NRA Cowboy Silhouette ammo

[Chill Wills]

All,

Being mostly a Black Powder Singleshot Rifleman, I find I want to add some more offhand shooting with old rifles to my routine. I like silhouette matches and the Schuetzen game is all but gone so Cowboy Lever is it. I already shoot this game every now and then but now it is full on go.

I have no shortage of rifle choices but I am going to work the 38-55 Ballard and Winchester round in a Winchester 1894 Rifle. It is a first year rifle and still going strong.

I have a NEI 6 cavity mould casting a 0.380” Gas check bullet I have used for many years. It works with many powders. But being cheap, I did not want to shoot (or pay for) a gas check each shot so I got new mould from Old West Bullet Moulds.



I wanted a very light load for chickens (50 meters) and maybe pigs (100 meters). I tried 7gr. of Trail Boss = 900fps and very accurate, 9 and 9.5 grs. Unique = 1100-1200 fps and horrible accuracy and 9.5 grs of Universal Clays which at first look shows great accuracy. The Trail Boss is almost a full case full. The unique and universal clays charge is small enough to double charge – not good.

I tried the 7gr. Trail Boss load (900 fps) at one match a few weeks ago and got great/funny looks. Like did that rifle go off? Wait, the chicken went down! The sound of the rifle going off is a hollow thunk. Plenty accurate for hitting chickens. I may go with the Universal clays as it might be better for 100meter pigs as well.

I am the kind of riflemen that will shoot a different load at every range until I get what I want from them.

Below is the 3 cavity Old West mould for 260gr PB

[Chill Wills]

Ooops, this is in the wrong place, I thought I was in Lever rifle down one. Maybe someone can move it. Sorry!

[175lt2]

I shoot the 38-55 for cowboy silhouette I run 8 grains green dot behind a 250 grain lyman boolit
If the trail boss load shoots good go with it! I shoot the light load all the way out and have never lost a ram, I too get a lot of looks at the range when everyone is shooting full power loads and my rifle goes pop and down goes a ram. If there is any question of can you compete with light cast boolit loads the answer is yes, I am a fairly consistant master class shooter and my pop gun loads won the eastern regional championship last year. Your trail boss load should work fine as long as the guy on the trigger does his part:wink::Fire:

[NickSS]

I shoot a lot of 38-55 ammo at steel targets at my club. My go to load for both lever actions and single shots is 18 gr of AA 5744 and a 250 gr lee bullet or the same bullet with 45 gr of FFG. It knocks targets down at 200 yards when you hit them.

[Jon K]

18-19 gr 4759
20-21gr 4198
21==22gr 5744

All shoot good & will drop the Ram.

Or.......43-46gr FFFG

Jon

[Chill Wills]

JonK I shoot the SR-4759 and the AA5744 and agree with your choice in these powders. All with the NEI 275gr GC bullet. I have not used as large a charge as you. I have kept my accuracy loads to 17.5gr SR-4759 and 19gr AA-5744 both in the 1350 FPS range. These always take rams down.
I like the 9.5 gr load of Universal at 1175fps but have had some failures on the Rams.
So, somewhere in between is the point where it is fast enough for 100% knock down.

175lt2, Wow, 8gr green dot for everything! And master scores. I would like to shoot alongside you some time and see you go. I'm good for scores in the low 30's. Shooting this more might change that! Do you have any high-lows with that light load as the range increases?

NickSS you and I are right in there about the same place on loads. I am just having fun working this out farther than I have before. Before I did not really care, but now I do because I am going to try to make more matches. Fun Game!

I made a spreadsheet with a ton of different powders and loads....well, not a ton but a good many.

I have seen a lot written about Unique and 38-55 and for 10 years have shot it with my GC bullet. It is OK, not great. It stinks with the PB bullet! Wow!

I also wonder if the 900fps Trail Boss load will be harder to make hits in wind due to greater wind drift. The 1500-1600fps loads I have for AA-2200 that are the most accurate of all loads I have tried, show very little vertical at 200 meters. The very best of the slower loads show up on the target at 200M with more vertical even when they are equally accurate as the very fast loads at 50M.

I would go with the hard hitting high speed loads but I do not want to pound the old rifle so hard and so much. It has survived 118 years. I would like to manage her so as she lasts another 118 years.

Yes, it would be good to winter over in TX! "Winter is a long time going" here. Thanks for the thoughts.

[Jon K]

Chill Wills,

The smokeless loads that I listed are for 250gr boolit. Yes, a 270+gr boolit probably doesn't need as much. although, I guess it depends on the stands, weather conditions, and target condition.

Range I shoot at...9.5 gr Unique won't take a Ram, not even with a 282-290gr boolit.

Jon

[Chill Wills]

Chill Wills,

The smokeless loads that I listed are for 250gr boolit. Yes, a 270+gr boolit probably doesn't need as much. although, I guess it depends on the stands, weather conditions, and target condition.

Range I shoot at...9.5 gr Unique won't take a Ram, not even with a 282-290gr boolit.

Jon
As in None? the load wont even knock down one?
When I put 9.5gr Unique or Universal Clays on 200meter Rams set on the rails at NRA's Whittington Center I loose 2 or 3 in 10 as ringers.

Were do you shoot in Cal?

[Jon K]

Chill Wills,

I shoot @Pala...Might get lucky and knock one down, every once in a while w/9.5gr Unique/250gr.

Shooting uphill/stands flex/wind blows/animals are bowed.

Baja Traveler can verify.

Jon

[Chill Wills]

Herald's range. I would like to get over there some time. I shoot BPCR with some of you southern Cal types.:drinks:

[hydraulic]

Chill:

I have a Canadian Centennial that has been rebarreled with a 26 inch .38-55 Numrich octagon barrel. I'm currently working on loads because with my original 28/4895 I had to hold very low on the chickens in order to get on the rams. Tha just didn't work and my low scores show it. I am now working on two different loads; 10gr. Unique and 27 grs. 2230 or 2200/Lyman 375449. Bullets are 50/50 lead-WW and are weighing 274 grs. The sight setting for the Unique load will take the chickens with a 6 o'clock hold and the pigs dead on. I have the zero mark on the slide set for this load. By moving up 2 marks (don't know what that means in inches) the bullets hit 8 inches high at 100, which SHOULD put them on the turkeys and the Rams with a high hold.

[175lt2]

I'll take back the "never lost a ram" statement, I had 1 dinger last year at Ridgway rifle club, they have very wide rails and have not welded the blocks on to set the targets on top of. the ram I hit was set to the front of the rail. If it had been set correctly it would have gone down. I have only shot CLA at Ridgway and Bradford PA. I hear that some other clubs it's really hard to knock rams down. I know a few other guys that are running 900 fps out of 45-70s with no problems but they do have quite a bit more bullet weight to get the job done. I have no reason to stop shooting my 38-55 but just for fun I've been playing around with a 30-30 150gr cast with 9gr green dot, works great out to turkeys but you will definately lose a few rams.