Page 1 of 1

.38-55 conversion?

Posted: 02 Feb 2019 05:05
by rondog
Has anybody here ever had a .30-30 Rio Grande converted to .38-55? Just wondering if one would make a good donor for conversion?

Re: .38-55 conversion?

Posted: 02 Feb 2019 08:02
by Ranch Dog
rondog wrote:Has anybody here ever had a .30-30 Rio Grande converted to .38-55? Just wondering if one would make a good donor for conversion?
Yep, I did. JES told me not to send him another, but he did not explain it, and I'm not sure why he said it. From my end, it is a wonderful rifle. I had him cut the 38-55 Win chamber with the 375 Win bore & groove (.366"/.376"). I didn't want to be screwing around with fat bullets. The rifle is extremely accurate. I use Winchester brass and a TLC378-250-RF that I designed.

The only thing that I had to do to the rifle was open the upper inside of the magazine port to allow the long bullet nose to clear the inside radius of the hole. I did that work with a rounded file from outside of the port.

100-yards...

Image

Before killing this dude.

Image

My load. The bullet is labeled "380," but it is really "378". I did a group buy for the "380" for the fat guys.

Image

Within a couple of months, I refinished the would with Tru-Oil. It is a beautiful rifle.

I bought the rifle on sale for $250 and at the time JES was charging $225.

Re: .38-55 conversion?

Posted: 02 Feb 2019 08:07
by Ranch Dog
Here is my original topic: https://www.rossi-rifleman.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=72

The Rossi has quietly doing it's thing for 6 and a half years now. No telling how many hogs the rifle has killed. It really put my Marlin 375 out of business as I would rather shoot the Rossi. I did pump new live into the Marlin by putting the XS Scout stuff on it.

Re: .38-55 conversion?

Posted: 03 Feb 2019 04:29
by GasGuzzler
Dang now I want one and I know where another (not using my 1951 model) 336 .30-30 is...

Re: .38-55 conversion?

Posted: 03 Feb 2019 08:04
by alphalimafoxtrot
GasGuzzler wrote:Dang now I want one and I know where another (not using my 1951 model) 336 .30-30 is...
+1 and me too! My old Marlin is happy that he's safe from the temptation - .35 Remington keeps him that way!

Now I got all sorts of lever-action 30-30's on my GB watch list......grrrr +guns

Re: .38-55 conversion?

Posted: 03 Feb 2019 14:04
by Ohio3Wheels
Yep, my '75 336 in 35 Rem agrees. I couldn't figure a reasonable way to convert is to a straight wall case. The '80 JM that I sent to Jesse is a nice looking rifle and I'm sure some Marlin purists would be aghast at this taking place, but I wanted a 38-55 and the least expensive non-conversion route was close to double what this one is costing. I will decide on the cross-bolt safety when it gets back and I shoot it for a bit.

More later, make smoke,