HELP- 38-55 cal. Cast bullet's

[The Senator]

I have a 1894 Winchester made in 1903 with a very good bore. The bore dia. is
.381. Does anyone make a good gas checked .382 dia. bullet in the 245-285 grain range? I am very new to cast bullet shooting, we have a match every month at the club and I still am not ready. The gun shoot factory jacketed winchester bullets just fine. Are there bullets available that I need, or will I have to have a custom mould made. If so who do you recommend????
Thanks to all replys'
Jerry Kazee
The Senator
jerry.kazee@yahoo.com
:lovebooli

[Buckshot]

..............Hey Jerry welcome to the board! You'd only want a GC boolit for your 38-55 if you were thinking of loading modern high velocity type loads. Offhand I can't think of a mould dropping that size that takes a GC. However Saeco offers 3 plain based designs just for the 38-55 and with FN's so they'd work in your magazine also. One is a 225gr, then a 255gr and finally a 300 gr. I have all three of'em but only use the 2 lighter ones in my '93 Marlin. <Edited to add> I forgot to add that they're tapered designs and drop from my moulds at .382" on the base band.

You can see them here: http://www.redding-reloading.com/online-catalog/88-bullet-moulds-charts

............Buckshot

[405]

Senator, welcome! I'm not sure why your post has been blown by with few suggestion posts but yes, an original Win 94, 38-55 is problematic. I have two and both have very nice but largish bores and somewhat smallish chambers. That causes a huge (and common I might add) dilemma if trying to shoot the best size cast bullet for accuracy. You are correct in wanting to go to at least a .381" diameter. The problem is two-fold. 1) A .381-382" loaded round may not fit into a smallish chamber. 2) Finding a .381-382" cast bullet of correct weight is difficult. The closest I could come to both fitting a chambered round and large enough to shoot well was a 250 gr .380" FN gas-checked bullet.

Before you spend a lot of $ on bullets that don't work well or molds that drop undersized bullets or loaded rounds that don't chamber smoothly, etc.... you might first do a cerrosafe chamber cast to get the upper body and neck chamber diameter dimension. That diameter along with 2X the neck wall thickness of the brass you have will determine how fat a bullet you can load. If you are lucky, your chamber might be large enough to handle the larger diameter bullets.

When I first started testing bullets for my old Win 94 38-55s.... the results were terrible. Most all normal sized .376-.380" diameter cast, plain-based bullets showed bad tendancies to be unstable and many key holed at 50 yards. I finally found that by using the thinnest brass (regardless of make) loaded with gas-checked, 250 gr .380 FN bullet I could get reliable and accurate results.

I assume you would like to use light loads of smokeless. My recommendations are based around that. There is a way to shoot blackpowder/plain base bullets fairly well, but that is a different critter and topic of discussion all together.

You might try either Beartooth cast bullets or Bullshop cast bullets. Otherwise, after getting those critical chamber diameters, you could design a custom mold thru Mountain Molds or other outfit. The original Win 94 38-55s can be frustrating but they can be "forced" to shoot cast well :) Good luck!

[45-70 Chevroner]

Jerry.
I have a 38-55 Marlin CB. M336. It has a .380" bore. I had a hard time finding a mold for it until Lee came out with thier 38-55 mold. It is a 250gr. BBFP. The mold I got drops an as cast .382" boolit. I have to size it down to .380" and it shoots great. If loaded as cast with LLA it would not chamber. There are no sizing dies made (that I know of) any larger than .379" although when I ordered my Lyman .379 GH&I die it sizes to .380". If you want to size to .381" there is a guy here on this forum that will make a push through lee type sizing die for around $25.00. I ordered one of those also. As a side note my loads are running around 1100 to 1300 FPS depending on the powder I am using. The Winchester will handle those loads Ok. The Marlin 336 will handle higher pressures.

[The Senator]

A BIG thank you to all who replied. Guess I have some work to do, and some more work for my gunsmith. I will have him do a chamber cast, etc. Thanks, again
The Senator
Jerry Kazee

[kirb]

Jerry,

I some seaco boolit sized to .382 plain base 255 gr and 290 gr pm me your address and I will mail you some to see if they will fit your gun.

Kirb

[elk hunter]

Jerry,

Welcome aboard!

Glad to see you made it over here from the AR forum. You can see how knowledgeable and helpful the folks are here.

Good luck with your 38-55 project.

[excess650]

I read that Starline 38-55cases are thinner at the mouth than WW, so may make loading and chambering easier with .380"+ bullets.

[Good Cheer]

Does anybody use hollow bases in 38-55's like folks do in 45-70's?
Caint recomember ever seeing such a mold but it would seem the reasonable thing to have. After all if Lyman could make a nice 358 HBWC mold then why not a 377 HB mold?

[405]

I read that Starline 38-55cases are thinner at the mouth than WW, so may make loading and chambering easier with .380"+ bullets.

The neck wall thickness of the 38-55 Starlines I have average about .007"

[MtGun44]

I have a rifle just a couple years older than yours with a .380 bore, too. The Lee 379-250-RF
works reasonably well in mine, but I have an issue with the mag tube that is keeping me
from shooting it until I get it fixed. I have not had a chance to do much development yet.

Bill

[wink]

Just checked my WW 38-55 brass wall thickness. .085-.090.. If Starline is .007 this brass would increase chamber clearance .015 - .002.

[Irascible]

To get a bullet large enough for my .380 and .382 bores, I special ordered an RCBS 37-250 oversize mould. It is a GC design same as their std 37-250 (which is .378) but casts .383 to .384 depending on the alloy. I special ordered LEE push through dies in .382 and .380 as I have need of both those diameters. To get to .380 without damage, I first go through the .382 die (after pan or tumble lubing). It doesn't damage the bullet at all and is very accurate in my guns.
The Starline brass is great for using OS bullets in a std. chamber. My 1894 SRC needed a .380 bullet, but would not chamber anything larger than a .379 bullet. Even trying the Too short W-W new manufactured brass wouldn't help. The thin necked Starline brass fixed that, proper full length and thin necks. Just perfect for that gun.

[475BH]

Mr. Senator
There is a cast bullet co. here in St.Paul, MN. called
Red River Bullets
P# 952-440-2033
I have several boxes of their bullets for a Marlin .38-55, they are very good quality and shoot nice.
BTW I'm looking at the box right now and the price on it says quantity 100 $9.50.
I guess I should be shootin it a lil more often.