Does anyone have trouble getting good groups with heavy bullets in a 1894p. The 240gr will clover leaf but i cant get the speer 270GD to group well at all. thx.

If you are talking about a .44 Mag, the Marlin has a 1:38" twist. This will stabilize the 240 - 265 gr bullets quite well, but heavier or lighter bullets sometimes don't do so well. Also, if shooting factory, there isn't much to be done. If shooting handloads, try varying types of powder, weights of powder and maybe, even types to primers. Also, Over All Length (OAL) of the loaded cartridge can have a bearing on accuracy.

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Night,
I have the same gun and haven't tried anything bigger than the 240grain. I'm just getting my act together to reload for this caliber. I have 240 Hdy XTP, 270 Speer GD, and 300 Hdy XTP bullets that I will try. The twist in this gun isn't as fast as the Ruger .44, so it may not be able to group larger bullets. I do know several shooters with 1894S and they seem happy using the 270 and 300 grain bullets. The twist rate of the 1894S should be the same as ours. Bottom line is, when I try these new loads I'll post here and let you know my results.

I have shot a bunch of heavier bullets out of my 1894p. It is firelapped and all rounds are handloaded. I have had very good success driving the 270 gr Speer about 1650 fps. The heaviest bullet that shoots well is the 300gr LMNDCGC Beartooth bullet. It may or may not feed well in your rifle though. The 290gr LFNGC Beartooth bullet is a dream to shoot and feed. 1600+ fps. When I went to the 330gr LFNDCGC bullet at 1475 fps, it was wobbling into the target at 100 yards. Decent groups but clearly a wobble. Hope this helps.

Bill

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I can't attest to the accuracy of this, but I checked the Marlin Talk site and there was a post on loading 270 gr. Gold Dot using 21.0 gr. H110, CCI 350 primers. The post said he got nice groups with this load and 1600 FPS. I just set up my dies for this round and hope to test out some of these loads this weekend.

So that I have something to base the testing of my own loads on, I picked up a box of loaded 270 gr. Gold Dot today. I'll try my reloads along side of the factory ammo this weekend.

BigBlue,
I am shooting a winchester instead of a marlin. This load worked well at about 50 yards. I have not had a chance to try it out any farther. I was inside 3" at 50 yards shooting as steady as my body would allow. I think it would group much tighter of a rest.

I reloaded five of each tonight, 270 gr. Gold Dot-20.0 gr. H110, 300 gr XTPs-18.5gr. H110, and 240 gr. XTP-23.5 gr. H110. I'll give each a try in the morning. I removed my peep sight from the 1894P and replaced it with a Leupold 2.5-9 just so I can assess these loads better. I'll have to zero the scope with factory ammo, and then try the reloads. This is a good time of year to target shoot, all of the political posters are up for grabs, and make great targets, they even come with their own stands.

This is one area where Ruger has it over the Marlin rifles - the 20" twist in their .44 Mag rifles does a better job at stabilizing the heavier bullets while shooting the lighter ones very well. Too bad they are so darned ugly!

I couldn't be happier with the handloads. I set out two political posters for targets today, one at 25 yds. the other at 50 yds. First I sited in the scope at 25 and then 50 using magtech 240 gr. and was disappointed with the groups the gun produced, but the average told me the scope was sited in. I then tried 270 gr. factory Gold Dot ammo and the groups tightened up considerably. I used these to set the scope for 100 yd. zero. Then I tried the handloads, starting with my own 270 Gold Dots I got 1/4" groups center to center at 25 yds. and 1" at 50 yds. Then I tried the 300 gr. XTP handloads and got 3/8" groups at 25 and 1 1/4" groups at 50 yds. Ought to be good enough for deer.

Speer 270 gr. Gold Dot, Rem. brass, CCI 350 mag. primers and 20.0 grains of H110. Estimated at 1500 fps.

Hornady 300 gr. XTP, Rem. brass, CCI 350 mag. primers and 18.5 grains of H110. Estimated at 1433 fps.

I still need to check these loads at longer distances, but I'm happy with the results so far. Right now I'm set up at 1 1/2" high at 50 yds. this should give me a zero at 100 yds. with the 270 gr. loads. When I get the time I'll shove the targets out to 100 yds. and 125 yds. and check the loads there.

I had loaded some 320 gr. LFNGC Cast Performance bullets, over 22.0 gr. of H110. they fed better than I would have thought given their 1.700" COL. I got a chance to check their performance today. Two hours after deer season started, I nailed a buck broadside at 70-80 yards with the Marlin 1894P .44 mag. He dropped on the spot, with massive blood loss out of the exit wound. They went through the deer, like wadcutters go through paper, .430 hole straight through.