.38 Long Colt rounds, in Colt 1892 or 1895 New Navy

[mrcvs]

Do any of you have experience, and problems, with your black powder (or smokeless) loads for vintage Colt 1892 or 1895 Colt Double Action revolvers, 1898 or before? The bullet is .357 diameter, and one revolver you cannot even get the round into the cylinder at all and the second one you can, but with moderate force. The original load should take a .357 bullet, or so the literature says.

Here is the bullet I am using:

Hunters Supply Hard Cast Bullets 38 Caliber (357 Diameter) 125 Grain Lead Flat Nose Box of 100

[curator]

Are you sure you have sized down the flare on the case mouth? Also, it is possible to bulge cases if you are seating the bullet and crimping all in one step. Always seat the bullet and crimp as separate steps unless you have a generous "crimp-groove", your cases are all the exact length, and your dies are set up correctly. I suspect this is your problem because the bullets are not oversize. The early 1892 .38 Long Colt revolvers didn't have a chamber throat but were bored .379 straight through. Later models usually have chamber throats of .360-.361. SAMMI specs call for a .361 diameter bullet just like the .38S&W.

[reed1911]

The LC (and SC) should use heel base bullets. It may be a case that you are seating them into the brass like a normal round and seating them so deep they are bulging the brass, is that possible? Your gun should have straight bored cylinder, I'd 'mike the loaded rounds and see what they are measuring.

[mrcvs]

Yes, I needed to crimp in a separate step. Problem solved! Thank you.

[Grapeshot]

Considering that the bore size of the .38 LC is around .365, your hard cast .357 diameter boolits are not going to be very accurate. I had a M1901 Model in .38 LC that I had to use a 30 to 1 lead/tin mix with a hollow base to get any accuracy out of. One thing I did find with my pistol, was that a .357 Magnum cartridge would fit in the chambers. This proves that the chambers are bored out so a heeled bullet can be used in the .38 Colt. NO! I never tried to shoot any .357 ammo in my gun. I was just verifying something I read in the past.

[Urny]

My very late model (1908 if the rememberer is working OK) slugs .365 as Grapeshot said. A load I found success with required a soft swaged HBWC seated flush with the case mouth in W-W .38 Special brass and 2.0 grains Trail Boss. Light recoiling and I think easy on the old revolver, very easy on me. I never could find joy with cast boolits in this piece, but the commercially cast bullets were good. I disremember the make of the bullets.

[mikeym1a]

I guess the OP should slug his bore for size. My 1942 Ideal manual, and two other reference books list the standard .358 boolits, 140gr, for the .38 Long Colt cartridge. Cheers! mikey

[Grapeshot]

.358 bullets are required to fit in .38 Spl. cases, however, heeled bullets are .358 for the heel end and the body of the bullet will be .365. .358 hollow based bullets were used when the ammo companies began using inside the case lubricated bullets made from very soft lead.

[Wayne Smith]

And you can get a mold for the heeled boolit from Old West Molds.

[bedbugbilly]

+1 to what Grapeshot said . . .