.38-56 question

[Gunlaker]

Hi,

Does anyone know if the original .38-56 loadings ever used paper patched bullets?

Thanks,

Chris.

[Le Loup Solitaire]

My Winchester 1886 was originally a 38-56. It came with an unopened box of cartridges; they were not paper patched. I opened the box and fired 4-5 rounds to discover that someone had a fired casing stuck in the chamber and had removed it with an ice-pick or awl and had ruined the walls of the chamber so the cartridges that I fired, had deep "gills" or ridges in them. I wrote to the NRA technical staff at the time for help and they advocated to have the rifle rebored to 45-70 and I did that. Rifle shoots well now, but is not original. Original 38-56 loadings were (originally) with paper patched bullets...the same ones that were used in 38-55 (the long listed Lyman 375248 type bullet. I have seen pictures of them. The 38-56 as described by Barnes in Cartridges of the World was said to be about the same in terms of actual performance, around the same as the 38-55. But it sure was interesting to look at. Nowadays you can reform 45-70's into 38-56's quite easily, using ordinary sizing die (from the set) Anneal the cases first. RCBS still makes the die set, but they are pricey. LLS

[Gunlaker]

I've also got an 1886 in .38-56. It's got an ugly bore, but I haven't given up on it yet :-). If I do rebarrel, I'll get a custom contoured McGowan barrel as they can make a .38 with the correct exterior dimensions. I like that oddball cartridge :-). I want to try and see if it'll shoot well with the original barrel though, as a replacement will never have the character of the original with the stampings on it.

I bought a set of the RCBS dies from Buffalo Arms and have had no issues forming them from .45-70, but I go very slowly, and first run to through a .40-65 die.

Thanks for the information on the paper patched factory loads. I've found very little information other than the tiny bit that's in Cartridges of the World, Mike V.'s book on leverguns, and some smokeless stuff in Ken Water's book. But I'm a black powder guy so much that stuff isn't too useful to me.

Thanks for the info,

Chris.