This weekend I finished up a handful of small jobs on the Marlin 1889 including cleaning up the stock, putting a tang sight on the rifle. The tang sight is a very cheap sight that I had only the base and the staff. I used a MVA eyecup and made a part so the cup tightens down and it is tight with no side to side movement so I can slide it up and down nicely.
Next step was to try it out. A buddy cast some bullets and loaded it up with 5 gr of Unique and a 85 Gr cowboy bullet. Unfortunately most of the bullets going through the target sideways. The rifle functioned really well but you would have a hard time hitting an ice cream pail with it. I cleaned the bore and it was chock full of lead. We accidentally used soft lead and the bullet was going way to fast for pure lead. Doing some googling it sounds like the RCBS cowboy 85 grain bullet is a bit too long for most of these rifles with a 1:14 twist. It seems most have better luck with a 60 or 65 grain bullet so I decided to cut the mold down to a lighter bullet. I mounted the mold in a 4 jaw chuck and cut off the base of the mold so it removed the last band and grove. Now it throws a 63.3 gr bullet with a 50/50 mixture of wheel weights. I should have cut it slightly longer so it was 65 gr but close enough. I loaded up 47 rounds with 5 gr Unique and the harder bullet. Hopefully I can try it out this weekend and have better luck.
Antique Rifle Restorations by the Gun Doctor 