.38-55? WHY should I consider this all but dead caliber?

Chiappa, Marlin, Mossberg and non-Rossi Manufactured Pumas plus anything else with a leveraction.
Archer
2000 Shots
2000 Shots
Posts: 3942
Joined: 04 Feb 2014 05:30
Location: SoCal Loco
Has thanked: 137 times
Been thanked: 610 times

Re: .38-55? WHY should I consider this all but dead caliber?

Post by Archer »

Well, I still haven't bit on one yet and don't know that I will with CA's silly posterior focus on ever more restrictive gun laws and ammo restrictions.

Although I'm really starting to like the 6.5 Grendel and I'm playing with the 50 Beowulf I am more than a bit annoyed that getting ammo in those calibers has become a pain since the ban on mail order to your door. There is AFAIK only 2 local FFLs willing to receive ammo and one of them charges idiotic fees to do so while the other is inconveniently located. This is made even more annoying considering hours of operation vs. my work hours and commute.
Gray Fox
Posts: 16
Joined: 07 Feb 2013 16:11
Location: Atlanta South Metro Area
Been thanked: 4 times

Re: .38-55? WHY should I consider this all but dead caliber?

Post by Gray Fox »

I just traded for a Legendary Frontiersman that had only 5 rounds down the bore. I installed a Williams 5D action mounted aperture sight, and replaced the buckhorn sight with a dovetail filler and it looks fine to my eyes. Starline now has the brass in two lengths and they advised me to use the shorter 2.085" brass in my lever gun. The bore slugged at .379, so I ordered some .380 250 grain FP poly & moly coated bullets from Bear CreeK Supply out in CA and use a set of RCBS dies augmented by a Lyman .378 "M" expander die. It only took me one piece of brass to remember that I need to just kiss the sized brass with the expander to make it truly round, then withdraw it and use a case chamfering tool to deburr the case mouth. You can then run it back through the die to completely expand the case. The Starline brass neck is thinner than either Winchester or Remington brass to allow it to handle the larger diameter bullets and still chamber, and you really have to carefully ease the expander die into the case or you will fold the edge of it. This is real "hand loading". It is a classy looking round when finished, though.

I will try loads using Accurate 5744, Reloader 7, and H4895 for loads from 1,600 to 1,800 fps and see which shoots the best. My goal is a handy deer and hog gun to augment my Rossi rifles in .357, .44 Mag and .45 Colt. I have no complaints about any of those, but I had one of these rifles and stupidly traded it 15 years ago and have been kicking myself ever since. I'm hoping to get to the range with it next week if it doesn't end up being another series of gully washers. I'll report back with the accuracy I get with 72-year-old eyes. Gray Fox
Ohio3Wheels
1000 Shots
1000 Shots
Posts: 1599
Joined: 31 Jul 2014 15:18
Location: Dayton Oh
Has thanked: 227 times
Been thanked: 328 times

Re: .38-55? WHY should I consider this all but dead caliber?

Post by Ohio3Wheels »

I'm not sure I know why but this rebored Marlin is the most fun I've had with a "new" gun in some time. So far it seems to like Missouri Bullets 245 gr HighTech coated that they call the Ballard #1 and the Sierra 200 gr JSP. With the Mo Bullet Varget seems to work. The best load so far shows single digit SDs but the MV have been in the high 1400s. So this week end I'm working up some loads with H4198. We'll see what we see and go from there.

Make smoke,
Curt... makin' smoke and raising my carbon foot print one cartridge at a time Image
Post Reply