Sent my Win 94 to JES 38-55 treatment. Now what?

[Harleysboss]

Looking for reloading advice from members who have a JES rebore. I need everything, Dies, brass,bullets, primers , powder...the whole "shootin" match. Any tips would be great.

[richhodg66]

Mine shot much, much better when I started using a set of the RCBS Cowboy dies. The expander plug in regular dies are designed for jacketed bullets and were apparently swaging down cast bullets to be too small when I loaded them. I mainly have just shot the Lee bullet, unsized and dipped in heated liquid alox.

[ole_270]

+1 on the cowboy dies, I'm using the smaller of the two expansion plugs and doing well. Starline 2.082 length brass, and Unique/Universal for light loads. 4198 for hunting loads, and 3031 for Heavy hunting loads. I started out with the Lee mold and it shot great. I eventually went with an Accurate 38-250B Plain Base 5 cavity mold for ease of use and more shooting with less casting. While the Lee shot just as well, the Accurate mold is much easier to get nice bullets out of.

[cwlongshot]

A LYMAN M-Die is a casters best friend...

38/55 can be problematic. Know the dimentions of the chamber throat and barrel and size bullets accordingly!

Then stock up on Unique cause about 10g and a goodly sized bullet will provide hundreds of hours of enjoyment.

Good luck!!

CW

[Hickory]

I had JES do a Marlin to 38-55 and he suggested 0.377" sizer die.
Skip all other dies except RCBS Cowboy dies and the longer brass seems to give me smaller groups.
With open sights (factory) I get 2-3" groups, but since I put on a 2.5X Redfield I can get groups around 1 to 1.5"
I don't like using a scope, but old age has caught up to me.

[Texas by God]

I use unsized Winchester brass, Lee 379250 sized to .377” with LLA or PC. I like Unique, IMR 4198&3031 so far. Mine is a 94 Win 3 groove by Jes. My dies are Redding and the sizer must be meant for .375 Win- it says both it and 38-55 on the box. I’d try some jacketed if I could find any for a good price just to see how they do, mind you.

[Harleysboss]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I have to start tracking down loading components.

[richhodg66]

Starline makes good brass. The Lee bullet is a good design and the two cavity of it I got makes good bullets, as mentioned, I don't size mine, they drop at .380 and it works. All you need from there is a set of dies and I recommend the RCBS Cowboy dies. It's really a pretty straight forward thing to load for.

[Harleysboss]

Midway USA had the RCBS Cowboy die set on sale and I added a 50 ct pack of the Starline shorter brass. That about does it for this pay check! Gotta wait a couple weeks to gather the remaining items. By then I should have my rifle back and I can get to loading.

[Pioneer2]

I'm using RCBS dies with the large cowboy seater and .379/273gr GC 375296 in the long Starline brass Fed LRP and 32gr of IMR3031 .Getting 1"-1.25" at 100 yards scoped 4X Leupold.Chronied at 1600+ fps