30-30 brass to make 38-55

[303carbine]

I used some old Dominion 30-30 to fire form into 38-55, the 30-30 had 32 grains of powder, I remove 12 grains and reloaded the 30-30 bullets.
I had only three failures out of 15 brass, they formed , but I will be using a bit bigger charge to fully fire form.
They are a bit short, but for single shooting cast bullets, I think it will work fine.

[Kraschenbirn]

It'll work but I believe you'll get better results using real .38-55 brass.

When I got my first .38-55, W-W brass wasn't what you'd call 'common' and Starline was 'out of stock'. Wanting to shoot my latest acquisition, I formed useable brass from .30-30 by annealing necks and then expanding in two stages; first with an 8x57 expander and finishing with one from a .375 Win set. Finished brass was a little short...don't recall exact measurement...but shot well enough to begin working on load development.

After Starline production caught up with demand, I dumped my reformed .30-30 and have never looked back.

Bill

[Reverend Al]

I fire-formed a couple of hundred surplus .30-30 cases in my .38-55 large action Martini and they work fine. Eventually I will run them through my Kal Max case stretcher and bring them to full length.

[15meter]

Do a search for 30-30 to 38-55, you will find where this has been discussed a number of times.

One example of the search results:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?103213-Fire-forming-30-30-to-38-55

Heed well the suggestion to fire the loads vertically in using the grits/cream of wheat variation, it really does make a difference on how well the case blows out.

I just came across a whole batch that I had done 10 years ago that worked very well. Unfortunately the buddy who I made these for passed away several years ago and his daughter did not give me an opportunity to purchase the rifle. Bummer, he was a great friend. I would have liked the rifle as a remembrance of him.

[Shawlerbrook]

I am also a fan of the Starline brass .

[Drm50]

I blew out Win 30/30 brass with 7gr Bullseye topped with corn meal. Point straight up and thump butt before firing. Got over 90% good results. Just blew the partial formed ones out second time. They do come out a bit short of 375w specs. I only loaded these cases with 38/55 loads / cast 250gr boolit. I've herd of case separations and perforation with full power 375 loads and jacketed bullets. They work fine with 38/55 loads and have loaded them over 5 times. Win or Fed brass works best for me. Since I've managed to scarf up close to 300 new 375w Winchester brass and over 500 1x Win brass. Gave the blow out 30/30s to my nephew to use in his TC carbine/ cast loads. I'm shooting 235gr Speer semi spitzers over max and still going hotter 1/2gr at a time.
I'm about maxed out with IMR-3031 & 4198 am going to Win ball powder next.