357 Remington magnum lever rifle

dpe.ahoy said:

Reaming out single shots from 357 mag to max is easy, had 3 of the H&R Handi rifles, traded one off. Don't think there is enough room in the Rossi 92 action to feed them with out the lever having to travel WAY forward with a loaded bullet. The max runs at to high a pressure for the 1894 Marlin, and would run into the same lever travel issue. It is a mighty fine compact cartridge. DP

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I get frustrated because there is not complete understanding of the pressure situation and the grip of the case in the chamber. First let me say that I have a Marlin '94c originally chambered in 357 mag and 5 years ago rechambered in 357 Max. Initially I did not have the action reworked to handle the length of the Max. I fired it single shot for a couple of years, over 500 rounds, while looking for a Smith who knew how to modify the action to feed the 357 Max cartridge loaded at its full spec limit OAL.

During that test period of firing the rifle single shot I did continous disassembly checking wear and dimention change in any of the bolt and lock up mechanism. I was also periodically cutting Maximum brass to check for thinning above the rim or for impending cracking. I started with new Remington brass, using Federal match RIFLE primers with a load of 25 gr of 296 powder.

With a clean chamber and clean brass (no lubricant on either) the pressure of this cartridge produces no rearward movement of the bolt. There is no stretching of the case due to head space changes during firing. My tests ran for 10 reloads of the brass with no damage, thinning or splitting.

After two different smiths did nothing more that create a bunch of junk parts I found a smith who "seemed" to know what to do. There are statements here and everywhere else saying that the action is too short to handle the 357 Max. It may look that way, but it is not true. The action can easily be modified to cycle and eject the Maximum cartridge. Even to eject the unfired cartridge, with normal throw of the lever. BUT, the smith needs more skill that the last one I employed.

The changes to the action are simple. The first obvious change is that the carrier is cut back so that the Max cartridge's full length fits on it. The other easy and straight forward mod is one that is over looked by many. The ejector arm has to be shortened so that as the case is withdrawn from the chamber it does not strike the ejector until until the mouth of the case clears the chamber. Easily shortened far enough to allow for unfired rounds to be smoothly ejected.

The truly critical part is moving the pin that rides the lever to change the timing. This change caused the carrier to lift the cartridge more quickly than the original design. Simply put, the carrier continues to lift the cartridge as you start to close the lever. If the spring loaded engagement pin is not relocated far enough from its original position the cartridge is not lifted high enough before the bolt starts to close in the cycle. So the forward moving bolt jams the nose of the bullet against the inside of the receiver about half way between the magazine and the chamber. This is a hard jam, requiring dis-assembly of the rifle to clear.

The new spring pin hole is relocated rearward in the carrier to a point just behind the cartridge rim stop shoulder on the carrier. The smith painstakingly fabricated a new pin and spring apparently because he could not duplicate the original factory installation method. He missed, brazed up and re-drilled the hole several times using two of the carriers I supplied when I shipped the rifle to him. I have no complaint about the method. The problem, as it became apparent, was the lack of precision in the drilling of the holes.

When I received the rifle after two years in his possession he included a note saying that it worked but not smoothly. I have to differ. I loaded 6 dummy cartridges with bullet and powder and using a spent primer so the weight and length was exactly right. Those six cartridges cycled through from magazine to pulling of the trigger and ejection as smoothly as polished and lubricated glass.

I was hopping up and down with pleasure and enthusiasm. I again loaded the magazine with the dummy cartridges; stared the cycle and the rifle jammed. . .hard, requiring diss-assembly. I put the rifle back together and tried again and, again, a solid jam.

I spent three hours going over the action to find the problem. It turned out that the hole drilled, in which the spring loaded pin was supposed to sit, was oversize. This allowed the pin to cock and lock in the hole. If the pin does not move freely and jams in a partially retracted position it locks the lever. The hole also had tool marks that helped to prevent the smooth movement of this plunger-pin up and down in its hole. With the over-size bore and the scratches on the walls impeded movement, this allowed the pin to cock slightly and jam in its hole, which locked the rifle.

My frustration was so high I put everything in a box and have done nothing to fix it for a year. Eventually I'll get to it.

The design was right on. The implementation was piss-poor.

This Marlin 1894C was bought early in the Marlin production of it and I have been criticized for altering a classic early model. But, I consider it a tool, to be customized to my needs. I was shooting IHMSA and NRA Metallic Pistol Silhouette when the 357 Super Mag was introduced; later produced commercially by Remington and renamed the Maximum. The conversion of Marlins to shoot the Max went wild. I handled and fired half a dozen conversions. Some were smooth, better than OEM, and some handled like a ratchet wrench. Some worked with the normal lever throw and some had been modified to travel much further and were very awkward to use. The impressive part was that the accuracy with every mod I fired was better than the original 357 magnum accuracy. I have a theory, but won't go into that now.

My barrel was re-chambered by Mike Bellm, who is a true believer in the Max for the TC single shot pistols for both hunting and target accuracy. I may have talked about that here before a while back. The original rifle, in Magnum, shot OK with 100 yard groups ranging from 1.5" to 3" depending on me that day. The Max chambering produces groups, looking at my last notes, that consistently stay at 1" to 1.25". Sometimes with some care and a spire point bullet, I'll shoot a 3/4" and smaller group off of bags.

This rifle will eventually be a pig gun and in the area I hunt I am stuck with no-lead bullets. The Barnes 140 gr bullet shoots well in the rifle. The impressive part to me is that my Dan Wesson Revolver with the same loads off the bags shoots the same group (1.5 to 4 power scope on the pistol and a 4X scope on the rifle).