Anybody loading for a 38-55?

[Down South]

38-55, a new caliber for me but one of my sons in laws bought a Handi and wants me to reload for it. I’m going to use jacketed bullets to save the expense and frustration of buying moulds and fitting boolits for it. He just won’t shoot it that much after it starts printing well on a paper.
Anybody got any suggestions on loads?

[jleneave]

I think that there was an article in one of the guns rags recently on the 38-55. If anyone can remember which magazine and the month I can look back through all my back issues and see if I can find the article and then relay the info to you. If no one can remember the issue I will look back through all them for you if you want me to, it will take some time though as I have several hundred mags to look through. I subscribe to several gun realated mags and keep all my old issues in case I need to reference back to them. The only problem is I have no clue as how to organize them to be able to locate articles quickly.

Jody

[calaloo]

I'm just beginning to wring out loads for a .38-55. I'm going to try to work up loads for both smokless and black powders. Let me be the first to tell you to slug your bore as .38-55 bores can be almost anything. I just bought a Saeco mold that was supposed to be .379 diameter but it drops a .385 bullet. I have a swage die that makes a .376 bullet that I'm going to try to knurl up to .377 which is what I need. Good luck in your endevors.

[GP100man]

Shoot as big a boolit as your chamber will let ya .

As far as bore sizes the newer ones run .377 older ones as large as .382

[Loudenboomer]

If you must shoot a J bullet the Barnes orig. is a good one. It comes in .375 and .377 3031 powder will work well. As always work up slowly but velocitys of about 1850 fps are doable with this bullet. A under rated and powerful deer caliber mostly because of the 1300 ish fps factory load. My 2 cents
Kevin

[Guesser]

I'm shooting a custom 94 AE with 26" half round barrel that slugs .3765. I shoot 265 gr. GC .379 at 1800 FPS using RE7. Lyman tang sight allows really good shooting to 300 yards, tried all the J-bullets and of course they didn't shoot well, I get my bullets from Western Bullet Co. in Missoula.

[Mallard57]

If his bore is as big as mine is you might try one of the commericial casters boolits that are sized .380 or .381. There is another problem when you go to bullets this big, they might not chamber if you don't use Starline cases. These will chamber but there is no room for neck expansion, I recently reamed my chamber with a .400 necked chamber reamer. I hope you don't have the same problems.
Good Luck,
Jeff

[JD Yellowhammer]

I've lurked here for years, and I thought I was registered but can't remember the old id. Anyway, I just re-registered. Now that the intro is over...

.38-55 is one of my favorite calibers. What folks warned you about slugging is very true--my 1st .38-55 was an H&R Buffalo. I loaded some cast boolits and black powder, went to the range, and could barely keep it on paper. The bullets were keyholing like crazy, hitting sideways. When I slugged the barrel I discovered that it was .380 (I'd been using .378 or 9 bullets, as I recall).

My next .38-55 was/is a Winchester High Wall 1885. Love that rifle! It slugs to .376, so I shoot .377's. I don't know if you'll be fooling with black powder, but I've found that a mild load of 37gr (wt) of Schuetzen 3f, covered by a 0.030 wad, behind a Lyman spire-shaped bullet weighing 335gr, BHN 15, is a very accurate load. I've only shot it to 200 yds, but I'm confident it'll stay true at longer distance.

The only smokeless I've loaded for the .38-55 was with Trail Boss, and I was just fooling around. Don't remember the load. However, I just bought some 4227 'cause I've heard good stuff about it with the .38-55. I'll give a report after I've shot it.

[coyotebait]

Mallard57
I ran into the same trouble with two rifles with .380 bore and a tight neck. I will PM you about the neck reamer or maybe we can start a new thread.
coyotebait

[Down South]

Thanks to all, I figured that I would need to slug the barrel since Handi barrel bores can be all over the place when it comes to dimensions. I'll try jacketed first if I can find something that matches the bore. If that doesn't work out I'll buy a mould and cast for it.

[GabbyM]

The Saeco tapered bullets work well in the single shot rifles. In the large bore like the Handi has you can load them out a grease groove or two to snug up to the rifling. Giving you more case capacity.
I've the #738 255 grain Saeco. If you'd like to try some. Sized .380" they have fit in a couple of Handi Rifles.

[Mk42gunner]

If you must shoot a J bullet the Barnes orig. is a good one. It comes in .375 and .377 3031 powder will work well. As always work up slowly but velocitys of about 1850 fps are doable with this bullet. A under rated and powerful deer caliber mostly because of the 1300 ish fps factory load. My 2 cents
Kevin

This is pretty much a classic combination, and would be my first inclination if I were to shoot jacketed when I finally get my 94 together.



Robert

[Marvin S]

I shoot this in my legendary frontiersman Mod 94. I size to .379, use Win cases and Acc 5744 @ 17gr. It's a mild load but shoots very well. The first boolits I used in it where from Mid Kansas cast bullits sized @.379 and soft lubed. They where very good boolits. I would agree on useing fat boolits in the 38-55.

[Green Frog]

I'm just beginning to wring out loads for a .38-55. I'm going to try to work up loads for both smokless and black powders. Let me be the first to tell you to slug your bore as .38-55 bores can be almost anything. I just bought a Saeco mold that was supposed to be .379 diameter but it drops a .385 bullet. I have a swage die that makes a .376 bullet that I'm going to try to knurl up to .377 which is what I need. Good luck in your endevors.

If you want to sell that SAECO mould, I am sure I can find a good home for it. A friend of mine has a Uberti high-wall that is very oversized in the bore. Drop me a PM if you want to sell/trade it.

Froggie :coffeecom

[K9-Handler]

If his bore is as big as mine is you might try one of the commericial casters boolits that are sized .380 or .381. There is another problem when you go to bullets this big, they might not chamber if you don't use Starline cases. These will chamber but there is no room for neck expansion, I recently reamed my chamber with a .400 necked chamber reamer. I hope you don't have the same problems.
Good Luck,
Jeff

This is the same problem I had with my H&R Buffalo that I was using for Cowboy shooting. If I used a boolit that would fit in the chamber after reloading, it was inaccurate. If I used a boolit that would fit the bore, then it wouldn't chamber!
After sitting on the fence for a while I finally invested in a chamber reamer from Brownells -- half the price of the gun itself[smilie=b: -- but the world is a happy place once more. :grin:

And the reamer gets a special drawer in the cabinet marked "Special Tools Used Once".

[lathesmith]

This is the same problem I had with my H&R Buffalo that I was using for Cowboy shooting. If I used a boolit that would fit in the chamber after reloading, it was inaccurate. If I used a boolit that would fit the bore, then it wouldn't chamber!

Bingo! THIS is THE problem with the 38/55 Handi's, but there are sometimes less drastic (and expensive!) work-arounds than reaming the chamber.

If you would like some more recommendations for this barrel, let me know Sam, I have one of these and have found some stuff that works--and some stuff that doesn't. The guys have here given you some pretty good starting info, if you need more let me know. You can actually cast for this gun pretty inexpensively--IF you don't waste your time and money fooling with stuff that don't work. Once again, let me know if you are interested in this, send me a PM and I'll get you going.

Good luck with your project,
lathesmith