Can I make 38-55 brass form some other brass?

[Just Duke]

Can I make 38-55 brass form some other brass?
Like maybe 30-30?
TIA,
Duke

[Yance]

Sure, but you'll probably come up a little short.

[Rocky Raab]

That's basically what the 38-55 is: un-necked 30-30. If you take it slow and anneal, you should able to get back to straight-wall in only two or three steps.

I make 375 Win brass from 30-30 that way, and the 375 is the same as the 38-55 except a bit shorter.

[358wcf]

Duke-
Yes, you can make brass casings for the 38-55 easily from 30-30 as well as 32-40-
You can mechanically expand them to 38cal prior to fire-forming as noted above, or you can just go straight to the fire-forming process.
For fire-forming, you would load a small charge of fast-burning powder, such as Bullseye, put a thin wad of cardboard over the charge, and fill the case with cereal such as Cream of Wheat or grits, and another cardboard wad. Keeping the muzzle on your 38-55 pointed up, you fire your charged cases, and extract your new 38-55 cases. Very easy to do, and you end up with a serviceable case that is just a bit short, but will work just fine.
I don't have the fire-forming charge handy at the moment, but I'm sure someone will chime in momentarily to advise. If not, I will get back to you later this evening-
Good luck to you, friend-

358wcf [smilie=1:[smilie=1:[smilie=1:

[garandsrus]

Duke,

I used 6gr Red Dot as a fire forming charge. I loaded cream of wheat on top of that up to the shoulder of the 30-30 and then plugged the case with a chunk of toilet paper.

The fire forming went great and I didn't lose any cases.

You could also use 32 special cases as they are in the same family as 30-30.

As others have said, the case will be a little shorter than purchased brass. If you do purchase cases, there are two different lengths available from Starline and the longer of the two seems to be the more traditional case length.

John

[bubba.50]

hey duke, if .375 will work but is only a little shorter there is 300 .375 win brass in classified at graybeard's for $175.00 don't know if this helps any but there ya are, bubba.

p.s. it's been there all day and no-one's hit on it yet.

[lwknight]

I see 38-55 brass at Cabelas often. I don't remember the price but, it was nor memorably out of line.

[lathesmith]

I've used once-fired 30/30 to make 38/55 "short"(about 2/10ths too short), and they work fine. I hate having to fire-form, I whipped me up a case-neck expander and am able to re-form the cases that are ready to load, no fire-forming necessary. My case loss with using once-fired brass is around 10 percent or so, whether reforming or fireforming. Once upon a time once-fired stuff was readily and cheaply available, although it's not so much any more, it's still a good source of inexpensive brass for this caliber.

lathesmith

[John Boy]

Duke, why not just buy either the 2.025 or the 2.125 ones from Starline?

[Just Duke]

Duke, why not just buy either the 2.025 or the 2.125 ones from Starline?

My cost is $450.00 per thousand. Ouch!

[insanelupus]

Duke, if you go directly to the Starline website, you'll find a better price. The 2.025" brass shows $355.90 and the longer 2.125" brass is $413.05. This was for 1000 rounds and included shipping. I'm not sure about your time, but as busy as I am, expanding, fire forming, etc., 1000 30-30 cases would well warrant buying them already formed and headstamped vs. buying the rounds and then the time to get them formed.

As an aside, the longer 2.125" cases work great, the case mouths are very thin and care must be exercised to make sure it's in the shell holer well before raising the rim or you'll crush the case. But I've made some very accurate (sub 1") loads with this case and the Lyman 375449.

[felix]

No need of a headstamp whatsoever amongst knowledgeable reloaders. 30, 32, 35, 38 necks are easily deciphered from a bucket of reformulated 30-30's with only a minuscule amount of eyeball practice. ... felix

[lathesmith]

My cost is $450.00 per thousand. Ouch!
__________________
Exactly. I used to be able to buy once-fired 30/30's for $5.00/100 or so, they are not that cheap any more but some scrounging can yeild some pretty reasonable prices. I can make these on my turret press, I need three dies from 30/30 to 38/55, and using spray case lube I can crank these out quickly.
That's why I hate the fire-forming method, it's just too darned SLOW.

lathesmith

[John Boy]

But I've made some very accurate (sub 1") loads with this case and the Lyman 375449.
insanelupus, if you like 38-55's, give this recipe a try ... http://shilohrifle.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=13911
The bullet is the Lyman remake of the out of production Ideal 375166