will do a good job with the lighter bullets. I'm using H4895 with the 165gr bullets right now.

I recently bought a box of the MBC 135 grainers. I tried them with Unique from 6 to 10 grains. I could never get better than about a 4" group at 50 yards.

ColtPythonElite said:

I recently bought a box of the MBC 135 grainers. I tried them with Unique from 6 to 10 grains. I could never get better than about a 4" group at 50 yards.

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With what gun? Are you shooting a Marlin with a micro-groove barrel? If so it will be very hard to get any kind of grouping with lead bullets. The barrel in my Glenfield/Marlin 30-30 has Ballard rifling.

Micro-groove and lead don't play well together. Think Glock barrels and lead bullets.

Yes, my 1894, 357 mag Marlin with a micro groove barrel does not like cast bullets.

hmmm... My Marlin 336C loves my cast bullets. I use a fn 177 grain .309 diamter.

My gun is a Revelation(Mossberg).

Yes, my 1894, 357 mag Marlin with a micro groove barrel does not like cast bullets.

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Have you tried .311 bullets in it?

wgaynor said:

hmmm... My Marlin 336C loves my cast bullets. I use a fn 177 grain .309 diamter.

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There are always exceptions to every rule. You are lucky to have a micro-groove barrel that shoots lead bullets well...

I never had great luck with lead in my micro-grooved 336. I tried .311" MBC Whitetail bullets that brad was nice enough to run oversized. Tested with 8-15gr of Blue Dot, 1195-1588 fps. Got surprisingly low ES, around 7-33 Fps. Just couldn't get very good groups, 2-3" at 50 yards with 9x scope. I abandoned them. In my 1894 44 Mag, I get 1" groups at 50 yards using MBC Smashers at up to 1500 fps. It has Ballard rifling.
I did have pretty good results using Berrys 110gr Carbine bullets out of the 30-30. Pushed them to 2,000 fps, with pretty good accuracy, which was surprising since I had horrible Extreme Spreads around 110 fps. Only tested at 50 yards though.

My micro-groove 336 shoots lead just fine as long as they are .310-.311 diameter. Not going to win any benchrest matches but 3" groups at 100 yds are not uncommon.

I'm a cast fan but I will admit that it shoots jacketed better.

micro-groove 336 shoots lead just fine as long as they are .310-.311 diameter

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and you don't load to J levels. Also try the hornady half jacket with unique. Lots of fun, no recoil, plenty of noise and 2" @ 50 ($12-14/100). Cast Lee soup can should also be fun.