Moving to Marlin

Moving up to more modern times, I have now equipped my Marlin 1894 Trapper .45 Colt with a 4X scope. In the last installment I mentioned how accurate this rifle was with cast bullets. Even with all the experience I’ve had shooting Micro-Grooved barreled Marlins over the past 40+ years I was still quite surprised not only at how well this little Marlin shoots but also how easy it is to acquire excellent results.

I found it almost impossible, no actually impossible, to come up with a bad-shooting group using jacketed bullets in this Marlin Trapper. My loads have been toned down somewhat from 35 years ago making it quite pleasant to spend several hours at a time shooting from the bench. Here are some of my results: With 21.0 grains of #2400 the Sierra 240 JHC gives a muzzle velocity of 1,568 fps and a 1" group; Hornady 250 XTP, 1,543 fps, 1-1/4"; and with the relatively new Speer 250 Deep Curl Hollow Point the muzzle velocity is right at 1,500 fps with the ruler reading 3/4" on the three-shot group. These are excellent results, however only the beginning and the accuracy continues to surprise.