Zeek
04-21-2010, 09:57 PM
If you have a 38-55 and have Starline's lovely 2.125"-long brass, with its 0.007+" neckwall thickness, then the only problem keeping you from success with it is finding a bullet to match the typical 0.381" groove diameter (normal brass allows bullets of only 0.359" or less).
One doesn't have to look much further, in that regard, than the Lyman 375449, with a bit of PPatch magic added, as shown here:
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc189/wosikae/PPCBoos/L375449_pair_SML.jpg
Both PPCBoos are sans GC and are sized down in a custom 0.374" Lee push-thru die then patched.
The left one features a 2X20# patch using paper with Irish music printed on it. By putting the front of the patch into the crimp groove, the resulting PPCBoo has an into-the-leade-cone LOA of 2.69", which will function well in a Marlin modified by Mic McPherson (handles an LOA of up to 2.73" after modification).
By comparison, the right PPCBoo has an onto-the-nose 2X16# patch, causing its into-the-leade-cone LOA to move back to 2.59", a length that most Marlins will feed, even though the nominal LOA for the 38-55 is just 2.51" (now THAT is REEEALLY short!).
I have yet to bring these to the range, but hope to get a bit under 2000 fps with the left one and at least 1800 fps with the right one (less powder room available with the shorter LOA). Of course, speed is worthless without accuracy, but QuickLOAD indicates these MV's are doable with heavily-compressed loads of AA-2495. We'll see how they do.
Regards, Zeek
One doesn't have to look much further, in that regard, than the Lyman 375449, with a bit of PPatch magic added, as shown here:
http://i219.photobucket.com/albums/cc189/wosikae/PPCBoos/L375449_pair_SML.jpg
Both PPCBoos are sans GC and are sized down in a custom 0.374" Lee push-thru die then patched.
The left one features a 2X20# patch using paper with Irish music printed on it. By putting the front of the patch into the crimp groove, the resulting PPCBoo has an into-the-leade-cone LOA of 2.69", which will function well in a Marlin modified by Mic McPherson (handles an LOA of up to 2.73" after modification).
By comparison, the right PPCBoo has an onto-the-nose 2X16# patch, causing its into-the-leade-cone LOA to move back to 2.59", a length that most Marlins will feed, even though the nominal LOA for the 38-55 is just 2.51" (now THAT is REEEALLY short!).
I have yet to bring these to the range, but hope to get a bit under 2000 fps with the left one and at least 1800 fps with the right one (less powder room available with the shorter LOA). Of course, speed is worthless without accuracy, but QuickLOAD indicates these MV's are doable with heavily-compressed loads of AA-2495. We'll see how they do.
Regards, Zeek