I just picked up a marlin lever action 44. Gun is in great shape, I do not like how the action operates, it opens easy enough. To close and chamber the round, I have to close the lever pretty aggresively. Anyone got some suggestions?

Welcome to ShootersForum, Snowman.

As a wise man often said, "Rules are simple, be nice and join in."

Marlins have been noted for not cycling well, if you work the action slowly. I'm not saying you should use a stop-watch to see how fast you can work the lever, but it should be a smooth, continuous, not "gentle" process. If you're doing it slowly enough to watch it happen...it probably won't.

Marlin actions tend to be a bit stiff, especially before they are well broken-in, and it is normal for the closing stroke to take a bit more force than the opening. After all, the bolt must override the hammer for the second time going forward, pick up the cartridge and shove it forward in to the chamber, the extractor must override the rim of the cartridge with a final extra little bit of effort while the locking bolt is raised to its locked position. The action works best when operated vigorously, opening and closing.

That does sound about right for a .44 mag. They will work best with bullets with a rounded nose or shoulder. Good luck.....

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MikeG

Another possibility for a used rifle is that some previous owner may have fired .44 Special loads in the rifle and left fouling in the chamber, which would increase the force needed to chamber a magnum-length round. No big deal, usually -- just give the chamber a thorough scrubbing-out. As noted, some bullet shapes, particularlu flat-nose, sharp-shouldered bullets, may not feed well; but that's usually indicated pretty clearly by the round refusing to get all the way up in to the chamber to start with, or by damage noticeable on the bullet when you eject an unfired round.

With pisgah's suggestion in mind, the slickest feeding .44 bullets are from Sierra. Apologies to Beartooth, Penn Bullets has a series of truncated cone designs that are also pretty slick feeders.

As Pisgah said a dirty chamber may be at least part of the problem. Double Tap
240grn jhp and Federal Fusion 240grn jhp work fine in my rifle. If you have a
bore light take a look at the chamber.