No big deal. Just a nice simple load. M93, 38-55, Unique

[Buckshot]

.............Nothing noteworthy or earthshaking. Just a nice simple load, put up without any foofarraw or voodoo.

http://www.fototime.com/A94E6DB39FF7BB3/standard.jpg

Marlin M93, 38-55 iron sights. 1.375" (4 @ .750") 50 yards. 10.0grs Unique, Lee 250gr slug Carnauba Red lube, sized .380" (basically unsized). Loaded in W-W 'short' cases and crimped into the crimp groove. 1272 fps, ES 23fps. That's BP speeds. I'd had 50 rounds loaded and had an enjoyable time just plinking around like with a 22RF. I think I'll load up a hundred of'em just to keep on hand :-)

http://www.fototime.com/47DD87E404FADAE/standard.jpg

There were a few likely sized rocks on the 200 yard berm that recieved my attention, as did several unbroken clay birds at 100 yards left by a previous shooter. For about $3.00 in powder and primers, plus less then 2 lbs of lead I had a very enjoyable time.

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

[Catshooter]

Ain't casting & reloading just more enjoyable than should be allowed? :)


Cat

[quasi]

the Clubs I am in up here will kick you off the range for shooting rocks, if they catch you.

[Moondawg]

On many ranges shooting berm rocks is a big NO-NO

[missionary5155]

Good morning
First load I shot through my 414 Supermag Marlin 336 was 9.5 grains Unigue with a 265 grainer. 10 pleasant rounds of Thump, thump, thump. One of these days the wind will be calm in the morning and I will get the Crony set up to see what it is running. This rifle is throated for cast so some shapes can be seated out to 2.15 in the 1.6 inch case.
At our local range there is a clay pigeon thrower so there are always large left over pieces that get placed at 50 and 100 yards for plinkers. Almost as much fun as the old hedge apples.
Mike in ILL

[enfield]

but if you dont shoot em they will breed and then you will be overrun with rocks :lol:

[Jim]

Way t' go, Ric! Don'tcha love it when a plan comes together?[smilie=w:

[doctorggg]

Rick,

Think I might try your load and see how it does in my Legendary Frontiersman Win 94. That barrel and chamber will handle a .381 boolit in Star brass. Nice shooting and way too much fun.

My club has gotten so strick they forbid you from even shooting clays on the dirt berms anymore.
Makes me sick what insurance companies will do to a range. An incident occuried where a less than smart father allowed his son to shoot at the IPSC plates too close and he received schrapnael to his face. Hospital-investigation-etc. Now all steel is gone and the only thing that can be shot is paper.

[dnepr]

Sounds perfect

[smithywess]

Lovely group. Great calibre.

[MtGun44]

Absolutely amazing how often 10 gr Unique is a really good, pleasant load in so many
different calibers and guns.

Nice!

Bill

[ammohead]

Nice group Rick. I need to get my lee mould working some overtime. I am down to about 50 loaded rounds and have a cow tag coming in Dec.

[9.3X62AL]

That's a venison-maker group dispersion, Rick.

I'm still rolling the idea around of having that jacked-up Win 94 in 25-35 rebored to 38-55. It's a right useful brush and woods caliber, and 255 grains loping along at 1400-1500 FPS would be quite the game taker.

[Buckshot]

..............No problems shooting rocks. There is a fairly large supply of'em and turning them into gravel makes'em easier to walk on :-) However they will not allow steel cored jacketed stuff.

I've shot Unique in the rifle before (amongst a multitude of others) but never 10.0 grs. Very pleasent all the way around. In addition my Lee mould drops those boolits so nice and easy that even from a 2 cav they pile up fast.

http://www.fototime.com/BEDF2141E93BBD6/standard.jpg

I spent 2.5 hours this afternoon and cast up 19 lbs of'em [smilie=l:

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

[izzyjoe]

great shootin' Buckshot, you gota love those '93's. that's a nice one you got there.

[hunter64]

Buckshot: Did you use a filler over top of the 10 grains of Unique?

[Doc Highwall]

I am going to us 7 grains of Unique in my 30-30 with the 311041PB bullet made with 30:1 alloy. It should be like a big 22 also.

[Buckshot]

Buckshot: Did you use a filler over top of the 10 grains of Unique?

.............No I do not. In case I didn't mention it, the half magazine holds 4 rounds. I load 4, work the lever to chamber one and then stick another throught the loading gate fpr a total of 5. That 's how that group was shot. Loaded into the magazine and levered up into the chamber. I don't use a dacron wad with anything (powder) faster then 2400.

http://www.fototime.com/A8CC33B25D750D9/standard.jpg

An excellent (but more expensve) alternative to the 250gr Lee (on the right) is the Saeco 225gr FNPB. This is a tapered design and isn't a beveled base (if that gives you gas) like the Lee. It drops from it's 2 cav mould at .382" on the base band. This might be the better option if you need the extra OD. This was my former "Go To" slug and I'd loaded it over 16. grs of 2400.

http://www.fototime.com/D2244CBB5698496/standard.jpg

It did about as well (lefthand photo and the only one I have). I was faster, and is still a fine boolit and load. However for the shear simplicity of it all I think this new load of the Lee 250gr over 10.0 grs of Unique is comparable. The Lee mould is about 25% the cost of the Saeco, in addition to the reduction of the powder charge. The goal was cheap shooting and it seemes the Unique load and the Lee slug gives me that.

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

[bigted]

buckshot...thanks for this post. i get carried away with either bp or power in my loads and sometimes forget the simple cheap fun to be had with small doses of unique and a cast boolit. these are in all reality the reasson i and many others do this...the process and sheer fun zone that happily happens when cares of the world wave bye bye to the small crack of a proper rifle and cartridge in orchestra.

great shootin too by tha way...what a neat ol lookin rifle...im jealose.

[runfiverun]

Absolutely amazing how often 10 gr Unique is a really good, pleasant load in so many
different calibers and guns.

Nice!

Bill

no doubt.
i have a friend that uses it in every rifle he has.
i don't think he even tries anything else.

[Pepe Ray]

Question for Ric;
Have you considered the removal of the bevel from that Lee mold?
I have an unreasonable aversion to the beveled bases. Am I alone in this?

I'm really happy that some of you Californians can still have some fun.
I got out in 1960.
Pepe Ray

[MtGun44]

Boolit works for me in my .38-55, too. Finally found a mold that cast large enough for
my very early Win94 in this caliber. Still need to fix a mag tube retention issue so I can
get back to load development.

Bill

[Buckshot]

Question for Ric;
Have you considered the removal of the bevel from that Lee mold?
I have an unreasonable aversion to the beveled bases. Am I alone in this?

I'm really happy that some of you Californians can still have some fun.
I got out in 1960.
Pepe Ray

.................Pepe Ray, No, I really haven't. It does a good job the way it is. I COULD bore it out but the time doing it (remove the handles, set it up in the 4 jaw, and that would be twice to do both cavities). I suppose I could also flycut the blocks to remove it (still have to remove the handles) and that would be faster, but again it works just fine the way it is. At least for what I'm doing with it anyway :-)

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

[9.3X62AL]

That last post by Buckshot fits nicely into the "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it" line of thinking I'm in favor of. I'm no fan of the bevel-base moulds either, but the Lee tools do decent-to-excellent work in many cases. Their truncated-cone autopistol boolits come to mind in this context--they really shoot, and feed easily in most pistols.

[northmn]

The load pretty much duplicates the original 38-55 loads. Funny how we get caught up in souping up the old ones and then find they were not so bad also. I went back to close to original loads in my 32-20 and can see maybe doing so in the 38-55. I use mine with open sights anyway.

DP

[bigted]

buckshot...very nice . it is amazing that the marlins are so much better a deal then trying for a winchester. feller can get a very nice marlin in AAA shape for such a super deal that it is hard to bypass. marlins also have the luxery of being easy to clean from the brech.

all in all very nice rifle and great shooting....and might i say that to have and use such an exelent rifle must be a pleassure in itself.

[Throckmorton]

I shot a bunch of 38-55 rounds with 10 graains Unique last Friday,and it is a great load.Enuff 'thump' to let you know you are shooting a 'heavy',but a load that can be shot over and over it's so much fun.

Thankfully,our range is 'wide open' as to what we can shoot at..no glass of course.And i'm able to drive my steel and stand downrange to set it up. :)

I've not tested my old winchester for accuracy,but my toros sized steel plate at 150 yards is not safe ! I LOVE THE CLANG when ,and I love using 10 grains of Unique over dozens of grains of 'rifle' ' powder for plinking.

with my eyes ,shooting at a 'postage stamp' at 150 is a challenge,wish we had a longer range tho.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/Throckmorton/IMG_0285.jpg

the steel is the tiny little square on the left side,:)

[northmn]

I think that we forget that the 38-55 started out life as a 200 yard target cartridge and was very accurate. The 55 was for a case full of BP where the bullet was seated seperately. It ahs always been an accurate cartridge.

DP