new here need help

[brennemanj83]

i just recently purchased an h&r classic t in 38/55.i've been loading with smokeless for sometime now.i would like to start loading the 38/55 with black powder.any pointers as far as equipment and components go?i slugged the bore and it is .380.what would be a good boolit to use?i will be using this rifle target shooting and hunting.

thanks in advance

[NickSS]

You need to get a bullet that will size to .382" and a sizer to match. As for bullets it depends on the ranges you want to shoot it. The standard 250 gr flat point bullet will work fine for both target and hunting out to 200 yards. If you desire to shoot it further you will need and longer heavier bullet. I have a 320 gr round nose NEI mold that I use for target shooting in my high wall. It will do just fine out to 500 meters but will not reliably knock over a steel ram target at that range. I have hit more than one that just wiggled. So now I use a 40-65 for silhouettes. To load black powder I have found that in my three 38-55 rifles that I get best accuracy with FFG but yours might like FFFG so try it. As for the charge you need to experiment. With a 250 gr slug I use 42 gr of GOEX FFG but I only use 39 gr with the 310 slug. These are compressed loads arrived at by actually shooting a couple hundred bullets to find the best compression with my rifle. If you want an accurate load for smokeless try 18 gr of AA 5744 and a 250 gr lyman flat point bullet. This load fires very well in every 38-55 that I have seen it used in.

[boommer]

That 38-55 target has a tight chamber mine will only take a .379 bullet with a taper crimp and others that have worked with this rifle have found this out. The problem is that they have 375 Winchester chamber But a 38-55 length chamber so it's cut for a .375 bullet diameter bullet. This is the reason the rifle it will not shot tight groups, but you can get them to shot fairly decent. First use Winchester brass because it's thinner then a very soft bullet 1-30 mix so they will bump up when fired. The cheap way to taper crimp is to take the De-capping rod out of your full sizing die then you have a cheap kinda works taper die. NOW for loading black it's volume not weight so what you want to do is have No air space so what you want to do is load the cartridge to length if you drop tube the powder it stacks it tighter than just dumping it in so you'll get more powder Per space and changes burn rate. Now compression is trail and error start with 1/8"comp see how it works I've found GOEX likes more comp than Swiss, comp changes burn rate too. The thing about black is amount grains means nothing it's getting over all length right so you hit hit your crimping groves or over all length to put the bullet close to the lands with a taper crimp in a single shot and how many grains you load depends on what brand case ,type powder, tube no tube ,card no card,grease cookie, compression, bullet design, and others. If you go to graybeard outdoors site you can find where we worked this rifle out it's ,a good H@R site or PM me and we can exchange phone # I'm not great at on the puter (old school)

[John Boy]

what would be a good boolit to use?
Jon - first of all, Boommer's advice is all facts and good advice too.
Before you can really appreciate the accuracy of the H&R 38-55, the chamber has to be reamed. Read my post on this thread about sending the barrel to Richard Clark to have it reamed ... http://www.go2gbo.com/forums/index.php/topic,132408.0.html

As for a good BP bullet and load: The Lyman 378674 bullet (335grs) and 40 or 42 grs of FFg. You can buy the bullets from SageBrush ... http://www.sagebrushproducts.com/bullets.htm

I've shot this bullet and recipe out to 500m with the H&R and my HiWall using vernier sights. The Rams fell over!:-D