38-72 Winchester

[lead4me]

I have a 38-72 Winchester and need to pick up some brass, this is not been an easy task. I have found a good supply of Jamison brass in 40-72 and it is priced right my question is will my FL die set for the 38-72 work to resize these? They are almost the same case identical except for the small neck down on the 38-72. I didn't want to have to shell out more money for another die set. What do you guys with experience in this area think? Thanks

[Mk42gunner]

I have not done that cartridge, but from looking in Donnelly's Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions; I think it will work fine.

Robert

[4060MAY]

I used 38-72, because they were available, to make 35 Winchester using a 35 Rem die..40-72 is almost the same as 405 win
to size to 38 may required some stepping, at least some annealing
good luck

[lead4me]

Thanks, from what I can tell I have to step down from .431 to .397 that is only .034 or what .015 per side? My hope was that I could just use the FL die's to bring them down. I pulled the trigger and have 40 coming from G&S I guess time will tell. This is the first necked cartridge that I am/have loaded for. I recently acquired a 1895 in VG to excellent cond built in 1909/1911 depending on the source. I only have 9 empties to play with now, I have 6 original rounds but kinda want to save them. Trips to the range to shoot this is like hitting the hay with a beautiful woman and only kissing her cheek....lol. I guess I will lube em up lightly and go slow see what happens, keeping fingers crossed @ 1.47 each not that big an investment.

[rockrat]

I used to neck down 405 win straight to 38-72, but thats what my reamer was spec'd for, using 405 cases

[Beaver Scout]

You shouldn't have trouble necking it down in your FL die, I've found that I usually only get in trouble when I'm necking down to something fairly small say 17,20,22 and going in big steps. You might need to run an expander through the neck after you get it FL sized to just even out anything that might occur. I'd go slow and screw the die down in increments as well and lube it up good, by the time you get to the die touching the shell holder you should be good to go. I have some bertram brass for my 38-72 and to be honest it's horrible brass, but it does work. KirkD is the one to really talk to on this forum about the 38-72, he helped me so much and got me on the right path to getting mine to shoot good.

[lead4me]

Ya I read all he had written on the subject and another over at I think paco's site. I have them shooting straight right now, at first they were key-holing bad @ 40yds. I made a neck ex-pander at .378 and I made a sizing die to .3795. The rifle slugged at .378 so after that boolits started to fly much better.I picked up some 4198, 5744, 3031 and R7 to start to work up some loads. But with just 9 shots this could take all year lol. Soon things will be better with 50 rounds to load up...I'm starting to really like this Winchester. Shooting the 38-255 GC Boolit 16 to 1 weight lubed and checked is just over .275

[taco650]

Just a suggestion... before sizing down the 40-72 cases, pull the decapping stem out of your die for the first pass. Then replace it and make a second pass. Also might not hurt to have the die backed out about half a turn for the first pass

[lead4me]

Thanks for the help, they should be here in a couple days.