I am in the category of not firing the things, because they are so unusual. They should be safe in a tubular magazine as the flat point will not touch the primer of the cartridge in front.
I have been testing 170 Hornady's, and they shoot well in my Marlin. I do recommend you attempt to figure out where the throat is in your rifle. I finally figured out a way to do this. The basic maximum OAL is 2.55" and that is based on the distance of the ejector from the breech face. Just recently I figured out a way to test OAL in my rifle. I found a range pickup up 30-30 with a expanded case neck, but a case neck tight enough to hold the bullet. I seated a 170 grain bullet out, dropped the round in the chamber, and closed the bolt hard. Experiment with this without a bullet, to see if you can extract the case without a cleaning rod, the fit might be too tight. Then, I jacked the bolt open 3/8", lifted the extractor up and over the rim, pulled the bolt back all the way. Then I lifted the case out, holding it by the rim with medical forceps. What I found was the throat. Marlin New Haven in their infinite wisdom reamed the chamber such that for a bullet to be in the lands, it has to be 2.700" inches long!. This explains a lot of things, particularly the awful experiences I have had with cast bullets in this rifle. Considering I cannot eject a round longer than 2.550" plus something, there is no way I can ever load the thing with the bullets just off the lands. My bullets have to jump about a quarter of an inch before they engage rifling!. It is a wonder the thing shoots as well as it does.
This also explains why every one of my loads is way over book maximum. I have a huge chamber.
Anyway, as a suggestion, try N135 and IMR 3031. Recently tested the new IMR 3031 and the powder is now a short cut powder. Not the Lincoln logs of yore. Something that was particularly good with both of these powders is that they shot round groups even as the charges increased. This is not a given, one of these days I will show some other powders that strung bullets up and down. After shooting enough ten/15 round groups with this rifle, I am convinced that low extreme spreads are critical. This mechanism is about as stiff as a trampoline. It is extremely sensitive to velocity changes. Notice, just how much MOA I am having to add, or take off, to get the rifle to print in the middle, with small changes in powder charges. I had to add 2MOA down to keep the group in the center with one grain increase. That was not unusual or extraordinary.
My goal is 2150 fps with a 170 grain bullet. My rifle shoots best at, or a little below this velocity. At velocities with extremes in the 2200 fps, I get blown groups. This rifle shoots best at factory velocities.
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After shooting over 500 rounds on paper, through my rifle, I am very skeptical of those who claim half MOA in a Marlin lever action. A recent National Magazine evaluation of the Winchester M1894 was with three round groups, at 50 yards! With a ten shot group, you can create 120 combinations of three shot groups, all of which are totally meaningless as the maximum group size is the maximum group size of the ten shot group, not some average of a 120 three shot groups. Gunwriters do this all the time, give an average of three, three shot groups, which is of course, smaller than the maximum group size of a nine shot group. Some of them just shoot three rounds and claim that as the inherent accuracy of the rifle and ammunition, which of course, three shots are not enough to claim any inherent accuracy. Forty shot groups are a much better way of evaluating inherent accuracy as you are more likely to see 1:100 events. But, three shot groups have become the "Gold Standard" of the shooting community, because the leaders of the shooting community, the In Print writers, use them almost to exclusivity. Their primary reason is economic, they are given a flat fee, around $400, and they don't want to spend too much time and ammunition, as that cuts into their profit. Secondarily, too many shots might reveal the firearm is a turkey. They are not interested in determining inherent accuracy, just getting something out that will have readers run screaming to the local gun store to buy, buy, buy. Amazing that readers will buy a thousand dollar firearm based on a test where the in print evaluator may have fired 12 to 15 rounds total, and at a distance where the choice between a firearm and an atatl would more of a preference.
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Why not hunt the buffalo with a spear?
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