Uberti 1885, 38/55

[garandsrus]

Buckshot,

Why wouldn't you just embed the lapping compound in cast boolits? How are you going to use the .375 bullets? Since your bore is larger than that, they are just going to bounce around while going down the tube, right?

John

[zipdog]

The first is with a plain base 245 gr, .380 diameter and with 18 gr of IMR4227. I got the load from a Ken Waters Pet Loads article on the 375 Winchester and it's proven to be a very consistent and dependable load in my Browning.

McLintock, what boolit is this? I'm in the process of acquiring a Uberti High Wall and need load info.

Thanks,

Rusty

[McLintock]

Those are a hard cast, 2 lube groove bullet with bevel base, sold by numerous bullet makers. I have them by both Meister Bullet, which used to be located in Phoenix, but has moved to Texas, and Western Nevada bullets, who used to be up by Reno. I think they've closed down, but I got 2 or 3 thousand a couple years ago and they'll last till I kick the bucket. The two are identical and probably come from a Magma Mould as Meister used Magma equipment when they were in Phoenix. I used to sell their bullets at gun shows so visited their shop regularly to pick up orders and I started using the bullet about 10 years ago.
McLintock

[Buckshot]

Buckshot,

Why wouldn't you just embed the lapping compound in cast boolits? How are you going to use the .375 bullets? Since your bore is larger than that, they are just going to bounce around while going down the tube, right?

John

..............I figure I'll use cast @ .382" to embed the abrasive, and then shoot the jacketed as a final finish . You're right, with a bore of .373" and .375" jacketed slugs, there won't be much bite.

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

[zipdog]

A little advice, please.....I just purchase a Uberti .38-55 high wall, and the barrel slugs at 0.372 and 0.378. What should I size to? .380 dies seem to be pretty scarce. Would .379 be OK?

Rusty

[montana_charlie]

I'm going to slip this link into the thread...and hope you don't decide I am tromping on your Uberti discussion.

http://groups.msn.com/BPCR/general.m...59926151917790

The post covers information about a rifle that (at least) has a Uberti receiver...

CM

[boommer]

YES THEY have dried up at times I seen them on ebay 2.00 each but starline and jamison are making them now so we might not see that problem again. I do use fire formed 30-30 cases in my 94 they cycle real nice with longer bullets. I think back and winchester was the only one making it for awhile and it was a seasonal run on them.Remington was producing loaded shells but no cases.then betram went busted and jamison bought there equipment but then had to retool . I THINK !!

[zipdog]

Mountain Moulds program indicates that 265gr and 0.97" (approx) are the max weight/length for the caliber. The Greenhill formula suggests that 1.2" for a 18" twist is the max. Does anyone have experience with longer boolits?

[Jon K]

Yes, I tried, tried and tried. Uberti 1885 38-55 1:18 twist with LYMAN 38-55c 335g #378674 (.378d) 1-CAVITY (1.312" OAL) It wizzzzed, whistled and did everything but hit the target @200m. Well a couple did hit, but keyholed. I couldn't sell it fast enough.

The Saeco #571 300grain Tapered FP works great, 1.120"OAL
I sized this boolit to.3805" as cast the base band is .382"+ and was hard to chamber.

Jon

[zipdog]

Thanks, Jon....what did you sell, the mold or the rifle?

[Lumpie]

................HEek, I thought the new Hi-Walls from Italy were only in a couple 45 cals and 40-65? I'd really like to have one in 38-55. I sure don't like to hear about a .382" groove though

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

I have a Uberti in 405 winchester. It slugs out at .4195. Now ain!t that one for you. I turned a .422 bullet in my lathe and guess what it would not chamber.Sent the gun to their repair shop in Farmington New york. The man that handles the repair work for Uberti. His name is Ron Collestat. He confirmed my findings. He sent word to the Italians about this slip up. When the replacement barrel came in, guess what, same size. Now this has been over 6 months, and I have not recieved my rifle back Cimarron says that they test fired the rifle and it was a Shooter. Now I ask you If saami specs say .410- .411, then where did they come up with ammo to shoot this shooter. My club only allows handloads, and where are you going to find a suitable mold of this dia. .422?. My advice is to be leary of them folks. I also have a friend that bought a 348 winchester in one of the Uberti highwalls. It sluged out, to shoot 35 cal. bullets?

[Buckshot]

...................So what are they going to do at this point? Are you waiting on a 3rd barrel?

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

[ktw]

It has been a while since my last update. The weather broke a bit here in the UP today, temps in the low 30's, almost starting to look like spring. I grabbed up what I had loaded, loaded up one of the kids snow sleds with my range gear and dragged everything up to the range.

The point of the exercise today was to empty some brass So that I could anneal them and get started on some blackpowder load development once real shooting weather arrives.

The ammo boxes contained two series:
1) Confirmation rounds for some of the more promising loads from the previous range session (Lyman 375449 PP to .382 over 31.0-32.5 IMR3031 in starline 2.125" brass)



This will make a good hunting load with solid 1"-2", 100 yard performance. 32.5gr of 3031 gets me over 1800 fps with good groups, no leading and no gas check. To date these have been cast with WW at 12 BHN. In the future I'd like to try them cast with 8 bhn range scrap and 5 bhn pure lead.

Just for fun I took some of my wrap-rejects and loaded them up in the shorter, blown out Winchester 30-30 brass over the same powder range of IMR3031. I seated them to the same overall length. The necks on these were tighter and I tore the outer layer of several patches slightly while seating them. What was surprising was that even with the bad wrap job these shot nearly as well as the good ones. The thicker brass gave me ~30 fps more velocity across the charge range over the longer, thinner starline 1.125" brass.


2) a quick test of fillers (Packing Pellets and COW) using IMR 4227 and 2400.

BS/MM 383-265, sized .383,BHN 12,50/50 lube
Starline 2.125 brass (new, not fire-formed, expanded .379, lots of neck tension), CCI200, 5 shot groups

Powder .. Charge .. filler ...... fps .. sd .. es .. Group @ 60 yds
-------------------------------------------------------------------
IMR4227 . 17.0 gr . none .... 1261 . 82 .221 ... 8.25"
IMR4227 . 17.0 gr . COW .... 1396 . 26 . 61 ... 3.00" (4 in 1.00")
IMR4227 . 17.0 gr . PPellet . 1421 . 17 . 48 ... 4.56" (4 in 2.99")

IMR4227 . 18.0 gr . none .... 1293 . 31 . 87 ... 5.72" (4 in 1.61")
IMR4227 . 18.0 gr . COW .... 1446 . 10 . 26 ... 1.58" (4 in 0.80")
IMR4227 . 18.0 gr . PPellet . 1496 . 15 . 38 ... 1.69"

2400 ...... 16.0 gr . none .... 1483 . 18 . 45 ... 2.06"
2400 ...... 16.0 gr . COW .... 1513 . 19 . 49 ... 1.51" (4 in 0.59")
2400 ...... 16.0 gr . PPellet . 1506 . 04 . 11 ... 1.30"

2400 ...... 17.0 gr . none .... 1549 . 07 . 14 ... 2.37" (4 in 2.00")
2400 ...... 17.0 gr . COW .... 1576 . 01 . 03 ... 1.83" (4 in 1.48")
2400 ...... 17.0 gr . PPellet . 1553 . 09 . 20 ... 2.59" (4 in 1.61")

2400 ...... 18.0 gr . none .... 1625 . 27 . 65 ... 1.72" (4 in 1.44")
2400 ...... 18.0 gr . COW .... 1627 . 04 . 10 ... 1.87" (4 in 1.00")
2400 ...... 18.0 gr . PPellet . 1623 . 07 . 19 ... 2.16" (4 in 1.32")

COW = Cream of Wheat (40S&W case full over thin cork wad I punched from a sheet)
PPellet = Piece of styrofoam packing pellet large enough to fill the empty space in the case, as suggested by Bullshop

Observations:

- Either filler resulted in a dramatic improvement over no filler loads with IMR4227. I like the concept of substituting something cheap, like filler, for something expensive, like powder, and getting more velocity and smaller extreme spreads in the process.

- The no filler IMR4227 loads shot dirty (unburned powder). The IMR4227 loads with filler left the barrel clean.

- Fillers did not dramatically improve the 2400 loads, but they didn't hurt either.

- COW as a filler seems to offer slightly better performance than the packing pellets and the packing pellets better than 'no filler' loads, across the board.


Going forward:

I received a smooth side, adjustable paper patch mold from KAL Tool & Die. More here. I plan to start working with these in pure lead and 8 BHN range scrap over black powder this spring/summer.

I received my copy of the Boomer Mikey group buy mould (381-265-pb) but haven't done any casting with it yet. I plan to cast some up and move my grease groove/smokeless load testing over to this boolit.

-ktw

[500 FAN]

Hello,
I Am New Hear, So Hello To All, I Purchased A 1885 Uberti With A .374 Bore/ .382 Groove, My Question Is, Are There Any Comercial Bullets Out There That Would Work With This Combo? I Use Laser Cast In My 45/70's With Smokeless And They Work Great, But There Biggest 375 Cal Boolit Is .381. Any Ideas ?

[ktw]

Are There Any Comercial Bullets Out There That Would Work With This Combo?

I bought some from The Bullshop (link at bottom of page) to keep me busy while collecting up some of my own molds. These are described earlier in this thread (post #30, BS/MM) and large enough to work in your rifle.

I have plenty of these on hand and would be happy to share some with you given that we are in the same local area. If you like them you can order more from The Bullshop.

-ktw

[ktw]

Two new boolits to add to the lineup in post #30



The one on the left is the Boomer Mikey Group Buy 381-268-pb. The three on the right are all the same KAL paper patch bullet (more on mold here).

G) Group Buy Lee 381-268-pb
Casts at (WW + 2% tin): .3815"-.3820"
Weight = 273.3 gr
Length = 0.998"

I have beagled this mold slightly to throw .3825-.3835" bullets.


H) KAL 369-2.5T-200
Casts at (Pure Lead): .3680"
Weight = 270.5 gr
Length = 1.006" (as pictured, mold is adjustable for length)


I have also finished loading my first 50 paper patch, blackpowder rifle rounds. I am hoping to get out to shoot them sometime next week.



-ktw

[Buckshot]

...............Good looking boolits, all the way around. I got the GB mould also but haven't used it yet.

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

[Jon K]

Hey Rick,

KAL, do they have a 300-350 gr PP mould?

Jon

[Red River Rick]

Jon K:

The mould that Ktw bought from me is adjustable. The approx. maximum weight of a bullet that could be dropped from this mould would be around 400 grains.

Hope this info helps.

RRR

[ktw]

...............Good looking boolits, all the way around. I got the GB mould also but haven't used it yet.

I struggled with the Group Buy mold and straight WW for a couple of casting sessions. Even after lapping it was difficult to get the mold to let go. The solution I finally arrived at was a hot mold and supplemental tin. Being a cheap SOB, I hate to add tin to my WW if I don't have to. With this mold I have to, but once I do it drops bottom poured, well filled out boolits with only a light tap.

The smooth sided KAL boolits are much easier to get good wraps on than those 375449s.

-ktw