The Marlin 1894CL .32-20: a fun little gun in a fun little chambering

Guns Magazine, August, 2005 by John Taffin

The history of practical leverguns began with the Spencer and Henry rifles both arriving in 1860. The Spencer lasted only a short time, but the 1860 Henry evolved into the 1866 Winchester, both chambered in .44 Rimfire. The first centerfire levergun was the 1873 Winchester chambered in .44-40. Three years later the path of leverguns diverged into two roads, the relatively lightweight easy to handle rifles chambered for sixgun-length cartridges, and the longer action ones in tree big-bore hunting calibers. With Winchester it was the 1876 in such chamberings as .45-60 and the 1886 Winchester in .45-90.

Meanwhile over in New Haven another levergun emerged. Nestled in between the 1876 and 1886 Winchesters we find Marlin's 1881, the first lever action rifle made for the .45-70. Marlin's first levergun for the sixgun-length cartridges was the Model 1888, which was quickly followed by the Model 1889 with the now standard Marlin operating system with a solid-top frame and side ejection. Two years after Winchester introduced the Model 1892, Marlin countered with the Model 1894 chambered in the same cartridges as Winchester's levergun.

Shrinking Bores

The .44 Rimfire and .44-40 lever actions were necessary equipment for the peace officer, outdoorsman, rancher and cowboy. Change was in the air, however, and it would not be long before lighter rifles would be needed. Both Winchester and Marlin chambered their little lever guns in .44-40, the slightly flatter shooting .38-40 and, for varmints, small game and for general ranching and farming duty, the .32-20. By the 1890s the little .32 was very popular in both sixguns and leverguns. The frontier was basically settled and the great need for more powerful saddle guns was beginning to diminish.

Both Winchester and Marlin dropped their .32-20 leverguns prior to World War II. It would be more than 50 years before Marlin reintroduced the 1894 in .32-20 in 1988. It was short-lived, however, and dropped five years later. Now thanks to the great interest in pre-20th century firearms, mainly due to Cowboy Action Shooting, the Marlin 1894CL is back. This modern version of the old 1894 has a 22" barrel and a short magazine tube holding six rounds. The stock is a straight-grip style with the normal good quality Marlin walnut used in both butt stock and forearm. The action contains a hammer block safety and, like all Marlins, is easily scoped.

The bottlenecked .44-40, .38-40 and .32-20 have always been regarded as harder to reload than straight-walled cartridges. All three of these old cartridges have rather thin necks with the .32-20 seeming to be most fragile, it also requires a bit of effort to find the most accurate loads. The key is experimentation and it is well worth experimenting with to find a good shooting load. The .32-20 is capable of excellent accuracy once the right load is discovered, and definitely capable of magnum performance.

In the past there has been a greater variation in the length of factory .32-20 brass than in any other comparable cartridge in my experience. For my use today I have settled on Starline's excellent .32-20 brass, which is both uniform in length and seems to be much tougher than other brands. Because necks of .32-20 brass are literally paper thin, I could always count on hitting the mouth of the case on the bottom of the sizing or expanding die and losing several cases every reloading session. This same problem has existed for me with all the tapered trio of .32-20, .3840, .44-40 and I have lost a fair amount of brass when reloading any of these and especially the .32-20, but no more. Switching to Starline brass, which is heavier than any other brand, has solved this problem completely.

Jacketed bullets are a natural in the Marlin 1894CL with two available from Speer for the .32-20. These are both jacketed hollowpoints with a diameter of .312" in weights of 85 and 100 grains. I have had the barrel of my Marlin .32-20 cut back to a more easy handling 18 1/2" and fitted with a full-length magazine tube. So altered, my top loads with these two bullets are at 2,300 and 2,000 fps respectively. The 100-grain bullet has proven to be more accurate than the 85-grain bullet in my Marlin and both loads are dynamite on varmints.

A longtime favorite "heavy" load for the .32-20 has been 10 grains of No. 2400 under Lyman's 120-grain gas check bullet. It also works fine with Speer's 100-grain JHP. In the Marlin, this load clocks out at 1,760 fps and a group of only 7/8" for three shots at 50 yards. The Marlin 1894CL, with a little experimentation, exhibits exceptional accuracy with both cast and jacketed bullets. With the Speer 100-grain JHP, loads averaged well under 1" lot three shots at 50 yards with 10 grains of H4227 or 9 grains of AA No. 9. Both gave identical muzzle velocities of 1,600 fps and three-shot, 50-yard groups of 1/2" and 3/8" respectively: while 11 grains of H110 tipped the muzzle velocity to 1,765 fps and a one bole--very small one hole--1/4" group. My heaviest loads using 15 grains of IMR#4227 and CCI's No, 400 Small Rifle Primers yields just over 2,000 fps and a group of 7/8" for three shots. I use this load only in the Marlin 1894 CL.