What bullets for 38/55?

[Goat]

Just won an auction for a 336 Texan 30/30. I will be sending it to JES Reboring to become a 38/55. I plan to have it bored .375 so I can also use the more common jacketed bullets as well. I do not cast my own and wondered if some one could suggest a good plinker/paperpoking cast bullet as well as some serious cast hunting bullets. Thanks
Goat

[madcaster]

If you wish to forego using gas checks try Lyman's #358248...need some samples?

[Le Loup Solitaire]

I have 3 58-55's; a regular rifle, a highwall and a SRC. Have been using the Lyman #375248, a non gas check which weighs around 250 grains with WW and mikes at .379. I shoot them unsized in all 3 guns. The other mold I have is the old WRA 255 grain which is the original bullet for 38-55. It has a few more grease grooves than the Lyman, but also casts at .379. You can find one pretty regularly on E-Bay if you can put up with the wild bidding. Also shoot that unsized. There are many possible powder combinations nowadays with the large number of them. I've stuck with IMR 3031 in loads ranging from 25 to 30 grains, depending on how well your rifle groups with whatever loading you choose and what you want the load for. Recoil is ok with the 25 grains, but it gets more noticeable as you go upstairs. Loadings fill pretty much of the case so no danger of doubling. 30 grains is listed in an old Lyman handbook as delivering 1575 fps and that would give you plenty of power for hunting. Good luck & good shooting. LLS

[BABore]

I got my JES 30-30 to 38-55 rebore back a few weeks ago. Mine slugged out as follows; 0.3763 groove, 0.3660 bore, chamber length was 2.126", max boolit size was 0.3785 to 0.379 based on a StarLine case with 0.0075 wall thickness. What all this boils down to is a boolit that has an as-cast diameter of 0.379 and has a full diameter front band of 0.080 to 0.100" Again, all of this is based on bore and throat slugs of my gun.

I built my own molds based off of my dimensions. Prior to that I was using a RCBS 37-250 FNGC. It only dropped at 0.377 (common) and did ok until pushed hard. It doesn't have a whole lot in the way of driving band length's. It did best with Reloader 7 which is one of the go-to powders for the higher end 38-55 loads. H322 also work well, but velocity will be a little lower than that achieved with RL 7.

My own boolit designs are working out well with both RL 7 and H322 for the GC version. For my PB version I started with Unique and it is stellar though pretty slow. Hopefully, this weekend I'll try out the PB bollit with SR 4759. I'm hoping to get a good midrange (1,300 to 1,500 fps) load that works with a 10 bhn boolit. If so, then I'll load them as HP's. The solid versions are all around 265 grains

[felix]

Looks like a very good marriage, BAB. It had better shoot, or else, right? What twist? ... felix

[GabbyM]

I've one of the RCBS 37-250-FN molds. It cast one .376" bullet and one .377" bullet.
I Beagle it to get two usable bullets then weight sort them in two piles. Bullet weigh 165 IIRC grains from 50/50 alloy.

I'd sell this one cheap. It's been machined to mount in a Magma machine but it will retro back.

I've a Saeco tapered 255gr plain base that shoots great in the over sized bores. With a .375 bore one of the Lyman bullets would be hard to improve on IMO.

[BABore]

Looks like a very good marriage, BAB. It had better shoot, or else, right? What twist? ... felix

1 turn in 15.

JES Reboring, Jesse Ocumpaugh, does give you options there as well as groove/bore size. The cut rifling is 3 grooves with equal groove to land ratio. The chambering reamer used is a PT&G ground on the tighter side. I got specs on all of it if anybody is interested. IMO he did a damn nice, smooth rifling job. Cheap at $225. I do believe that Mike Bellem sends some of his T/C Jesse's way too.

And else is right. If'in it don't, I'll make up a new design until it will. I'm currently working on a 225-230 gr GC version to make sure I don't leave anything on my plate.