Making progress on an overdue project - 38-55

I've been casting for a few years now but I feel like a neophyte compared to most of the posters here. I know just enough to get some decent looking bullets but I seem to struggle with getting the whole show put together into a real production ;)

I bought this old Marlin around 5 years ago and I've been shooting it with Meister cast bullets sized to .380 in both starline and winchester brass. I've done well at the cowboy silhouette matches with it and I'm headed to new Mexico next month for the NRA nationals!

I was running low on Meisters and it kills me to buy something I can make myself so I purchased a new mold from accurate molds. It is a 38-250B 3 cavity aluminum. I ordered it with a request to drop .382 with Lyman #2 and that's exactly what I got.

So I made 200 of these on Saturday and then I realized I only have a .378 size die for my Saeco lube sizer. I don't remember what my bore slugged at- it was a while back but I know I chose the 380s for a reason. Anyhow...

I loaded up 20 of these with my usual load: all sized to .378 in winchester brass with lyman gold lube and met my friends at the range yesterday.

These were shot offhand at 50 yards with an old lyman #1 tang sight on the rear and a 17A up front.

I got a little bit of leading, but I failed to clean the bore from my last match, so it could have been from the prior 65+ rounds. I'm now trying to figure out what to do. I can order a 380 site from buffalo arms, but it is a special order item. I have a neighbor with a lyman 450 so I am considering ordering a 380 lyman die since they are on sale at midway. Then I could size and lube them to 380, at least enough to get me past the big match next month.

Today I started wondering about shooting these as cast so just went out in the shop and loaded a dummy round with the as-cast .382 and it actually fell into the chamber when I tried it in the rifle. I guess that means I could pan lube them? I've never tried that before.

What say the experts here? I'm thinking maybe I should load another 20 @ .378 and shoot them with a clean bore and see if they lead up?

TIAhttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...5047cde4a1.jpg

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I am no expert but the guys will answer with questions like these I think.....1. What mix of lead are you using? 2. Shoot some as cast and check results. 3. Sand your sizer up to .380 with a dowel slitted on the end with Wet or Dry Silicone Carbide paper
wrapped around it. / with oil on it. Maybe use some thin rubber under the sandpaper to apply even pressure. 4. May ask what powder and grains used. 5, measure throat on barrel. 6. etc. and so on.

"What say the experts here? I'm thinking maybe I should load another 20 @ .378 and shoot them with a clean bore and see if they lead up? " Yes on this for sure.

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Originally Posted by OldBearHair

"What say the experts here? I'm thinking maybe I should load another 20 @ .378 and shoot them with a clean bore and see if they lead up? " Yes on this for sure.

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No expert here either .......sometimes think you fellers north of the equator suffer from gadgetitis ......pan lubing is easy once you get over the idea you have to have a machine to do everything! - cut some tin can bases so they hold about 20 - pour yr lube in - make a cookie cutter a bit oversize to take the lubed boolits out and if ya wanna make this real easy get a heat gun and for the next lot just put em in the holes inna lube where ya cookied the last ones from - half a minute with the heat gun melting the lube back around the new lot an yr done - once ya get the first lot done that double boiler caper is for the birds!! can have one or several tin cans as ya please.

Im an expert by no means, but i load for more than a couple of 100+ year old rifles, so i have a couple ideas that may help.

First i think that reslugging that bore is a must so that you Know for certain what its like. Possibly even just slugging right infront of the chamber to see what size that throat is considering it chambers a cartridge with a .382 Boolit.

Do you have any fired cases sitting around? if so will a .382 fit loosely in one? that will give you a decent idea of what your chamber will fit.

if you already had leading you may find that your barrel is larger than you thought. Clean it well and slug it then you can be certain of everything.

If you already got those .378 Boolits sitting around it wouldnt hurt to shoot another 20 For Science of course.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OldBearHair

I am no expert but the guys will answer with questions like these I think.....1. What mix of lead are you using? 2. Shoot some as cast and check results. 3. Sand your sizer up to .380 with a dowel slitted on the end with Wet or Dry Silicone Carbide paper
wrapped around it. / with oil on it. Maybe use some thin rubber under the sandpaper to apply even pressure. 4. May ask what powder and grains used. 5, measure throat on barrel. 6. etc. and so on.

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I agree that info should have been in my post... I buy all my alloy from Rotometals so I don't have to guess what the ratios are. I'm currently using their "Hardball" alloy which they call the modern update of Lyman #2 and has a hardness of 16.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jugulater

Im an expert by no means, but i load for more than a couple of 100+ year old rifles, so i have a couple ideas that may help.

First i think that reslugging that bore is a must so that you Know for certain what its like. Possibly even just slugging right infront of the chamber to see what size that throat is considering it chambers a cartridge with a .382 Boolit.

Do you have any fired cases sitting around? if so will a .382 fit loosely in one? that will give you a decent idea of what your chamber will fit.

if you already had leading you may find that your barrel is larger than you thought. Clean it well and slug it then you can be certain of everything.

If you already got those .378 Boolits sitting around it wouldnt hurt to shoot another 20 For Science of course.

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I'm trying to recall what it was, and I believe it was .381 which is why I ended up buying .380s as that was the largest I could find.
It really does a great job with those meisters but I do end up cleaning a few silver slivers out of the bore after the match. I'll try to slug it again this week and see what I find.

When I made up my dummy round there's no way the fired case would take the as-cast bullet but I ran the neck expander through and then seated the bullet and I can barely turn it in the case since the is very little neck tension... but it does have a roll crimp so I'm probably just guessing at this point.


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I would try them as cast if a bullet enters the fired cases easily. also you might try a different lube for a simple test. I shoot my 38-55 with 20-1 alloy but its over black powder. I pan lube all my bullets. For a simple small test run you can finger lube the bullets, work lube into the grooves with your fingers then cut excess off with a fired case. Or dip lube them in a small pan of molten lube let set up cut lube from body with fired case and from base with a razor blade. You might give spg lube a try. or a simple beeswax Crisco oil lube mix similar to emmerts improved.

If it does Slug .381 i believe youll be much happier shooting those boolits As-Cast. Load up a few and see what they do.

i pan lube everything, theres many different methods you just got to find what way works for you.

Once you slug everything youll have a much better idea of what the rifle will like.

As an alternative to pan lubing get some Lee Liquid Alox and coat the bullets. I have used it with good results and its simple, you just put some in the bottom of a can or plastic container and roll them around and let them dry. In your case I would look at maybe 2 coats. I use the stuff in my 32-20 where I use a 30 cal mold and the bullets are very close or slightly undersized.

DEP

I never intended to take this long for an update, so I hope I didn't miss too much while I was gone.

I decided to load some of these bullets as-cast and try 2 different lubes while I am at it. I pan lubed 20 rounds of Saeco green lube and 20 of Ben's red. I got out to the range and realized that my test cartridge was some kind of fluke, and my rifle does not like to chamber the .382" bullets. I was able to get the lever to close but it took more pressure to close than I am happy with.

I now am the proud owner of a Lyman LS and I have a .380" sizing die here on my desk. I will load these up this week and do more testing.

Here are the pics from the range; shot offhand at 50yds in 90 deg weather. The group on the bottom is my 1894 marlin in 25-20 that i just added a tang sight to.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...b458448018.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...fa8f0ffcc0.jpg

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