38 CAL rim fire, conversions.

[toot]

38 CAL , rim fire cases that take a 22 CAL, blank to ignite the BP, in the case. what DIA. round ball would I use to thumb press into the case to load it with? and what grade of powder, 4FG, or 3FG. BP?

[Bent Ramrod]

I have a Remington #2 in .38RF. I use the Dixie Gun Works brass rimfire adapters and empty .22 Short shells for primers. I used Ideal 37583, cast at about 0.379” breech seated ahead of a shell full of Goex 3F, maybe 15 gr or so.

The old 38 calibers were “real” .38s; 0.379” to (sometimes) well over 0.381” bores. None of this effete 0.375” stuff that became fashionable after the H&H Magnum took over the barrelmaking industry. You might slug your bore with a flattened 0.375” round ball, or measure an expanded shell fired in your gun, and see what the groove diameter really is, but absent that, if it’s a vintage firearm, I would go with something around 0.380” for a first approximation.

If you’re shooting one of these setups in a rifle, wear safety glasses with side shields. I’ve gotten a few “bug bites” on my face from leakage back of the breech. The Dixie shells aren’t very stout; the rims get battered and leaky even when set up with the primer at the right spot.

[toot]

no not in a rifle a pistol. I was going to try a .375. 36 CAL, RB, in the case, haven't yet. glad to get your reply on how to do it. how do you use empty 22 short shells for primers? I assume that you mean that you pull the head off of the 22short? thanks for the heads up on DIXIE SHELLS!

[toot]

mine is a HOPKINS & ALLEN, 38 CAL, XL#5, 5 shot. you have to pull the cylinder pin and use it to punch out the spent hulls. with them do we get a group or a pattern? LOL! again thank you!

[ndnchf]

Rather than use .22 shorts with the bullets pulled, I use these acorn starter pistol blanks. They are similar to a magnum primer.

[Bent Ramrod]

I somehow came into a partial box of Remington Gallery Shorts that somebody had broken the noses off. I think these were the bulk version of the “Remington Rocket” .22 Shorts that came in a flat box like Chiclets gum. The bullets were some kind of powdered iron, sintered or glued together, that smashed to dust when they hit a hard surface.

Anyway, for reasons that are lost to faulty memory, I pinched the crimps slightly with a pair of pliers, dumped the cracked bullets and powder and saved the shells on general principle for some future need. Unlike a lot of stuff I save for some future need, these actually came in handy.

The blanks might be too violent for those Dixie shells. There isn’t much metal down at the base. The ones ndnchf makes from .38 Spl have a good web at the base, and would handle the blanks better.

Holding the pistol well out would definitely help the bug bites. You might feel an occasional one on your hand, though.

[toot]

BUG BITES are the status of a BP shooter. they go with the turf.