Will this work?

[fordwannabe]

I was at an auction this last weekend, and bought a frankengun. It has a Marlin 1894 action(1971), all internals and stock, but has an older Marlin 38-40 barrel on it. The barrel is round with the front sight directly in the barrel(no ramp). It is missing fore end wood and mag spring, plug, ect. The barrel is in the reciever but bolt wont close as the extractor is the wrong style for the barrel. Also for whatever reason the lever binds locking the action open. The bolt moves smoothly with the lever removed. It looks like the rocker is not letting the lever clear going forward. Any ideas from those more informed than me? Thanks for any input.
P.S. I can sell the barrel for what I have in the gun but I thought It might be a cool conversion. If anybody has a couple barrelbands, and or a fore end for sale pm me please. Thanks. Tom

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

You can easily make a new extract cut in the barrel. But, before you do that you need to check the headspace. Remove the extractor from the bolt, chamber a case then insert just the breech bolt to see if the locking bolt will go in place. If it doesn't, that will tell you if it's too tight/lack of headspace. You will still need to know if it is excessive. Long story short, you can do that with a partially seated primer closing the action on it to seat it. If it protrudes from the brass it may have excessive headspace.

But, before you go to all that trouble you will want to get the action working. How does it do with the barrel removed?

[fordwannabe]

Steve, thanks for the reply. I was gonna change the extractor out for the thinner one, like the one in my 44 mag, should I just Dremel the barrel cutout to fit? The extractor I have looks like a piece of sheet Metal that has been bent over on itself not a solid bar stock machined piece like my 44 mag. When the extractor is out everything closes without the lever, when the lever is in it catches on the rocker but not sure the rocker is correct or sprIng is correct. Will check headspace tonight. Thanks for thoughts. First my Puma now my Marlin...STEVE IS DA MAN.

[fordwannabe]

Action is functioning as it should. The rocker coil spring looked like it was a front coil from some kind of honda, cut two coils off now works well. Now the "hood" of the barrel when screwed in tight pushes the bolt open. The hood is way longer than needed. Is it possible to turn the hood back to the point the barrel will screw all the way in. The bolt face has been machined and a 38-40 fits it perfectly. Thanks for any help. Tom

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Action is functioning as it should. The rocker coil spring looked like it was a front coil from some kind of honda, cut two coils off now works well. Now the "hood" of the barrel when screwed in tight pushes the bolt open. The hood is way longer than needed. Is it possible to turn the hood back to the point the barrel will screw all the way in. The bolt face has been machined and a 38-40 fits it perfectly. Thanks for any help. Tom

If you are saying the action will not close if the barrel is fully screwed into the receiver, what that means is the shank or barrel stub is too long so headspace is too tight. So yes, the stub at the chamber mouth end will need to be turned and possibly the chamber deepened, too.

You can actually do this with a file if you go slow and keep it square. To check it as you go, screw the barrel in and use the rimmed end of a cut off case chambered (preferably a new case). Then close the action on it until it just closes. That should get you minimum headspace.

[fordwannabe]

Well part of the issue was the cartridge lifter was hitting the bottum of the stub. Clearanced that. Put the bolt back in, blackened then rear faces of the barrel and found that a small interference on the side where the extractor should go, real light file work there and she loads a new empty into the chamber and just closes. Wahoo. Now I have to get the correct extractor , for end, and barrel bands. I think this may actually work. Thanks Steve.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

Cool,
Sounds like you got it going your way.

[fordwannabe]

LGS had the extractor I needed and it will need a little tuning but worked right out of the box. I put a new empty in the action with a spent primer sitting proud, eased the action, then a little bit of force but it seated the primer like I did it on a press, very cool. I think once I gather the magazine parts, for end and barrel bands this thing is gonna shoot. Yipee. Thanks for your help Steve.

[Tycer]

Love this site.

[Nate Kiowa Jones]

LGS had the extractor I needed and it will need a little tuning but worked right out of the box. I put a new empty in the action with a spent primer sitting proud, eased the action, then a little bit of force but it seated the primer like I did it on a press, very cool. I think once I gather the magazine parts, for end and barrel bands this thing is gonna shoot. Yipee. Thanks for your help Steve.

Not likely with this thin brass. But, because this is a bottleneck you may want to cut the upper bottleneck portion of the new case off so you don't get a false reading from the bottleneck shoulder bottoming out in the chamber before the rim does. These old bottleneck carts all headspace on the rims but there have been guns made with shallow chambers (mostly the italian clones).
I have some 32-20 SAA clones that are shallow and the carts would not fully chamber. Even after reaming they still set high. Come to find out it was because the thicker dillon shell plate would not allow the dies to set the shoulder back. I ended up removing some metal from the bottom of the die.

[fordwannabe]

OFF WITH THEIR HEADS THEN. Well one or two anyway. Thanks for the tip. I appreciate all your input, Steve.