I scored one a couple of weeks ago, that was manufactured in 1980.  I was doing some reading online, and the site said, "Consult manual for proper ammo selection," or something like that, except I don't have the manual.  Wouldn't most all commercial .357 be OK? Short of cartridges loaded with SWCs and similar bullets?

Marlin Owners Manuals

Does it have "micro groove" rifling or the ballard rifling? If it says micro groove, you may need to be wary of lead bullets due to fouling or you need to use copper jacketed bullets.





roy d...or so I've heard

My .357 carbines like medium-weight bullets; 140-158 grain mostly. If the marlin rifling is as slow as the Puma (1:30 iirc), I'd tend to avoid anything much over 158-160 for that reason alone.

If you have access to a chronograph, it'd be worthwhile to run some loads thru it from the carbine. The longer barrel and sealed breach make for a LOT more velocity with magnum loads than the same loads thru a handgun. Even with my guns' short 16" barrels, I sometimes get 2,000 fps with 140's, and most always more than 2,000 with 125's.

Buffalo Bore has some 357mag Heavy loads that they tested in your Marlin.  158grn bullet load clocked 2,153fps out of a 18.5" Marlin!!!



My 158grn Zero JSP bullets and H110 handloads reach 1,986fps out of my 24" Rossi.

Any jacketed HP or SP should work OK.   Sometimes lever guns can be fussy about what they will feed so you will have to find the right load.    Dont use any spire pointed bullets with the exception of the LEVERevolution.

True, just be aware of over-driving bullets. I ran into this when I first started loading for my carbines. A lot of .357 bullets aren't made to withstand the much-increased velocity that a carbine gives them.

Example - the 125XTP is made for a velocity window of 850-1600 fps, but a carbine's going to launch it at around 2000. At that velocity it's likely to disrupt too soon and underpenetrate if you're trying to use it for deer or similar. For coyotes, feral animals, etc, it's great, but for larger things, even though the muzzle energy may be adequate for a given animal, the penetration is likely to not be.