Lyman Little Sharps 38/55

[Contenderman]

I am considering buying the above mentioned Rifle. Will be for cast bullets only. Anybody care to comment, pros or cons, I would like to here what you have to say

[BigEyeBob]

Just got a recall notice from Lyman , about breech plugs ,but on thier muzzle loading rifles I dont have one so deleted to message . pretty sure it relates to thier muzzle loaders only between certain dates and serial numbers .
Pay to check just the same.

[shortlegs]

I have the little sharps in 30-30 and love it! I like a 170 gr cast boolit at around 1850 fps. Accurate fun rifle!

[DW475]

I think that Lyman Little Sharps in 38-55 would be a hoot with cast boolits. Been looking at those myself!

[oldred]

After talking with a friend who has one I was told that they have a true 38 bore like the original 38-55's rather than the common .375 bore. I know when they first hit the market they developed a reputation for poor accuracy, as his did, until folks started using the right diameter bullets. After getting the right mold for the bore his is now a tack driver.

[Contenderman]

What cast bullet is he using and what size is he sizing to. That Info would be great Thanks

[skeettx]

.380 to .382

I use an old LBT mold

382-275-LFN

http://www.lbtmolds.com/

[sharps4590]

It's good to hear about the groove and bullet diameter, thanks for posting that. I have walked away from a couple because of their reputation for inaccuracy....which didn't seem quite right given what I thought was a fairly decent looking rifle. Not knowing, it seemed discretion was the better part of valor. Might not be so hesitant next opportunity.

[oldred]

The thing is that's the CORRECT bore for that caliber, the 38-55, rather than being an oversized bore. Seems most of the modern barrel manufacturers want to use the incorrect .375 bore, I suppose because that's what they are already set up for but the 38-55 ain't no 375 Winchester folks no matter how close it looks like one! About two years ago I set out to build a 38-55 in a classic HighWall and found that the correct barrels are about as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth, my favorite brand Green Mountain clearly lists a barrel as being a 38-55 but then shows it to be a .375 bore. When I sent them an Email inquiring about a true 38-55 I got the usual "it will work fine for that caliber with the proper size bullets" and I suppose that's correct and I suppose I'm also being too picky but if I wanted a .375 that's what I would do, just make it a 375 Winchester, call it that and load down to what I want but darn it I wanted a REAL 38-55 and a 38-55 is not a .375!

The odd thing is the correct bore barrel LINERS are easy to find but not the barrel itself???

[sharps4590]

I understand completely oldred. Ran into the same difficulty when I wanted to re-line and re-chamber my Jeffrey Rook rifle back to the original 255 Jeffrey. .251 liners aren't to be had and I would have had to have 255 Jeffrey reamer and gauges ground. So....the bank account determining the process, (and the amount of money to put into a rifle), it ended up a 25-20 WCF with a .257 liner and I load down to 255 Jeffrey levels. There was some conversation between my gunsmith and I about not running the 25-20 reamer in its full length, stopping at the Jeffrey cartridge length, but then the question became whether or not loading dies would work without grinding off some length. I woosed out and took the easy, most affordable path.

[tejano]

I owned two and my 38-55 was a decent shooter but the finish on both of my samples were quick to develop rust spots. I wiped them with a gun oil rag much more often than my other rifles. In the end looking after them was more trouble than they were worth to me so I traded them off. YMMV.