Oversized jacket bullets for 38-55 Wib.

Easy to get cast bullets of .380 - .382", but jacketed are much harder.
I have had quite a bit to do with the 38-55, and even the .380" groove rifles have always shot the Barnes
.377" jacketed bullet well.
It weighs in at the original 255 grains, and is specifically designed for the 38-55, using 38-55 cases.
Be careful!! Barnes also makes a 255 grain bullet designed for the 375 Winchester.
It is only .375" in diameter, and as such, usually delivers mediocre performance in rifles with grrove diameters larger than .378" or so.
The other solution would be to get a "bump-up" die and make those .377" bullets "fatter" so they match the groove diameter better.
However, I would try the .377" bullet as is first.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
I had the same problem you are having so I went to cast with gas checks on them and have never looked back. A good cast bullet will do almost anything you need to do with a 38-55.

There is one other thing you can do is look for some of the older CIL or Dominion ammo. They came with the larger bullets that you are looking for.

Graydog
 
Did you slug the barrel to get the .380" diameter? With many of these old calibres you don't generally load hot enough ammo to get any real benefits from jacketed bullets so cast make sense not just dollar wise. Also most older .38-55 rifles have a longer chamber that uses longer brass (modern short brass is safe too) Starline produces this. I have been shooting .380 cast wheel weight lead boolits in mine with great success, but have yet to pick up the longer cases.

A quick check of several manuals and bullet makers websites shows only .375" bullets for that size range in current production.
 
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graydog said:
I had the same problem you are having so I went to cast with gas checks on them and have never looked back. A good cast bullet will do almost anything you need to do with a 38-55.

There is one other thing you can do is look for some of the older CIL or Dominion ammo. They came with the larger bullets that you are looking for.

Graydog
Click to expand...

Actually, I have some of that older Dominion ammo, and also some very old components.
The largest jacketed Soft Point I have ever seen was the old, old, multi cannelured
CIL bullet and it mikes .3774".
Eagleye.
 
Thanks folks

I took her out to the range today with a little bit of guidance from a fellow GNC member (38-55 Win). I made up a load with unsized cast, toilet paper filler and the bullets actually stabilized out to 50 yards (ran out of ammo). My accuracy needs some work but that will come over time - I hope.

I did slug my bore at .380. I was hoping to find a supply at over sized jacket bullets as it shot the Imperials so well.

Eagleye - the Barnes I have are .375 dia and they claim they are "the original 38-55 bullet" ????? Not in cost anyway. I tried them again today and they still key holed.

To be honest my bore is really rough but i will keep playing with it.

Thanks,

Dave
 
That bore will probably polish up shooting cast, Dave. That's another good reason to use them. I didn't believe it, until several guys on the castboolits site gave me the heads-up, and they were right.

Get some cast and lubed bullets from Lois at the Bullet Barn. Made right here in Canada, and she has a .379" bullet that should work okay. If you ask nice, you might even get some as-cast in a bit larger diameter to really make that 38-55 sing. :)

Ted
 
Muskyhunter1 said:
Thanks folks

I took her out to the range today with a little bit of guidance from a fellow GNC member (38-55 Win).

Eagleye - the Barnes I have are .375 dia and they claim they are "the original 38-55 bullet" ????? Not in cost anyway. I tried them again today and they still key holed.

To be honest my bore is really rough but i will keep playing with it.

Thanks,

Dave
Click to expand...

Dave, if those Barnes jacketed bullets are actually .375" diameter, they are for the 375 Win, not the 38-55
The Barnes part # for the .375 bullet is: 375W20
The Barnes part # for the 38-55 bullet is 38/5520
Check your box for the correct, larger diameter part number.
Regards, Eagleye.
 
The biggest headache with the 38-55 is the size of the bullet needed vs the chamber size. This is really evident on an older Win 94 that needs a .380 or .381 bullet to shoot straight. I have a 1902 38-55 Win 94 that the barrel has been well used and I purchased (really cheap) it because the owner said all it did was key hole any bullets that he put thru it and you couldn't hit the side of a barn with it.

My barrel measured .380 so I need at least a .381 or .382 cast bullet to hope to get any accuracy and no leading issues from this fine old girl. So since I did not have a .381 sizer die I used my lyman mold sized .379 and adding some high temp tape to the inside of the mold I could make the bullet bigger by a couple of thou to get what I needed.

I poured my first batch of bullets and some measured .382 and some measured .381, adding tape is not an exact science after all. I started with the .381 bullet, loaded it in the winchester case and no way would it chamber. I remembered that Starline brass was thinner than winchester so I tried the same size bullet in the Starline brass and sure enough it chambered just fine. I then tried some .382 sized bullets and no way would they chamber just to fat.

So with this added knowledge I seperated all the .381 bullets I poured , loaded them up in starline brass with a mild load of IMR3031 and ladder tested the charge amounts and headed to the range. Minute of pie plate was my first 5 shot group but still better than key holeing and missing the 8.5 x 11 paper at 50 yards like before. My 4th loading was promising at about 2" at 50 yards and that was the best I did on that day.

So I had a .381 sizer die made for me and had Mountain Molds make me up an oversize bullet to pour at .382 (in case I run into this problem again with another rifle) and Bob is your uncle. Now at 100 yards I can keep 10 shots inside 2.5 " which is more than I hoped for from a warn out barreled rifle.
 
One of the Spanish replica rifle makers barrels have the problem of needing say a .382" cast boolit to shoot well, but having a tight chamber that does'nt feed ammo with .382" boolits in .38-55 cases.
 
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