38-55 BP Starting Load

[OD Cleaver]

My better half (Miss Hope) is getting a steal on an H&R 1871 single shot target rifle in 38-55 for my birthday. That’s three new (to me) BP rifles in one year, what does Goex put in that stuff, cocaine? I’m officially BP addicted/dependant now. Any suggestions on starting loads would be greatly appreciated, y’all got me going quick with the Big 50 and I expect the 38-55 will be a lot friendlier and cheaper than feeding the Beast. The rifle is coming with 60 pieces .375 & fire formed 30-30 Win brass (?) that I plan to throw away, Lyman dies, and 200 cast/gas checked/smokeless lubed bullets that I will set aside or use to plink. I’m planning to start out as follows unless advised otherwise:
Starline brass
250 gr .379 cast bullet
.030 (or NO wad) (?)
1FG or 2FG (?)
Advice & comments welcome, thanks in advance!

[Boz330]

My load with the Lee 250 is 47gr 2F Swiss. Same load with the .375 Lyman 335gr boolit. You may not be able to get that much Goex in there. Use a wad.

Bob

[Springfield]

The Handi rifle 38-55 guns were/are notorious for having tight chambers. I have one, so I have experienced this first hand. The bores tend to run .379-380 but no way can you chamber a .380 bullet. Quite a few cowboy shooters have theirs reamed out larger, and I might do that one of these days, but for now I just run soft .379 bullets with thinner Winchester fireformed 30-30 brass. And I still have to ber VERY careful with the crimpng or it won't chamber. And with the longer 38-55 brass it is even worse. So don't throw away that fireformed brass just yet until you see what your gun likes. I got my gun cheap because the former owner was using standard .377 bullets that were to hard and couldn't hit the side of a barn, literally, the gun was making shotgun patterns.

[kokomokid]

Need to see how long brass you need. I think starline only made the short brass.

[wild thing]

I use winchester brass. The short stuff. My load is 43.1 gr. of Swiss 1 1/2 powder with .30 cardboard wad beneath a Hoch 310 gr . 20 to 1 cast boolit. If I do my part I can get 1 inch or less at 100 yards. wildthing

[OD Cleaver]

I had no idea there is such variation in case lengths, seems like many of these 100 year + cartridges were made to lots of specs by different manufacturers. Can y'all give me a ballpark measurement of 'short' or 'long?'

[Nobade]

Starline calls 2.080" short and 2.125 long.

From what I understand, the original was 2.125, then it was discontinued. When Winchester resurrected it, they used the same blanks as 30-30 to make the cases and they came out at 2.080, so that became the new standard. But reamers are still made for the longer cases, which also were thinner at the mouth and would accept a bullet a bit bigger. That, coupled with loading with black powder, would allow the bullet to fill the .380" grooves and shoot well. But modern people didn't understand that and tried to shoot hard cast bullets or jacketed ones with smokeless powder and found that bullets a few thou smaller than the grooves wouldn't shoot accurately, and ones big enough wouldn't chamber. So they started opening up the chambers of their rifles, which solved one problem while making others worse. Then Starline started making the correct brass with thin enough walls and the right length and if you used those cases and loaded the cartridge properly it works great and is quite accurate. It is a bit of an anomaly in this modern age, but if a shooter takes the time to figure out how to feed it they get very good results.

[OD Cleaver]

That is about as concise an explanation as I will ever get, I appreciate it - makes sense and solves the problem. Straight talk like that may do you well on the range but it will ruin a career in Washington politics!

[kokomokid]

I have some old Imperial brass that is 2.120 plus when fired. You will need correct length brass for your chamber. I use 38/55 brass to form 35/40 maynard.