Marlin 1894 Cowboy rifling?

[Z71]

I inheritad a near new Marlin Cowboy competition rifle(I'd call it a carbine) in .45 Colt. Not the caliber I would have chosen for a Marlin 1894, but it's ok. Inherited a Stoeger Uberti 4 3/4" Colt clone in the same caliber. With that in mind, just been shooting cowboy loads and some reloads I've whipped up with .230gr lead bullets intended for .45acp. Reloads I make are pretty modest too, similiar or lighter than the commercial cowboy ammo.

I have read that my "new" carbine has Ballard style rifling intended for lead bullets. Looks like conventional rifling to me. Not micro-groove Marlin type, but just normal land and groove rifling you find in about anything else.

So whats the major difference in this "Ballard" rifling versus standard land and groove rifling?

If I were to lock my Peacemaker clone up, and make myself some slightly hopped up jacketed bullet loads(nothing too wild, I ain't that adventurous), would the Marlin Ballard rifling support decent hunting accuracy with a jacketed bullet?

Thanks, Stevie.

 

[Father Knows Best]

Ballard rifling is a form of cut land and groove rifling. So is "Micro Groove", for that matter. The difference is that Micro-Groove uses a large number (typically 16) number of of very shallow grooves. Ballard rifling uses a much lower number (I think it is 6 in Marlin rifles), and they are of greater depth. It will work just fine with cast bullets.

 

[Jim Watson]

"Ballard style" is Marlin's advertising term for conventional 6-groove rifling to contrast it with the 12 to 20 groove Microgroove riflling they came out with in the 1950s. (Marlin owned Ballard from 1875 til the end of production in 1891 and still has some rights to the name. Although not exclusive rights, there is a Ballard Rifle Co. not connected with Marlin making repro Ballard rifles.)

I have been unable to find out what kind of rifling Ballards really had except that it was deep enough for good performance with lubricated lead bullets, not the shallow rifling meant for paper patched bullets. Kind of like the standard vs Microgroove debate, eh?

 

[JustsayMo]

I have the Marlin 1894 CB in 45 Colt, 20" barrel and it shoots the Hornady 250 grain jacketed HP XTP very well at Colt/Replica levels and above.

It isn't a bullet I would hunt with as they don't reliably exit in my experience. It did the job but finding the deer was difficult in the thickets with very little blood trail.

I've since switched to cast bullets with a wide meplat. I haven't shot anything with the 45 Colt yet but my reloads performed very well on two Bears last Spring using cast bullets. Excellent wound channels, complete penetration, fast bleed out and quick expiration.

Commercially Beartooth Bullets makes an excellent 280 (ish) grain bullet for the 45 Colt. Out of the Marlin that looks like it would be a dandy on game performer.

 

[Slamfire]

Phil Sharpe's book "Rifle in America" has an excellent section on the ballard rifles and so does Ned Roberts book "Breech loading Single shot rifle". But a scan has not shown a description of the barrel dimensions.

Anyway, from recollection, Marlin's "ballard" rifling is no such thing. The original had deeper rifling.

My Marlin shoots cast bullets better with its new Ballard barrel than the old awful microgroove. Still it is my considered opinion that the twist is too slow, and the lands are too shallow.

 

[Z71]

Thats pretty much what I thought. Looks like plain old standard cut rifling to me. I has thought that possibly it was a gain twist thing, but don't look like that either. I have a Carcano carbine that has gain twist rifling, and it's fairly obvious looking down it's bore. The Marlin Cowboy has plain old rifling, oops! I mean "Ballard" rifling!

Does shoot quite decent with lead bullets. But really, just ain't much bang in the cowboy ammo you buy. Local gunstores only carry one or two varietys of .45 Colt ammo, all cowboy loads. Not super expensive for 50 rounds, but not just real cheap for basic plinking ammo.

I'm willing to bet the cowboy loads from the Marlin carbine are not above 1000fps. Accurate and comfortable to shoot, would probably do for a deer at close range.

I figure that a carbine load could be worked up that might make this little rifle a lot more viable in the power department, but still be well within .45 Colt power levels for Ruger handguns. Like I say, would prefer a jacketed bullet as much for recognition as a "carbine" round as any other reason.

Don't really care to explore the robustness of my Uberti Colt clone. She's a fine revolver, plenty robust I'm sure, but she also does fine with cowboy loads. Perfectly regulated for 250gr lead cowboy bullets and decent with my mild 230gr homemade cowboy loads. Elmer Keith I ain't!