marlin '94 cowboy II

[geo]

have this in .38 special/.357. it has the ballard rifling. can i use cast lead bullets loaded to .357 specs and shoot in this lever-action? sites i have read say jackected bullets only; lead's o.k. anyone got any thoughts and suggestions on this? thanks, geo.

[Doc Shapiro]

Of course you can!  Just don't shoot lead at the same velocity as jacketed.  If you do, you'll get leading in the bore.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

What Doc said!

That Ballard cut rifling is supposedly BETTER with all-lead bullets.  As Doc said, stay away from Mag velocities (over 1,100 fps, roughly) with those pb bullets and you should be OK.


You might ask why a 357 has Ballard rifling - I am.  I thought they only did that rifling in their non Magnum guns.  But then again ... I often get in trouble for thinking. 

[Delmonico]

With good lube and a proper alloy, plus sized right a lead bullet will work fine at any velicity yer, gonna get with a 357 even with a plain base.  I take plain bases to 1900 fps all the time in a 375 Winchester Big Bore 94, if the danged thing is leading it didn't bother to tell me about it, the big thing is use a harder alloy, a good modern hard lube and most important make sure it is 0.001 or 0.002 over bore size.  I use 1/4 Lino and 3/4 WW for these bullets. 

Another thing is to make damn sure "all" fouling from jacketed bullets is out of the bore, if it is new, remember they shot jacketed bullets in it as proof loads.  Use a good copper solvent and wet the bore and let it sit an hour, if the patches come out blue or green, repeat until there is no trace of it.