who's using .30-30 brass in a .38-55?

[samwithacolt]

I'm trimming blown out .30-30 brass with a shortened .38-55 case length gauge.
I'm still loading the bullets to 2.5" col, so the mouth is crimped way short of the crimp groove.
Finally got everything set up last night to load 50 rounds, but still crushed 5 cases(just randomly throughout the batch, the crimp in the seater must have caught the bullet or the bullet crushed the case instead of going inside.)
Would real .38-55 cases be any better? I console myself that the .30-30 brass I found on the range for free is a lot cheaper to crush than .38-55 at $1+ each.
Your thoughts?

[Chill Wills]

You are on the right track. I have done the same.
As you know, the short cases work and give you something to shoot your rifle with if you do not have any cases. The down side is the short cases do not fill the last part of the chamber before the throat. This area is very large in diameter and can, doesn't have to, but can cause some problems. These problems include gas cutting, leading, poor accuracy and hard deposits building up fast in the chamber/throat area.
You very well might know already but, light loads are the rule and then experiment with bullet hardness to see what works best. A lot will depend on the chamber/throat geometry. Generally, the bullet seated as far out as will cycle or chamber will be best.
I did this for a first year production Winchester 1894 with the 2.130" length chamber. I fire-formed 30-30 cases found at the local range with a few grains of "Clays" powder and filling the rest of the case with corn meal and topping the unexpanded cases mouth with any wax or bullet lube. This blows out the case and only needs to be trimmed to square the mouth, as it is too short to start with.
Good luck, Michael

[Green Lizzard]

i have used it also, it seems harder alloys and slower powder is best to keep bump up in the throat to a min. works a little better in 375 but still a little short. no go for paper patch

[BCRider]

The local cowboy action gunsmith brings in Starline brass priced at 33 cents a pop. But free is good too if it works for you.

I wonder if the cases could be stretched a little during fire forming? I'm thinking that a short "wad" of small lead shot sitting right in the shoulder might work to pull the shoulder forward at the same time it swages the neck outwards.

Such a load would be powder/paper wad/CoW/paper wad/shot/paper wad. Enough shot to produce a 1/8 thick layer just in the neck area and the "wads" being little balls of crumpled paper towel packed into place. Thoughts on this idea?

[rexherring]

Sounds like you also need to expand the neck a little more to prevent it from catching the boolit and crushing.

[OverMax]

Chill Wills:
What other powder do you suggest other than Clay to blow a case out with? (and still use the same procedure w/corn meal and wax involved.) A Powder Charge amount would be good to know?

O/M (:

[rexherring]

Chill Wills:
What other powder do you suggest other than Clay to blow a case out with? (and still use the same procedure w/corn meal and wax involved.) A Powder Charge amount would be good to know?

O/M (:

I have formed brass with just about any faster pistol powders like Unique, W231, Bullseye, AA#2 using his method. I do anneal the neck area to keep splits to a minimum.

[OverMax]

Got yaw rexherring. Can do but never gave thought to annealing first. (good point!!) I do believe I have some AA # 5 here (someplace?) At what measured powder charge weight would someone use too accomplish the task please? (a ball park figure? would be fine Sir.) Again, thnx for the help. (:

[williamwaco]

I have done it.

It works -OK. - Not great.

I fire formed them by loading them with a .30 caliber bullet ( 311008 ) over 5 grains unique.

Mine were about 30 thousandths short.

I had to crimp them by running them back into the sizing die ( with the decapping pin removed. )

The chronograph doesn't know the difference. Neither does the target.

Accuracy is the same.

When I could, I got some "real" .38-55 cases and tossed all the "made" ones.

I tried converting them back to .30-30 - that didn't work at all.


.

[samwithacolt]

I annealed them, ran them through a .32 special die, loaded 6 gr bullseye, filled them up to the shoulder with cornmeal, and then packed the neck with toilet tissue. Worked like a charm. I had one split a little at the mouth out of about 60 cases.

[Chill Wills]

:shock:Shooting and smelling those corn meal loads make you want to bake up some corn bread!:shock::bigsmyl2:

[northmn]

Tried them and ended up getting Starline. They just would not shoot in my Marlin CB.

DP

[woody1]

I've blown out a lot of 30-30's for my 375 using about 6 grains of Red Dot + cornmeal & topped with boolit lube. Any of the faster pistol/shotgun powders will work, just need to adjust the quantity for the speed of the powder. Anneal first worked best for me. I use 1x fired brass. Regards, WOody

[KirkD]

I've reloaded a few thousand 38-55 cartridges over the past 8 years or so, and cannot recall crushing any of them. I've used various brands of 38-55 but eventually bought a pile of Starlines to get the proper length. I very slightly bell the mouth just enough to start the bullet.

[Four Fingers of Death]

I've reloaded a few thousand 38-55 cartridges over the past 8 years or so, and cannot recall crushing any of them. I've used various brands of 38-55 but eventually bought a pile of Starlines to get the proper length. I very slightly bell the mouth just enough to start the bullet.

I think they are talking about problems they are striking with cases blown out from 30/30 brass.

I have a 375Big Bore on lay away. I think I have a 20 round box of factory Winchester 38/55 tucked away n my big ammo locker, but the rest will be made from 30/30 brass which I have a bucket full of. I also have a box of 100 new cases, these might work better.

[rexherring]

Got yaw rexherring. Can do but never gave thought to annealing first. (good point!!) I do believe I have some AA # 5 here (someplace?) At what measured powder charge weight would someone use too accomplish the task please? (a ball park figure? would be fine Sir.) Again, thnx for the help. (:

I throw in about 10 grs of Unique or AA#5 filler and a wax plug. This doesn't always get the case to full size so the next step is to load a light load with the cast boolit to finish the forming.

[OverMax]

I throw in about 10 grs of Unique or AA#5 filler and a wax plug. This doesn't always get the case to full size so the next step is to load a light load with the cast boolit to finish the forming.

Oh. OK I can try that too. thnx

[samwithacolt]

Shot some at the weekend, total garbage.
The bullets are'nt seated concentric, and every
3rd one was tumbling. The .30-30 brass is way to short
So maybe the starline .38-55 will be better.
Picking some up tommorrow.