New winchester 38-55 made in japan

[weasel 21]

I just bought a win lever in 38/55. This is the new Mikoru short rifle made in japan.Ive had good luck w/Browning shotguns made by this company. What brass works in this gun as I heard there are 2 different lengths. Also I need recommendations on bullet molds . Also loads. Thanks.

[Piedmont]

Cool. I hope you will give us a report on the rifle. Unfortunately I don't have answers for you on bullets or loads. You will want to slug the barrel. You also may run into the problem of the chamber not allowing a bullet as large as you think would be optimum for the barrel. I ran into this with my H&R single shot. If your rifle will chamber the longer Starline cases, and it probably will, I would definitely use them. Those cases are supposed to have thinner necks, which will help with the chambering difficulties I mentioned.

[Buckshot]

..............The REAL 38-55 was 2.125" long. Obviously a M93 Marlin I have takes them. I have a Uberti Hi-Wall clone and IT will take the longer case too. A friend just had an original Win M94 25-35 re-bored and rifled to 38-55 and IT will take the long original brass. The only reason for the 2.080" brass so far as I'm concerned is that years ago (-60's? I'm guessing) demand for 38-55 didn't disappear, but fell off to the point that Winchester or Remington, or both at the same time decided to substitute un-necked 30-30 brass. Why make both? I'll admit that I can see no accuracy difference between the two but the long case is right! :-)

You also should slug your barrel as the real 38-55 is NOT a .375, but who knows what the manufacturer's philosophy concerning that is? My Marlin had a .380" groove. The Uberti has a .3804 groove. My pal's re-done Winnie is .376". So far as moulds go I'd sure recommend the Lee 250gr FNBB. They fall from the mould like rain (mine are .380") and shoot like a house afire at original BP ballistics of 1250 fps over 10.0grs of Unique. Simple, easy, no headaches :-)

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

[northmn]

Slug the barrel, that is the only way of knowing. Barrels made for the 38-55 do vary. As to brass length, many prefer to buy the longer brass but find they have to trim to length somewhere between the shorter and longer.

DP