Marlin Help

[mullen7]

Good evening guys. Long time since I've posted.

I'm in dire need of assistance.

I have a JM Marlin 1894CS in .357 / .38 Spl that is currently bit of a bad shape. I bought it as a project, and had it shooting alright but then it went tits up.

So far, I've had it cerakoted professionally as the bluing was dying. I've renewed all the wood work as it was battered, cut up and looked a total state! but now I've got a bad case of marlin jam, and I cannot for the life of me seem to get it fixed. The last smith that had it, made a bit of a meal of it, but I won't name names as I know he is a good smith and I very much doubt it was all his fault (Previous owner I suspect).

Now, I'm looking for assistance, I want this rifle shooting again, not brilliantly I don't care about that, but feeding nicely would be great. I'm looking for suggestions for smiths to work on it. I know Rimfire magic do work but last I spoke to him, his health wasn't doing to well and he was really slowing down, so I never wanted to bother him too much.

I would be interested in a new carrier if it's just a case of dropping it in, any smith work I'm not sure I could manage on my own as I'm not good at working on things I know I can't fix myself.

Any help or suggestions would be grand.

Blair

[pe4king]

I’m sure that the Mr simG will be along soon .

[Lever357]

A&A Gunsmiths in Lincolnshire do a lot with lever actions, especially for the cowboy action shooters.

[bradaz11]

yeah A&A, i think he does titanium lifters for them too? not sure though as I'm not a marlin man

[TomH]

So if I'm reading this right, you had a functioning (non jamming) rifle which was then taken apart to cerakote and now it jams?

Two things I can think of. One it wasn't put back together correctly or two the cerakoting has changed the dimensions of probably the action body and trigger plate and put the timing of the lifter out. When I say changed the dimensions, I mean coating is where it shouldn't be and so the parts are not fitting properly.

If it was jamming before you had it cerakoted, then it may be that the knife edge on the lever that contacts the lifter has worn a groove in it and put the timing out.

If you've got some good quality screwdrivers, then taking a Marlin 1894 apart isn't rocket science. Here is a good step by step guide:

http://www.marlinowners.com/forum/how-d ... embly.html

You don't say what the calibre is, but are you running 38 special in a 357 or 44 smith and wesson in a 44 magnum? If so, switching to the longer rounds may fix your jam.

[the running man]

It's nearly always a new lifter.....that or as said the cases are too short....I had a problem with my 45 marlin,it turned out to be the bullets were different and were seated a fraction lower and thus the leave would go down but it would just lock.....tried the old ammo (lucky I had some left) and it worked fine again...

[mullen7]

I use 38 SPL in the rifle, I haven't tried the longer .357Mag, but I will actually try this. Good shout, totally forgot this.

[mullen7]

Forgot to add; the cerakoting was only done on the ouside of the rifle, and mating faces that were required to be at correct tolerances buffed back down where needed. The internals were not touched.

I have stripped it down myself and rebuilt many times but it still does the same.. And the rifle did jam before the cerakoting, the smith was supposed to bend the carrier up to repair the marlin jam fault.

[WelshShooter]

I had the dreaded Marlin jam a few years ago. I found that the problem was caused by two parts.
1) Carrier/lifter; and
2) Lever

The lever has a snail shaped cam which rides along the underside of the carrier, which causes the carrier to move in an up and down motion. When the lever is closed, the round part rides up the cam and when the lever is in the fully open position the sharp point of the cam makes contact with the carrier. Sometimes the cam can have a sharp point which causes a notch or groove in the carrier over time. The Marlin jam happens when this groove has become deep enough such that the sharp point in the lever gets stuck in the groove, locking up the action. See the pictures below (taken from the internet, they are not my pictures).

I managed to fix the problem by replacing the lever handle, rather than the carrier. I used a fine SiC paper, wetted it, and added a small radius to the sharp region of the snail cam which you can see clearly in the first picture (someone has placed a file right next to it). I could have used the original lever, but I prefer to buy a replacement and modify to suit just in case I do a botch job. You do not need to remove a lot of material, you just want to ensure this edge is not sharp. I then went ahead and polished the undersside of the carrier, making sure that the groove was not so sharp. Again, you don't need to remove material, just make sure it's smooth enough so that the lever doesn't work against it and cause future problems. If your groove is too deep, then you may need to replace this part, or you can try and polish it out and see if it works, if it doesn't, get a new carrier.

Since I have performed this fix, I have fired approximately 3,000 additional rounds through my rifle without any further Marlin jam issues. I hope this is useful for you.

[Sim G]

As stated above, the edge of the cam cuts a notch in the lifter camming surface after a while. There are a number of fixes including that mentioned above. If fitting a new carrier, you have to radius the snail cam of the lever or it will cut another notch. The second fix is to give the cam a harder surface to worker against. Some have fitted a portion of hacksaw blade to the camming surface. The easiest fix is to change the carrier for a new steel one. Marlin spares carry one;

http://marlinspares.com/products/marlin ... ly-38-357/

As for ammo, you are best off using magnum cases in the rifle. The carriers are timed to work with cartridges loaded to maximum length. If you have to use special cases then load long to .357 length. Yes some rifles run just as well with the shorter cases, but most do not and have reliability issues.