How hot to load my 38-55

[John Taylor]

^ OUCH!! John, do you have any idea what went wrong? A double charge of fast powder maybe? Or just pushed the load too far trying for more velocity?

I hope the shooter is OK.

The barrel came from another shop and the story is that the owner used someone ells handloads. The primer was just starting to flatten out so the pressure was probably 50,000 PSI or more.

[northmn]

I have found a load of 4198 that delivers about 1500 + or - that seems to be working well. I may also wait until I can buy the Starline brass in a quantity I want. I looked on their website and they sell by lots of 250, which is a few more than I need. The lighter laods seem to be more reasonable on both ends. I almost think taht barrel had to be blown by a heavy charge of faster powder. Some powders do not lend themselves to overloading in the caliber.

DP

[doubs43]

The barrel came from another shop and the story is that the owner used someone ells handloads. The primer was just starting to flatten out so the pressure was probably 50,000 PSI or more.

There's a lesson in that story about using other people's reloads; DON'T!

I've posted my own 38-55 load before but if anyone is interested, here it is again... and it's definitely NOT hot at roughly 1400 fps... but it's accurate.

WW case & any standard large rifle primer.
248 grain Lyman boolit sized to .378"
2.5 grains of WW-231 & 34.0 grains of WC-860 (or 870, 8700, 872) on top.
Load is slightly compressed with a light to moderate crimp

The ONLY danger is dropping a double load of WW-231 so every case is double checked before dropping the WC-860.

I use the identical load in 2.125" Starline cases with a 318 grain (from my mold) RCBS 312BPS boolit for my single shot rifle for a velocity of about 1350 fps. It's very accurate.

[Catshooter]

hydraulic,

Thirty grains in my rifle. Your's might, or might not like it. I worked up to slowly 'cause I'm a chicken. I'm sure that with real .38-55 brass and some work I could load quite a bit more, but why? The load does what I want. Zeroed at 100 it's two inches high on the 50 yard chickens, a little less than two inches low on the 150 yard turkeys and drops six inches at the 200 yard rams.

I love it.


Cat

[44 flattop]

I use just one single load that I developed a 1/2 dozen years ago for my then new Marlin Cowboy 38-55. It took quite a bit of shooting and measuring but came up with 32 grains of 3031 behind Lymans 264gr CG bullet. With my alloy, sized and lubed with GC in place it weighs 280.5grs. I get a little in excess of 1800fps with 1 1/2" groups at 100 yards, no sticky extraction at all and negligible case head expansion.

It is a fantastic elk load!

44

[Jumptrap]

^ OUCH!! John, do you have any idea what went wrong? A double charge of fast powder maybe? Or just pushed the load too far trying for more velocity?

I hope the shooter is OK.

More than likely some idiot trying to find out how hot he could load his 38-55.

[missionary5155]

Greetings
I have not yet had the opportinity to pop a buff or griz but cannot imagine why I need more than 1500 fps with a 255 grainer to hunt any other critter walking about with my 38-55´s. I figure if 50 grains of 2F was enough to harvest everything that was ever encountered than surely 35 % FPS over the origonal is going to be just fine. If not I guess I will get out a caliber 45.

[hydraulic]

Catshooter: That looks like what I want for our silhouette shoot. I bought 24 lbs of 2230 from Widners a few years ago, but have been loading 4895 behind the 375449 Lyman bullet. 26 grs, shoots accurately, but drops over a foot at the rams. All my brass is loaded for the shoot in Alliance next weekend, but when I get home with some empty brass I'll give your formula a try. Thanks.

[Whit Spurzon]

I've had excellent results with SR 4759 in my Marlin Cowboy. Velocity is a bit higher than what the book says and I'm still 2 grains below MAX





A friend of mine does REAL good with RE 7 and IMR 4198 in his CB







A few Lee 250's that I dug out of the sand backstop.

[northmn]

One thing I am going to play with is the use of a softer alloy that is water hardened. I ahve had good luck with hunting loads by hardening the bullet, placing the bases in water and annealing the nose. Might give me better results. Still settling on a load at about 1500 or so.

DP

[Catshooter]

hydraulic,

1700 to 1800 is what most of the guys who were using the .38-55 wanted. There was about seven or eight of us in that small South Dakota club. The recoil is not bad for the 40 rounds you fire, accuracy is excellent with all the power you really need. I shot a nice round inch and a half group at 150 yards while sighting in.

Works for me!


Cat