38-55 brass varies

[mbogo3]

Some may be aware of this but there are different lengths of brass Win 2.075" Starline 2.082 + 2.125" then there's neck thickness Starline .0072 and Win .009 which may be more important for larger groove rifles like the Win 1894 .381"+ A combination of RCBS Cowboy dies and Starline brass can usually overcome this.The 44-40 has the same issue except for varying OAL .Thoughts or experience?

 

[Eagleye]

I have a 1979 Reproduction 38-55 [Legendary Frontiersman] It's chamber is cut to accommodate the longer brass,
but most of the brass I have is the shorter variety. I do have about 60 of the longer cases, and have a seating/
crimp die just for them. They are head stamped Super-X or Dominion.

I have some Starline cases of the shorter variety which are extremely thin at the case mouth. Personally, I prefer
the modern WW Super cases.

I have a very accurate load with the 255 Grain Barnes original [.377" diameter] using H322. I am driving them at
just over 1750 fps, and with the aperture sights, I often flirt with moa. Shot my biggest Whitetail buck with this
very load. Quite effective, I might add! Regards, Dave.

 

[jethunter]

I have a 1979 Reproduction 38-55 [Legendary Frontiersman] It's chamber is cut to accommodate the longer brass,
but most of the brass I have is the shorter variety. I do have about 60 of the longer cases, and have a seating/
crimp die just for them. They are head stamped Super-X or Dominion.

I have some Starline cases of the shorter variety which are extremely thin at the case mouth. Personally, I prefer
the modern WW Super cases.

I have a very accurate load with the 255 Grain Barnes original [.377" diameter] using H322. I am driving them at
just over 1750 fps, and with the aperture sights, I often flirt with moa. Shot my biggest Whitetail buck with this
very load. Quite effective, I might add! Regards, Dave.

The thin necked Starline brass works well for fat cast bullets in older rifles with oversize bore. WW is my choice for everything else.

 

[Eagleye]

I understand that some old, old 38-55 rifles had groove diameters as big as .382" Mine is .3765 [slugged]
I am using .379" cast to good effect. Have some in 240 grain, 265 grain and 285 grain, all are GC. Dave.

 

[fingers284]

The old Marins (1893's) seem to be the worst for bore dia variances I've slugged them from .375 up to .384. Early Win are usually in the .377-.380 area. I did own one commemorative that slugged at .378 but the chamber was too tight to use .379 bullets, it wouldnt shoot less than 3" with .377 slugs.

early 38-55's can be very frustrating to get to shoot good groups but when you get one that does, it is very rewarding.

 

[mbogo3]

Even with Starline brass and a RCBS Cowboy seater? I had issues with a 1894 win and regular RCBS dies ,the groove was .380 and the seater die was swaging the oversize bullets on me. A call to RCBS and they sent me a Cowboy seater die free! Problem solved.

 

[vagrantviking]

Had a set of lee dies that was useless for seating the large diameter cast bullets too. Drove me nuts for a couple days and then I found a set of cowboy RCBS dies that work great.

 

[mbogo3]

Another thing I just noticed was the case flaring expander die says .375 Winchester on it in a 38-55 Win/Ballard RCBS 3 die set? I winder if they all are like that? Perhaps they are interchangeable?

 

[fingers284]

Both my RCBS cowboy sets (38-55, 45-70) came with two different expander balls. I dont remember the exact dia's off hand but one will flare cases for nominaly size jacketed bullets and the other will size .002 over for cast slugs. If you need still larger expanders for much oversized bore rifle you probably have to cut them yourself to suit.

Undersized expanders that dont open a case mouth enough to accept a large dia slug can very much effect accuracy with bullets soft enough to be swaged down to a taper fit during seating. Probably not a concern when using hard cast commercial bullets but i have noticed it happening with pure WW bullets.

 

[mbogo3]

I have a set of American Lyman 44-40 dies that only opened the cases large enough for .427 bullets .Luckily RCBS is the same thread size so I switched to a .430 /.44 mag expander button ad it's all good now.I'm running Jet .430 220gr GC bullets/24gr of RE#7 [ caution in an original Winchester 1892].This only works with either Winchester or Starline brass not Remington as it is too thick.Great products BTW and Jet's 270gr .379 GC for the .38-55 as well with 32 gr of IMR3031

 

[stewbud]

I have had great success with a Lyman M neck expanding die mixed in with my Lee set. It opens the neck and can be adjusted to produce a small flare at the mouth to allow cast bullets to start easily.

I also use the excellent JET .379 GC for my 38/55, but I use a black powder substitute in my rifles.

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