.38-55 taper crimp die?

[Wardo1974]

For patching my .38-55 1894 Winchester, I need some kind of crimp to hold the bullet in place in a 10 shot mag and don't want to tear my patches.

I can't use a full case of powder with my loads (in order to create crimpless resistance in the tube without a crimp), and I'm just not comfortable with fillers - too much risk of ringing, in my opinion.

Taper crimping seems the solution. Though, I can't seem to find one for the .38-55. Any ideas where I could get one? Thanks!

[Dryball]

Check out posts 2 and 3: http://www.assra.com/cgi-bin/yabb/Ya...num=1152631876

Or, how bout this? http://leeprecision.com/factory-crimp-die-38-55.html

[bigted]

the lyman tapercrimp die works well in my 45-70 and those Lee factory dies are just the shis niss.

so why is the why of not getting to load a full case of powder again? i know that there are powders that will do just fine for the magic 100% loads for lever actions. then there is no need to crimp exactly and run the risk of messing up a patch.

[williamwaco]

A word about the Lee factory crimp die.
It is operated by case length.

The .38-55 comes in two different case lengths.
My FCD die works great with the long cases but will not work at all with the short ones or with cases made by expanding .30-30 cases.

[Wardo1974]

Any of the loads I want to use in the .38-55 will not come close to filling the case. 4198, 3031, RL7 and others are what I always use and they work great - they just leave space in the case.

I was under the impression that the FCD will cut the patch?

I know Lyman has a taper crimp for a .45-70 but I am not able to see one for the .38-55...

[oneokie]

Try taking the decapper stem assembly out of your FL sizer die and using it as a taper crimp die.

[williamwaco]

Try taking the decapper stem assembly out of your FL sizer die and using it as a taper crimp die.

I have done this. It works very well with my Winchester Hi-Wall but I am not sure it would hold the bullets in a tubular magazine.

[Wardo1974]

I guess I will try the decapping trick. I did that before too...but I am unsure if it will work in my tube mag.

As a sidebar, I use only full length .38-55 brass. I came across a huge quantity of 50 year old brass from an old fella who wanted rid of it and I landed my lifetime supply then and there.

[williamwaco]

I guess I will try the decapping trick. I did that before too...but I am unsure if it will work in my tube mag.

As a sidebar, I use only full length .38-55 brass. I came across a huge quantity of 50 year old brass from an old fella who wanted rid of it and I landed my lifetime supply then and there.

You might want to try the Lee FCD. It will probably work with that brass.

[Jon K]

A word about the Lee factory crimp die.
It is operated by case length.

The .38-55 comes in two different case lengths.
My FCD die works great with the long cases but will not work at all with the short ones or with cases made by expanding .30-30 cases.

For brass formed from 30-30, use Lee 375 Win FCD...

Jon

[bigted]

i understand. the thing is ... if you were to do a duplex load with ... like IMR 4227 in a 10 percent thing and the rest blackpowder ... then you can get that magical 100% load and still be fairly clean shooting with the fun smoke and sparks with the origanal powder used in the 38-55.

so the way to figure the starting point ... [if you even desire to give it a try]... goes sumptin like this;

1- meassure the depth of your favorite boolit that sets inside the case ... now take an instrument and mark the depth so you can fill a case with pure blackpowder to this depth ... now add enough powder ... still black ... to add around 1/8th inch fuller then the depth of the boolit seated.
2- now take this powder and dump it all into your scale pan and find out what grainage it weigh's. [lets just say for instance that this is 48 grains of your blackpowder].
3- now with this grainage known ... it be time for a little math ... take your [48 grains] powder and devide it into 10ths and wind up with 4.8 grains
4- now we know that you are gonna want 4.8 grains of IMR 4227 in the case first.
5- now subtract the 4.8 from the full amount of powder that was in the case ... so we have 48 minus 4.8 which gives us 43.2 grains left to arrive back at the mark we began with in a volumn amount.
6- so after putting 4.8 grains of IMR 4227 in the case ... now weigh 43.2 grains of your blackpowder and dump it in on top of the 4227.
7- now take your compression tool and compress the blackpowder that 1/8th inch for a nice beginning load.
8- seat your patched boolit on top of your powder and after loading 10 of these ... go make some smoke and be amazed at the clean burn you get with the 4227 kicker.
9- now you can begin tweaking your portions and boolits and primers as well as blackpowder type and F value till you get the just rite combo for your needed accuracy.

i dont know if you want or desire to mess with any blackpowder ... but this will be the perfect loading to allow a 100% load of powder so your boolits will not have to be crimped too hard as they will not compress into the case this way if just the rite amount of compression of case on the boolit patch. PLUS ... when you shoot the tiny groups with the bellow of smoke ... be prepared for a discourse for the gawkers that will come over and ask ... what the heck was that?

[williamwaco]

For brass formed from 30-30, use Lee 375 Win FCD...

Jon

Great!

That is why I love this site.
You can find an answer for almost any question.