38-55 is not shooting properly

L

little pete

Member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Hello gentlemen, I have a problem with this darn rifle and hopefully your collective wisdom can bail me out.:runaway:

The rifle a 38-55 was built on a Remington rolling block action, using a barrel blank made by John Buhmiller many years ago. Groove diameter is .376" and the rifling twist 1:14. Tang mounted peep sight.
Bullets weigh 240 grains, cast 1:16 lead-tin alloy, lubed and sized to .377" CCI primer, 40 grains Goex fffg, and card wad behind bullet.
First trip to the range very disappointing. Group meaured about a foot in diameter AT 25 YARDS. Some bullets showed signs of tipping.
Second try with factory loads, smokeless powder and jacketed bullets. What a change, shoots as well as I can hold.
But I really would like to shoot cast bullets and black powder.
Any critical comments and suggestions would be appreciated.:bigHug:
 
I would suggest a couple of changes; make your bullets softer; say 1:20 tin and be sure to use a very soft lube like SPG. In its absense make up a 50-50 mix of animal fat (lard) and bees wax. I would suggest using a drop tube, if you are not already using one and lightly compacting your powder. Finally I would suggest blowing down the barrel about twice between shots. Many of us have a piece of bent 1/2" copper pipe or a 12" piece of plastic tubing to blow through into the breach. If all that does not work, run a bronze brush through the bore between shots.

cheers mooncoon
 
38-55

Try sizing the bullet to .379 I found that they worked alot better when sized bigger as a lot of the old barrels are no where near .375.
cooner
 
Hope it is a typo but your post indicates that you are using fffg ??
This is pistol grade powder and may be dangerous/high pressure in your rifle.
Not a specialist but the quick and dangerous kick by the fffg may be "stripping" the rifling from your cast slugs as they start down the barrel if not just from the added velocity. Use ffg and check with GOEX site for proper loads.
Cheers
Jaguar
 
I use the BP 38-55 alot and my guess is.....your bore is bigger than you think...someone else suggested .379" and that would be a good place to start....that twist is actually quite fast for a 38-55 and would do best with a heavier/longer bullet. MT Chambers produces a 335 gr. Spitzer in your choice of diameters.....someone else mentioned using a blowtube and blowing down barrel....you should actually "HUFF" down the barrel, like you do in the winter to warm your hands....more important is the use of a proper BP lube on your bullet, not the same stuff as for smokeless, most cast bullet suppliers don't know the difference. I use fffg and I drop tube it 4' and use a veg. wad under the bullet and absolutely no airspace in case, my best accuracy occurs without crimping but max. case neck tension which is opposite to most of my other BP rifles. I hope you get it shooting good with BP as that is where it earned it's reputation for accuracy and is still a favourite with Shuetzen shooters, and silhouette to 500m with the 300+gr. bullets.
 
heh.... i have an old 1894 winchester lever gun in 38-55 that you can literally hear the bullet's tumble thru the air when fired.... but it's pretty much a smooth bore ;)

Second try with factory loads, smokeless powder and jacketed bullets. What a change, shoots as well as I can hold.
But I really would like to shoot cast bullets and black powder.
Click to expand...

just curious... did you measure one of the jacketed bullet's?
 
Well what you need to do first is slug your barrel and find out exactly what size of bullet you need. Then figure out how fast you are pushing the bullet, you said 40 grn of fff and adjust your lead alloy accordingly,are you air cooling or water quenching your bullets?
 
ben hunchak said:
...your bore is bigger than you think...someone else suggested .379" and that would be a good place to start...
Click to expand...
I'd agree....especially since you noted signs of "tumbling"

FWIW: I had an older 94 in 38-55 that would shoot .379's fair but really began to shine with BP loads when I tried some custom bullets from a friend sized at .380...yes it had an oversized bore which as mentioned is quite common to the 38-55's:)
 
Just want to thank all you fellows who sent me information on how to deal with my problem. You gave me enough to occupy myself at the bench and range for a little while. Again, thanks very much.
 
Another thing you might try is seating you bullet so that it's into the rifling a bit.
This assures that the bullet is centered in the barrel.
I take an fired empty case, put coffee in it with a wad on top.
Then I compress it put a bullet in and check to see if it will chamber.
When the round chambers the rifling should pull the bullet out a bit when you eject the round showing that the bullet was into the rifling.
You want to be absolutely sure that there is no air gap between the bullet and the wad, or you could ring your chamber.
These bpcrs all seem to like the bullets engraving the rifling.
Finding the correct OAL for a cartridge is where I start when load developing.
After that it's a matter of finding out how much powder the rifle likes.

Here's a 5 shot group I got with my old 45-90 Shiloh Farmer bought on these forums.

45-90May06c.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom