444 marlin mauser feeding issue

[concordshooter]

I am building a 444 marlin, on large ring mauser, all great except cannot get it to feed from magazine at all, I have some ideas to try to modify magazine/follower, but I thought I would ask around for proven designs for rimmed cartridge and straight wall cartridge feeding. Any books or sources for magazine design basics out there? thank

 

[shortgrass]

You should have used a Siamese Mauser..

 

[nchunter182]

Hi concordshooter,
I recently built a M98 sporter chambered for the 375 Winchester to meet Ohio's crazy caliber restrictions so I know what you are going through. I thought for a while that I might have a real nice single shot. Shortgrass had best suggestion since that rifle was built for a rimmed cartridge. Here is what I did to get mine to feed. Unfortunately yours may be considerably different since the 444 is a larger diameter round.

I had to put a bevel/chamfer/polish on the chamber mouth. The barrel builder left a sharp edge there and any misalignment in feeding the cartridge would cause it to bind up. (I think this made the biggest improvement)

The back of the mag follower needed a relief cut and feed ramp ground into it at the rear. With the follower removed and in your hand, lay the cartridge flat on it and slide it forward like it was being stripped from the mag by the bolt. You want the bottom cartridge to lay flat on the follower and you don't want the rim to catch on the rear of the follower. Mine needed a relief cut the clear the rim and then a gradual ramp going forward to push the follower down out of the way.

I also bent the follower spring to apply most of the up thrush to the nose of the cartridge rather than the rim. This helped get the nose of the cartridge up out of the mag and headed for the chamber. That straight wall cartridge has to line up well with the chamber to have any chance of feeding. It's not like a funnel shaped bottle neck chamber!

I didn't do anything to the feed lips in the action. I wanted to try everything else first before going down that road. Fortunately I didn't have to.

Hope this helps. Just go slow and watch what the round is doing and try to figure out why it's binding and what needs to be done to correct. If you don't have one already I highly recommend The Mauser Bolt Actions - A Shop Manual by Jerry Kuhnhausen. A wealth of information there. Once deer season is out of the way maybe I can send some pics if you need them.

Good luck!
Jay

 

[nchunter182]

Forgot to add though you probably got this already... When putting the rounds into the mag, put the first round all the way back to the rear. Put the rim of the next round just in front of the first to avoid rim lock...

 

[Trickymissfit]

I maybe all wet here, but just a thought.

Several years back three or four guys I know bought Ruger #1's in 44 mag. They then ran a .444 Marlin reamer thru the barrel. Worked well. Yet another guy decided he wanted a bolt gun, and of course it didn't work so well. Seems like he ended up using reworked 57mm Mauser brass, but 30-06 brass would also work. The Mauser brass only needs expanding and fire forming, as the length would be pretty close from the get go. So pretty much anything from 6mm Remington to 7.92 Mauser would work. Be nice if somebody sold the brass in a basic form.
gary

 

[shortgrass]

I maybe all wet here, but just a thought.

Several years back three or four guys I know bought Ruger #1's in 44 mag. They then ran a .444 Marlin reamer thru the barrel. Worked well. Yet another guy decided he wanted a bolt gun, and of course it didn't work so well. Seems like he ended up using reworked 57mm Mauser brass, but 30-06 brass would also work. The Mauser brass only needs expanding and fire forming, as the length would be pretty close from the get go. So pretty much anything from 6mm Remington to 7.92 Mauser would work. Be nice if somebody sold the brass in a basic form.
gary

Hornaday is making 444 Marlin brass. I think some of the suppliers have it in stock, too. It'd even have a 'flange' on it, where 57mm mauser, 30/06 don't.

 

[Trickymissfit]

Hornaday is making 444 Marlin brass. I think some of the suppliers have it in stock, too. It'd even have a 'flange' on it, where 57mm mauser, 30/06 don't.

I guess I could have worded my comment a little better. The Marlin case wouldn't extract on the bolt gun. Yet the 30-06 would be picked up by the extractor. I do remember head spacing the brass was touchy.
gary