I have a Marlin 1894 I just picked up.  Been reloading 357 for as long as I can remember.  but wanted some input from the hive.

In the Hornady manual (9th edition) it says if your using the FTX bullets, you need to trim the brass down to 1.240 as opposed to 1.290 standard length.
However in the latest Hodgdon Annual manual, no such requirements are listed.

Can somebody, anybody give me the real deal here?

I'll only be shooting the FTX's out of the 1894, not the 686.  I'm not sure if this is a feed requirement or not.

It seems like it may have to do with the listed powders and a compressed load.  I plan on running 6.0 grains of CFE-Pistol, using a magnum primer and 140 grain FTX bullet.

It seems to me that if i trim the brass that small, it can only ever be used for the rifle in the future.  Just thinking about a lot more separation of brass after range trips.

Any knowledgeable input would be appreciated, especially from guys who have run this load.

Thanks,

Use a different bullet?  Ftx are $$ bullets.  You'll save time, money, and effort.  

You can shoot shorter cases in a revolver no problem, so if you insist on shortening cases shorten them all so you don't have to sort them?

Well after some experimentation, I find that the red plastic tip on the FTX is the hang up.  I have a box of Hornady Leverlotuion 357 140 GN FTX that i bought just for this rifle.  I did some comparison by loading one and trying to feed it through the rifle.  

Overall, the reason for trimming the brass, is to accommodate for the tip.  If you use standard length brass, the tip hangs up & you have to do a double rack on the lever to get it past the feed ramps.

I bought the box of FTX's already, so now I'll just shorten 100 pieces. (not like there aren't about 10,000 pieces of empty laying around here) of brass and be done.  I'll just mark them so I can be sure which ones are the shorties.

Thanks for the info.

I suspect over time you wont want to fool with those and will just run hollowpoints that dont press on the primer ahead or semi wadcutters.  Do run your finger over the seated primers to be sure they all got seated properly you dont want the primer sticking up.

I shoot Hornady XTPs in my 20" and 24" Rossi Model 92 rifles.

The 125 gr and 158 gr XTP are not super expensive ($19 on line and around $23 in the local gun shop per box of 100), but they are very accurate (I get 2" groups at 100 yards in both my rifles (using a Marbles Standard Tang sight with Merit #3 or #4 adjustable aperture, and a Myman 17 AHB globe front sight, with Lee Shaver inserts).

You'll find the XTPs have no problem at all expanding at .357 rifle or carbine velocities and they feed fine in my rifles.

I'd just avoid the FTX bullets as they don't really meet any particular need for a .357 Carbine or rifle.

That pointy tip will hit the primer no matter how deep you seat it.  The polymer tip is "specially engineered" to be soft enough that it will compress rather than fire the primer it's touching.

Has the OP tried to use 38 Special brass instead of 357 brass.  It will likely be 0.075" too short but it is worth looking at.

I think this is an across the board thing with the FTX bullets in lever guns .