Ask,

We shorten and/or thread Marlin barrels in various calibers all the time for customers who want to run suppressors. Some of those customers are MOF members and might weigh in here. The long and short of it is that lever guns make great suppressor platforms. They are quieter than semi-autos (reduced action and blowback noise) and much faster than bolt actions. And since they are not gas operated, there are no concerns over tuning for increased back pressure. .44 spl loads with heavy bullets should give you a very quiet and effective subsonic round. Just be sure your suppressor can handle the juice if you intend to run full house mag loads, and you'll have all kinds of fun.

Best,
AD

 

Thanks for the reply Ranger. Do you need to move the front sight on the 1894 to thread the barrel?

 

Muzzles can usually be threaded without moving the sight. Depending on the situation, the front sight ramp can usually milled back enough to accommodate a .5" long thread shoulder. The mag tube does have to be cut back and re-machined for the plug screw, but the band doesn't have to be moved, as it sits around 2" back from the muzzle in most cases. Many of our customers opt to go with a shortened barrel, which of course necessitates moving everything, but if you want to maintain the original barrel length you don't have to upset many parts.

AD

 

You will likely have to move back the front sight as well as shorten the mag tube, and possibly also set the barrel band back.

But i believe your greatest hurdle will be finding a suppressor that can handle the pressure of the loads you want to shoot. I habe seen several customs (both cans and integral) advertised as .44mags, but all have said, in the fine print) that they needed to be downloaded to .44spl pressures. Any off the shelf .45 can will work too, given those requirements, but I am not aware of any off the shelf .45 cal suppressors that will safely handle .44mag loads.

Now...Bowers and a few others make suppressors for .50 that would likely work, but the question is how much weight/size do you want to add. Those things are huge and heavy, and would really screw up the balance of your rifle...and not just a little.

If you find something, lemme know. Anything that'll work on a .44mag should work on a 45-70, which is a project I would LOVE to do. But there ain't much out there that will hold up to the high pressure loads.

 

Ditto what Ranger Point and njcioffi said. You want your bullet going below the speed of sound (subsonic) as the bullet will make quite a sonic crack (boom) otherwise. Using 44 specials will reduce the wasted gasses that a magnum would generate which are hard on a can that needs to divert them. AC

 

RPP, good to know. Thanks!

 

First post here.

OK, been in your shoes. First thing I did was decide on a can and contact the manufacturer. I ended up going with a Silencerco Octane 45HD. The manufacturer said it would be fine on a 16" or longer barrel 44 mag or 45 colt. From their responses on other forums it seems they just don't recommend hot "bear loads" or buffalo bore ammo be run through them.

Once I received the can and multiple thread adapters i decided on how i wanted to thread it.... on the cheap. Fortunately my cousin is a master machinist and i am interested in machining myself so we spent the day together threading the marlin and a 10/22 barrel. Anyway, i wanted to keep the changes pretty simple so we did the following to the marlin:
1. I fully stripped the weapon (in retrospect I should not have removed the plunger detent set screw on the front of the receiver (PIA to get back in). Took pictures along the way for where every screw went (first time tearing one apart).
2. scribe/mark the barrel & receiver so it can go back together perfectly.
3. removed the barrel so it would be easier to chuck in the lathe.
4. cannot recall exact amount we took off but...cut about an 1" to 1.5" off the barrel and front of the mag tube (that way you only lose 1 round). This also lets you leave the slot for the barrel ring in the same place (my 1894 was an older model with the rings to hold the barrel and tube together... not front cap).
5. threaded and crowned the barrel. These barrels have pretty thin walls and I decided it would be strongest to use my .578x28 piston as it has a shoulder to index on the front of the barrel and leaves the barrel a little thicker (5/8 piston doesn't have a shoulder inside so it needs a shoulder behind the threads on the barrel and there isn't a lot of meat there.) Also .578 muzzle devices/accessories would be for .45 whereas 5/8 are .30 IF you cut the barrel shorter you will get a little more meat but lose another round or two.
6. drilled the new hole on the tube to mount the front cap.
7. drilled new holes for the front sight. You'll need a flat bottom tap and to be very careful... there isn't a lot of depth available and it only grabs about 2-3 threads. I made it so the front barrel band will use the old slot in the barrel and tube and be installed in front of the sight.
8. Install the barrel and reassemble everything. Order yourself a blued thread protector too (could make one but for $10 it didn't seem worth the time).
9. I went with a Skinner 1895 sight and taller front sight so I can see over the can. I also made a brass rear sight filler threaded to hold another aperture for my rear sight.
10. Also put in a brass follower and made a sling.
11. Would like a bigger loop for my bear paws but just cannot justify $150+ for it.

Right now I am just trying to find some good subsonic loads for deer pushing a 240-300 gr pill... might just go with supersonics and deal with the crack for hunting.

Some pics before the rear sight filler and sling. Tried to keep with the classic nature of the gun since this was a commemorative model (there's a brass medallion on the other side of the stock. I also like many of the custom satin finish rifles though.

 

Wow...great first post, bud. Welcome to MO!

 

Awesome gun!!! Beautiful!!! I want to go with the .578x28 threading as well. I am actually building the can on a form 1. This will be my 3rd can I have built. The other two were a 5.56 and 7.62 can. This will be a 45 can. It will be made from Titanium so I am pretty sure it will hold up to the pressures but and still doing more research.

 

Thanks guys!

Yeah, .578 will leave the most meat but wont have much of a shoulder on the back so if you are making the can you need to make sure there is a nice square shoulder inside to index on the barrel (which also needs a nice square crown). I think most factory made cans/adapters in .578 have this and if you look at a threaded 1911 there isn't any shoulder at all so it has to index off the crown.

I'm not a suppressor guru (yet) but would like to build my own in the future too. Not sure if you were planning to make it a sealed can or one you can tear apart but I sure like how I can tear apart the octane for cleaning. Leaves ya open for running some lead or .22 and removing the gunk even from jacketed ammo... seems the rifle rounds blast out most of the crud but the pistol rounds let it build up. You can dip em but I like putting mine in SS media and seeing how clean they are. If you're around my area (PA) I'd be happy to let you check it out for ideas... if you need them. I'm guessing you know quite a bit about them already seeing as you've built a couple but it never hurts to see other designs for ideas.

Agree with the previously mentioned merits of the fixed breech vs autos. The can will take the zing out of regular .44 loads and if you want ultimate silence some .44spl or subsonic 44mag loads in 240-300gr work well in the 1894's. I'm still looking into / deciding on load info for hunting rounds. I think I'm going to stick with regular power and deal with the extra noise... it's still much better than un-suppressed on the ears and I want to ensure a clean kill.

 

Ya I like the setup you have going on a lot. The can will be an 7.6 inch Titanium can and when the end cap and thread protector are on it will come out to 8 inch total. It will be able to be torn down for cleaning. It uses the SS spacers and Aluminum Freeze plug baffles that are formed, and clipped. I contacted a local smith to see if they can do it so I'm waiting to hear back from them. Building them only takes about 30 days to get a Form 1 approved versus 9 months for a form 4

 

How did you get the barrel off? I have a local smith that can thread it but he doesn't have the action wrench to get it off and would have to purchase one

 

We have an action wrench that we custom built, because no one offers one. A universal action wrench would probably do the trick though. It's just a couple slabs of steel that you can tighten onto the flats of the action.

A word here on removing barrels: in less than half of our cases the barrel can be removed without too much trouble or excessive torque. In many cases it can require quite a bit of torque, and in some cases extreme measures have to be taken. We've had at least a couple of Marlins from which we were unable to unscrew the barrels. And we have some pretty aggressive ways of tackling the issue. Date of manufacture does not seem to be a deciding factor, though late models seem somewhat more prone to excessive torque.

If you bring your rifle to a local smith make sure he has the right tools to remove the barrel without damage. If yours happens to be one that requires drastic measures it is entirely possible to do damage to the finish or even the receiver if care and proper tools are not used.

Best,
AD

 

Ya it's not looking good on getting it done locally unfortunately. Looks like this ol girl won't be getting suppressed lol

 

Sorry you aren't having any luck. If you decide you're desperate enough to send it off, we're happy to help.

 

Here you go...

 

We also used a custom action wrench that my cousin had made for removing barrels on bolt rifles and single-shots quite a while ago.... heavy slabs of steel with delrin plates. Seems a regular/universal action wrench would probably work if he tried (worst case might have to drill another set of holes and/or get a longer plate for the one side). To echo RPP's other statement as well, that sucker was on there tight! Guessing he has a barrel vise... for anyone trying to DIY, you better plan on having that sucker well supported (ours was mounted to a 3500+lb bridgeport). We inserted a piece of steel inside the action before clamping it in the wrench. I had soaked it in kroil over night but it sure helped that the action was clamped securely and the action wrench was overbuilt by most accounts (3'+ long handle)....kind of like this but much heavier duty.
Power Custom Frame Barrel Wrench Handle

All that said, depending on the lathe setup that the machinist/gunsmith has available it might not be a problem to do the work with the action attached. It just takes a bit more time to get the action chucked up and trued up in a 4 jaw to the tolerances needed. This also may not be necessary if they are using a lathe with a smaller headstock and a spider. Again, we would have just mounted it in the 4 jaw if we could have gotten it off. Not sure how RPP does it but i am sure he knows more about all of the above than I do...

That is interesting about the form 1 wait time... my form 1 sbr still took 9 months??? The e-system has been incredibly fast though, if you have a trust.