.30-30 to .38-55 conversion

madtrapper143

madtrapper143

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Hey guys I have a real decent 1978 production Winchester 94 in .30-30. I was considering having it converted to .38-55 for cast bullet deer hunting. I know the process involves rebarrelling or reboring. According to the research I have done it is as simple as the barrel work. Does anyone know of anyone who does this conversion work in Canada?

regards, Darryl
 
How much shooting do you do / plan on doing?
Should be an easy ( likely $$$$ though) deal for a gunsmith.
Food for thought though...if can you source ammunition locally and unless I miss my bet... it'll be expensive and likely very weak. North America fodder is dialed back powerwise to the weakest link that it can possibly be fired in.
If you reload that will help greatly.
A great cartridge... the gentle medium bore. Quite accurate as well.
But my son and father tried blowing out 30-30 brass to shoot 38-55, with limited success.
You could always try to source some 375 Winchester brass... but then conceivably a real 375 could find it's way into the mix...not a good thing.
Not trying to discourage you, as it is a cool cartridge, but not the easiest to 'Put to work' ... surely not as easy as 30-30.
Is the bbl toast?
Or do you just want a cooler cartridge?
 
I have done what the OP is wanting to do and think if it will feed 30-30 ok it will feed the 38-55....at least mine does, one caveat tho here my rifle is a 4 ser# Win manufactured in 1894 so was made in the era of the rifles being offered in both calibers. Not sure about the Japchesters but anything built by Winchester should feed 38-55 as some of the commemoratives were chambered for the cartridge. I was lucky on my rifle when I did the change-over, the barrel I purchased was threaded, chambered & had the mag & front stock dovetails cut perfectly. I just spun the old barrel off and spun the new one on, it is an octagon barrel and indexed perfectly with perfect headspace.
Tok is right about the 38-55 needing to be handloaded to achieve the full potential of the cartridge for both knockdown power if to be used for hunting but also for accuracy. It might be different now but I have had no problem acquiring brass when I needed some.
One suggestion i would make to the OP is to acquire a .375 groove to groove barrel as some of the later chamber reamers cut chambers that are tight for brass loaded with .378 or 9 cast slugs.
 
I was planning to reload for the .38-55. I want to do the work on a post 64 model 94 as I feel pre 64 guns are too valuable to be altered. My gun will feed from the magazine and chambers to the .30-30 shoulder loaded .38-55 cartridges so that concern is moot. Thanks for the tip on the .375 groove as I want to shoot cast. Now if only I had info on who can do it and then maybe a rough idea on cost. With most beat up 100 year old 1894 .38-55's going for a thousand and up I have wiggle room on the cost. (if someone could offer the service)

Darryl
 
I have an old one; turn of the Century...seems like the blow out 30-30's were a bit short IIRC.
I never had to try it myself as a goodly amount of brass dropped into my hands, fortunately
 
It has been my experience that top eject M94 barrels can be exchanged, with correct indexing, no adjustment needed. So, you need a .38-55 barrel. Yours could be rebored, or you should be able to locate a detached barrel, and have it rebored. That way you would have two available calibers.
Reboring would be less expensive than having a barrel custom made.
 
Very, very few folks set up to rebore in Canada. Ron Smith would be the one to ask.
Do Winchester M94 carbines made in .38-55 have the same barrel contour as .30-30 carbines? I don't know. Something else to consider is that a M94 barrel has cuts across it, the deepest being where the forend band screw goes across.
 
IF you could find a take-off barrel from one of the commemoratives, that would be the easiest, most cost-effective solution.
 
There's an outfit state side who does this. JES is the name if the outfit. I'm sure a competent gunsmith could do it but here it might not be cost effective....
 
I am very aware of JES oh how I wish he was in Canada. I guess I could export and import the rifle but that is going to be too expensive vs. my other options. The Alberta and Saskatchewan models were made in 1981 so the quality is at least the same as mine. Barrels are likely the best made part of these guns in that era.

Darryl
 
I had Ron Smith rebore a model 93 Marlin from 30-30 to 38-55.
Not a big deal, and it worked just fine. Fed well, no issues with
enough barrel "meat" to rebore. [The 30-30 bore was toast]
Dave.
 
a j cave said:
A used Ab or Sk commemorative would be cheaper, but those 94 are not very well built.(imho). Ron Smith can rebore or rebarreled, not much different in price.
Click to expand...

The Comemorative 94's in 38-55 are notorious for having generous bore diameters and tight cut chambers. They shoot jacketed ok but require cast dia. slugs in the .379 area but will only chamber brass loaded with .375 bullets. Accuracy with .375 cast is abysmal at best and leading is inevitable. I had one that was extremally poor, 375 cast at 50 yards grouped 5-7" and keyholed at 100. A custom cut re-chambering would easily remedy this at the most inexpensive level of all the options...just be aware that it might have to be added to the gun purchase price.

I'm sure Ron knows what he's doing when boring a barrel, the only concern I would have is to check dovetail cut depths at all 4 of the cuts that are in a 94 rifle configuration barrel (carbines, 3 with a cross cut for the band screw). When you bore out a 308 barrel to .375 you are removing considerable %age of the iron under the flat dovetail cut, it can get pretty thin in a hurry....might be okay for cast bullet pressures but if you are pushing hunting jacketed slugs at double the pressure of cast barrel, bulging at the cut-outs would be a concern of mine.
 
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