Shot my 38-55 Legacy today

[Bulseyetom]

Had my maiden voyage with my 26" octagon barreled Model 94 Legacy today. I loaded up 30 rounds with several types of powder and 2 different gas checked 255 grain bullets by the same manufacturer. To my surprise the hollow point bullets shot slightly better and I have settled on a load of 21 grains of H4198 which was about the same accuracy of a load of 4759 but I want to hoard my remaining 4759 just in case. All shooting was off the bench at 50 yards with a scope as my old eyes thought that best to find the best load. All were 5 shot groups and the worst was under 2" so any are definitely minute of deer. The load I settled on is 1 1/2" but 4 were in 1". Leading was not an issue. I came home, removed the scope and installed the Marble Tang Sight so I will be ready to sight in next trip out. If I use the smallest aperture I can actually see the front sight and the target fairly decent but I bet no more 1" groups! My only issue is the dumb safety feature if you don't really squeeze the lever it won't fire and that happened twice out of the 30 rounds. When I become President I am going to tax all lawyers 95% of what they earn so maybe we can get rid of frivolous lawsuits once and for all! On another note my 1878 Borchardt in 219 Zipper Improved shot those other type of bullets under 1/2" at 100 yards every 5 shot group I fired. Not bad for a 135 year old rifle with a 60 year old barrel. All in all a very nice day at the range. Tom

[hpdrifter]

If you don't pull the dumb lever, you can't fire! A action closed safety. You know it right away. The hammer won't fall with out it being squeezed. No big deal and I wouldn't have a 94 any other way.

[Buckshot]

................You might want to try the Lee 250 gr slug in your rifle so long as your groove isn't over .380". A good and very cheap load is 10.0 grs of Unique (no filler). Another fine load I use in my 1906 issue 1893 Marlin is the 225gr Saeco over 16.0 grs of 4227 (either flavor). Both are plain based slugs so you save .03¢ a shot and don't have to dick around with GC's. Assuming your pound of Unique cost $21 + tax (which mine did) the 10gr charge costs you about .03¢ in powder and .02¢ for the primer. With 22RF costing twice as much it's a pretty good deal.

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

[Scharfschuetze]

First, Congrats on the fine performance of your new rifle and handloads!

My Pre-64 Model 94 (circa 1956) has the safety feature that you speak of. I don't know if it was originally part of the design or not; but as I recall, my circa 1941 Model 64 has the same feature. Next time I have it out of the vault, I'll check.