.38 cal rifle bullets

[Ballard]

Am looking for a GC bullet in .38 caliber that casts a bullet .379-.380". Any suggestions? Thanks.

[woody1]

FWIW my RCBS 37-250 casts .377-.3775 from wheelweights. Not what you wanted. Regards, Woody

[onceabull]

Ballard: you might find something appealing in the NEI line... Onceabull

[Four Fingers of Death]

Ballard- do you have a mould or are you looking for one? If you have one, you can fiddle with the metal to get a bigger drop size, worth trying before you shell out for another mould.

[Ballard]

No, I do not have one yet. Was trying to get information, so I bought the right one first time out.

[Wayne Smith]

From #189 through #192E NEI lists .379-.380 bullets. That's nine different choices, including one listed "Lyman #375272 Hudson" @ 320 grains and one listed as a "Short Hudson" @ 260gr, and one listed as "Lever 38-55" @ 285 gr.

Hope this helps. Get their catalog. Each page contains this statement: "Cast diameters are .000 to .003 larger than listed diameters. All CAD plots are exact and may be measured with calipers. Molds can be cut without gas checks or shorter."

Remember when the Sears Catalog was the "dream book"? Well ...!

[JohnH]

Lymans 379449 cast a .379 boolit that weighs right at 265 grains from the mold, has a reputaion for shooting well, kills deer quite readily too.

[Ballard]

John, is this mould still being made?

[Doble Troble]

I've got one of these that drops right at 0.379 (which is bigger than I want for my 38-55 built with a 0.375 barrel. (http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=476137)

When sized down it shoots pretty good.

I also have the Lyman 379449 (which is currently available) and mine drops at 0.377-0.378. I use a Lee sizer (that started as a 0.358 before I bored it out to 0.377) to install gas checks. This is a very accurate bullet in my 38-55, but unfortunately the gas check is frowned upon at the Buffalo matches I shoot in. I wound-up with a Hoch 330 gr plain base that drops right at 0.377 and shoots very accurately unsized.

So I've gone through three molds in a short period of time, but learned a lot along the way and have something shootable as a result so I'm happy.

[loophole]

My Saeco mold 738 casts a 255 gr bullet which mics .380 at the base, cast with 25-1 alloy. It is a pope style tapered bullet. I size it .379 (I know, the books say don't size tapered bullets, but this works fine) to use in my marlin 336CB, then use a fl case size die without the decapping stem to taper crimp the bullet in the case. Shoots 3/4" at 50 yrds with 17 gr 5744--this is a black powder equilivent load. I hesitated to buy the tapered mold becase I think they were designed to be breech seated in Scheutzen rifles, but it works great seated in the case

[6pt-sika]

I've used both the 250 grain RCBS GC mould and the Lyman #375449 GC . My rsults with both moulds in my Marlin 336CB in 38-55 were very good .
I size and lube in a .379" die . :coffee: