.38-55 gallery load

[1Hawkeye]

I know some folks use a .457 round ball with red dot or unique in a .45-70 but what about a .375 round ball in a .38-55 ?
Just a brain drizzle I thought I would share.

[725]

Go for it. Tell us how it works. I think it's a great idea.

[Texas by God]

I like how you think. With PC maybe it will make the ball fatter if need be.

[beagle]

Worked up a nice gallery load for the .38-55 using a 37583 conical. Pleasant shooting and quiet. Loaded some 2 ball loads for the .38-55 as well. Interesting to shoot at closer ranges./beagle

[garandsrus]

10 gr Unique with a plain base bullet shoots well with minimal recoil.

[richhodg66]

10 gr Unique with a plain base bullet shoots well with minimal recoil.

I recently lucked into a Craigslist ad where a young guy was selling his grandpa's .38-55 stuff, a few hundred rounds of new brass and several thousand commercial cast bullets (I do cast for mine, but haven't for a while). Needless to say, I've been shooting a LOT of .38-55 lately. My rifle is a Marlin, so strong enough to take more than the weak loads in my old LYman manual, but I've found nine grains of Unique or eight grains of 700X does it for me, accurate at 100 yards and easy on the shoulder. I have shot quite a few basic designs ranging from 210 grains to 265 grains, all plain based and the rifle doesn't seem picky, does pretty well with all of them. I like the .38-55, might have to give this round ball idea a try.

[1Hawkeye]

Yep Iv'e been using 10 grs of unique with a Lee 379-249 and Arsenal 375449 which shoots nice but I let those molds go with my first year production high wall and its duplicate replacement Lee is a *** so I got a Lyman 378663 from ebay and am ordering a 375449 but I need the top punch for the 663. I'm shooting a C.Sharps 1875 with pretty good results. I thought the round ball idea would save on the lead supply a little bit and I could have some close range plinking fun.

[richhodg66]

I actually found that Lee to be a pretty good bullet in mine. I'm not a Lee hater, but not exactly their fan boy either. Generally, I'd opt for another brand of mold except for Lee's six cavity ones, but I tried that one with good results.

[blackpowder man]

I’ve shot round balls from my 1885 Winchester High Wall. I’ll have to see how much powder and the diameter. I think it was .380 lee round ball mold sized to .378 or .379 and Unique for powder. It was dead on at 25 yards with my 100 yard black powder load sight setting.

[charlie b]

If you want some other ideas.

http://www.gmdr.com/lever/lowveldata.htm