Looking At a Cimarron 94 rifle in 38-55

[panhandlepr]

I've read that the 38-55 is very sensitive about bullet dia., case length and neck thickness. Anyone had any experience with the Cimarron in 38-55 in this caliber and the correct case from Starline or WW. I would like to use the 245 grain .379 dia. bullet from Penn. any input would be appreciated. Thanks guys!!!!

[FergusonTO35]

My understanding is the rifle is made by Uberti so I would trust it.

[farmbif]

don't jump to conclusion on bore size on a new production 38-55 if they don't provide that info in description. you will want to slug the bore to be sure of what you get.
ive have yet to hear anything bad about current production Cimarron.

[Mk42gunner]

A couple of weeks ago Starline was out of stock with the shorter .38-55 brass that I was going to order, so I had to get the longer brass to use in my Marlin Model 336CB. It works fine with my .379" boolits. It is a few dollars more, but not unreasonable.

Robert

[yeahbub]

No experience with the Cimarron 94, but I've long had a soft spot for the .38-55 and the later .375 Win. In fact, I use the 2.08" Starline cases in the .375, since most .375 Win chambers are longer than necessary for the 2.02" .375 Win brass. The .379 diameter boolits should do well unless your barrel turns out to be larger. My approach is to paper patch and size to .380 and letting the lead size the boolit on firing (.378 groove). I started with the Lyman .375248 and got good results almost from the start and aside from some occasional experimentation, I keep coming back to that one. I think it's one of the easy calibers to load for. Having said that, virtually all my load work was with smokeless, BTW. If you plan on running the holy black, others will have to chime in and comment on how they do it.

I've not heard any talk of the .38-55 being "very sensitive" from those who have lever actions, but each rifle is a law unto itself and what works best is something to be worked out between bench and range. I suppose there could be a conflict if the chamber is small enough that a groove diameter or larger boolit couldn't be chambered without thinning the brass, but this is uncommon in rifles that are magazine fed. Generally, chambers in repeaters are fairly generous.

Sometimes a single-shot will have a narrow chamber cut to hold bore diameter boolits to address several issues; Reducing the need for repeated resizing, to maximize case capacity for BP by seating the boolit way out and getting it forward and riding the lands, centering it in the rifling. Aside from some general rules of thumb, loading for a rifle like that is a custom proposition, so wringing match-winning accuracy out of it will be a detail oriented pursuit.

[FergusonTO35]

Supposedly the Cimarron 94 is made without all the lawyer stuff like a manual safety and rebounding hammer so that is a big plus. I would love to have one.

[leadeye]

I've seen those advertised and am curious about them as well.

[cowboy4evr]

My 1894 Winchester in 38-55 (left factory in April 1897 ) loves a cast bullet sized .379 , but no bigger . So far I have used smokeless loads . Was going to start using bp , but no one has any . Soooo , the wait continues . Regards Paul