Carving a .45-70 blackpowder chamber

[BrentD]

I am about to have a friend chamber my vintage 1895 Marlin for .45-70 using a new Green Mountain barrel. Most of his experience in doing this is with singleshots where overall cartridge length is not an issue. But in this case it can be. I'm going to be shooting lead bullets - not sure of the mould yet but a Lyman .457-121 is a strong possibility along with some others. But what is the correct configuration for a chamber in a lever rifle like this? I know my custom .45-70 reamer won't work. I could have another made could rent one, but I don't know what to look for.

If it makes any difference, I will definitely be shooting blackpowder in this rifle.

Any suggestions for reamer design, purchase or rental would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Brent

[jmiller]

I think you're in for a bit of trouble. The Marlin action is not designed to take the longer cast bullet loads you're probably going to want to use with black powder. In fact, some factory loads will not feed through this action. Hornady developed it's LeveRevolution rounds just because of this action. The cases are shorter than normal so the bullets will feed through the gun. Don't just take my word on this, google it and check it out. You'll be able to load single shot but not be able to feed the rounds through the gun.

[BrentD]

That's my point. What chamber reamer would be correct for this? Is there such a thing as a "Marlin" chamber reamer?

[Don McDowell]

Brent a reamer made off on an original Borchardt chamber cast should be just fine, as well as a reamer made from an unaltered trapdoor chamber cast.
Also a saami spec 45-70 then ream the throat to around 7 degree should be fine. Check with Kurt I think he has such a reamer.
You can get away with a bit more oal in that original 95 action than what the shorter 336 based actions of today will allow, those old actions were able to handle the 500 gr factory load without modification or super duty deep seating .

[BrentD]

These rifles used to be made in .45-90 and .40-82, so I would think that the "window" would be large enough to let an unfired .45-70 flop out, but the carrier may not allow a long .45-70.

I'll check and see what Kurt is up to.

[1886]

Does your rifle wear the original barrel? If so, you could load a dummy round to the length you plan to load and check for functioning? Regards, 1886.

[BrentD]

No, it does not. It has a .33WCF barrel on it now, but I doubt seriously that it is original to the action. The gun is a bit of a mess and I'm straightening it out. The barrel looks much newer than the action. And I doubt it fed appropriately given what was done to the carrier and the mag tube.

So, nothing to go by there. There must be fairly standard procedures for these things I would guess. I just don't know much about multishooters. I've always been a singleshot guy until recently.

[1886]

If the original 95 was chambered for the .45.90, I don't know, it seems logical from a manufacturing cost point of view, to use one receiver for the various, offered chamberings. I am shooting from the hip, though. You may consider dropping Mic McPherson a line. He does a lot of work on modern Marlin leverguns. He does alter them to accept and function perfectly, cartridges that are 1/10" of an inch longer than SAAMI spec. I will call him and see if he knows. 1886.

[QCI Winchesters]

It should take any bullet you want to load, the problems are with the current 1895, which is not an 1895 at all, just a 336 slightly altered to take .45-70. The true 1895 is closer in size to the Winchester 1886.

[BrentD]

What do you guys think of a reamer with a 0.1" freebore? These are the kinds of things that are routine in the singleshot world but seem suboptimal in the multishooter world of Marlin lever rifles.

[QCI Winchesters]

I owned a Marlin 1895 in .45-70, and it cycled any of the bullets that I loaded, no problem. The problems came when the longer bullets jammed in the rifling, the old barrels had almost no throat, it seems. You could make a more versatile rifle by cutting the throat a bit more generous.

[BrentD]

QCI,
What era was your 1895 made in? Your information is very helpful but putting an approximate date on it would be even better.

Cast or jacketed by the way?

[QCI Winchesters]

I can't remember for sure, but I think mine was from 1905 or thereabouts. It was stamped "SPECIAL SMOKELESS STEEL". I fired a few jacketed bullets, but mostly 500gr, 405gr, and 330gr cast. The 500gr. bullets intended for the Springfield were too tight in the throat. None of them had feeding issues.

[BrentD]

Thanks, that was very helpful. From the tone of your post, it sounds like you no longer have the rifle. If you did I'd be interested in a chamber cast of it.

Thanks again.
Brent

[Sixgun]

What do you guys think of a reamer with a 0.1" freebore? These are the kinds of things that are routine in the singleshot world but seem suboptimal in the multishooter world of Marlin lever rifles.

My original Sharps Borchardt is chambered for the 45-70 cartridge but will almost take a 45-90 cartridge. it is throated for the 500 gr. bullet. This rifle LOVES a 385 gr fp so that bullet must be traveling a half inch before it hits the rifling. I won a semi-long range shoot with it...400 meters-----------6

[6pt-sika]

No, it does not. It has a .33WCF barrel on it now, but I doubt seriously that it is original to the action. The gun is a bit of a mess and I'm straightening it out. The barrel looks much newer than the action. And I doubt it fed appropriately given what was done to the carrier and the mag tube.

So, nothing to go by there. There must be fairly standard procedures for these things I would guess. I just don't know much about multishooters. I've always been a singleshot guy until recently.

You have an original square bolt 1895 . I had four of them before of which one was a 40-82 and seems to me that action was no longer then the other three . I would think you could take the GM barrel and run a 45/90 reamer up in it and get all the length you want with the added benefit if being able to shoot 45/90 also . The guy I bought the 1895 33WCF I had from had another 1895 that was originally 38/56 and had been rebored to 50/110 . I would like to have had that rifle but the price the guy was asking would have made it difficult to get out from under as it held zero collector value as a 50/110.

[6pt-sika]

It should take any bullet you want to load, the problems are with the current 1895, which is not an 1895 at all, just a 336 slightly altered to take .45-70. The true 1895 is closer in size to the Winchester 1886.

Up until last year I had a couple of the "New Model 1895's" one of which was a first year 1972 gun with pre Micro Groove barrel . Anyway that one worked very nicely with the BallidtiCast 462-550GC bullet and cycled thru the action I might add .

[Don McDowell]

What do you guys think of a reamer with a 0.1" freebore? These are the kinds of things that are routine in the singleshot world but seem suboptimal in the multishooter world of Marlin lever rifles.

My original Sharps Borchardt is chambered for the 45-70 cartridge but will almost take a 45-90 cartridge. it is throated for the 500 gr. bullet. This rifle LOVES a 385 gr fp so that bullet must be traveling a half inch before it hits the rifling. I won a semi-long range shoot with it...400 meters-----------6

If that borchadt has a chamber like that in it, someone has been digging round in there with a reamer... When that rifle was built there was no 500 gr 45-70 factory load, that didn't come until 2 or 3 years after the Sharps factory was closed up and gone.