[William T. Watts]

Convoluted to say the least, the original rifle was one of the last to leave the Marlin factory before Remington bought them out. The 1st rifle was defective and shipped to Remington to be repaired, Remington sent a replacement rifle serial #MR002XXA apparently one of the first rifles Remington built. The rifle is attractive and groups fairly well (haven't shot it much). Back to the brass, all of these cases were fired in new rifles by the manufacture to check the rifles for function. Of the once fired Winchester cases I have checked many of the primers ARE NOT FLUSH with the case head. This isn't that unusual with this type rifle, what does bother me is the cracking. I've mic a number of the cases over the expansion ring, nothing out of the ordinary. What I have noted over the years is Winchester brass is the hardest of the commercially available American manufactured brass. It appears this lot of cases were manufactured at or near the same time. All of the once fired brass was purchased mid last year off gunbroker from the same fellow. Apparently these were fired in new rifles at the old Marlin factory to ensure they functioned properly.

Now to the loads I used (1st 30.0gr of IMR4895 170gr Hornady FN with F-C standard primer velocity 2003FPS)
(2nd load I increased the powder to 30.5gr all the other components remained the same, velocity 2073FPS).
Third and last 31.0gr of IMR4895 all the other components remained the same velocity 2096FPS there was only a 23FPS gain for an additional .5gr of Powder, Since there was so small a velocity gain between 30.5gr & 31.0gr (23FPS) I consider 30.5gr a maximum load for my rifle.

Once fired cases were used for all three loads!

I do have New/Virgin factory primed Winchester cases that I will load identical loads for my next range session.. William