38-55 single shot rifles?

Cleftwynd

Cleftwynd

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Who are the current manufacturers of 38-55 single shot rifles?

Are there any single shot rifles that you know of that you would consider a good quality classy rifle? New or used. I would love a fancy wood Number 1 in 38-55, or a real pretty classic.
 
I might be mistaken but I think Lyman recently had a run made up on a scaled down 1874 Sharps in a couple different chamberings, one of which was 38-55 ?
Maybe someone else more in the know than I can chime in.
 
The thought of hunting whitetails in wooded areas with a falling block 38-55 gets my blood flowing, especially with cast bullets in my own hand loads fired from a knarly piece of well figured walnut wrapped around a beautiful case hardened rifle!!
 
Cleftwynd said:
The thought of hunting whitetails in wooded areas with a falling block 38-55 gets my blood flowing, especially with cast bullets in my own hand loads fired from a knarly piece of well figured walnut wrapped around a beautiful case hardened rifle!!
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If you're serious check with Island Outfitters Victoria, they are on the 'net.
 
I looked at the 1885 and didn't like the stock style very much, there is something about that rifle that says "H&R" to me, I am not sure why, it just doesn't talk to me.... Although I could spend a few $$ and doll it up with nicer wood, with a stock style that doesn't look like it is for a scope. But for 1,500 MSRP it's a little pricey to start off with.

I would spend that or more, if it was exactly what I had in mind, and I might go the 1885 route yet.
 
Kevan said:
I might be mistaken but I think Lyman recently had a run made up on a scaled down 1874 Sharps in a couple different chamberings, one of which was 38-55 ?
Maybe someone else more in the know than I can chime in.
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Lyman made a run of Mini 1874 Sharps of which one caliber is in 38-55. Bought one for the wife this summer. She is capable of shooting 2'' or less at 100 with hand loads off the rest. Have used both jacketed and cast bullets (.381")with good success with BP and smokeless powders.
 
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Cleftwynd said:
I looked at the 1885 and didn't like the stock style very much, there is something about that rifle that says "H&R" to me, .....
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It's too bad that it caught you that way. The Winchester High Wall and Low Wall along with the Remington rolling block are two of the rifles that started all the hoopla. Besides, there's a key charactaristic that separates these from the H&R. That's the fact that only the H&R is a break open action. The others all stay in one tidy piece and have a block that either rolls back or slides down to gain access to the chamber.

Now if you simply do not like the old style straight stock that's another thing. But that style isn't an H&R thing. It's simply the way that the vast majority of the rifles were back in the old days. It used to be VERY rare to see common field guns that had pistol grips back in the 1800's.

Another interesting single shot that is worth checking out is the old Martini-Enfields that were converted from the old 577-450 cartridge over to the then new .303 British. They converted a heap of those over and used them for a few years before the original Lee Metfords and Lee Enfields were introduced into common usage. A Martini can be a VERY nice rifle and it has heaps of character. The only issue is that you'll likely want to set it up with a peep sight that is mounted to the rear of the action since the top of the receiver needs to be kept clear.

If you don't mind taking on a project then Tradex has a heap of old Swedish rolling block rifles. Get one of the cheaper sporterized ones and then go shopping for a barrel in .38-55 or whatever other round tickles your fancy. Go easy though. The old rolling block action isn't set up to take the power of modern stuff. I've seen references online in a few different places that they need to be kept under 26,000 psi to remain healthy. Still, that covers the classic loads for .38-55 just fine. You can send out a 250 to 280 grain pill at around 1600 fps and stay within that guideline.

My own rolling block is one of those Swedish actions with a Shiloh Sharps barrel grafted onto it. It's a new looking 1869 born antique that shoots amazingly well. In it's first outing following sighting in I was downing the silhouette rams at 280 yards easily. And all that without a scope in sight.... :D

In any event I've found single shot rifles are a huge amount of fun. For myself I like the classic old black powder chamberings. But if something faster and flatter is more up your alley then look into the idea of the Martini actions. If they can hold up to the .303 then obviously there are a number of options that you could adapt to by simply switching the barrel and the other bits of work needed to adapt the chambering. Likely it's wise for this sort of thing to stick with a rimmed cartridge too. Easier to work it with the extractor.

Rifle2.jpg
 
Great post BCRider, I didn't mean to say the 1885 was mechanically like an H&R, I just meant that at a glance it has that look, at least to me in the website pictures. If someone has a few pics of one I would be greatly appreciative.

I realize the limitations on some of the older actions, I really don't care if it is a barrel burning hotrod, I have other rifles for that. I am more or less looking for something a little more traditional, heavy, classy, historical to a point.

I wanted something smaller than the ever popular 45-70, but still a decent sized straight walled cartridge from an era gone by, hence the 38-55. I don't know anyone that owns one, and it is a cartridge that has always piqued my interest. It would be nice to use both smokeless and BP as well, and cast or purchased jacketed. Falling blocks are my favourite action of all time.

I like the tradex idea, I might look into that along with a nice blank from PRF. Don't know where to get a barrel for a project like that, but a heavy octagon might be the ticket...
 
I've shot some Sharp's belonging to buddys in .45-70. Loaded with black powder loads the recoil is like a heavy push and much like shooting a bigger bore black powder muzzle loader. Firm but more of a push like feel. But those same .45-70 rounds with smokeless get quite a snap to them if loaded up to around the 1600 fps that cast lead can generally tolerate. Enough so that a long day at the range would likely leave a fella with a bit of a tender shoulder that evening. The rounds I've shot so far through my .38-55 have not produced that sort of issue. In fact I'd say that the recoil is sort of like shooting .357Mag from my Cowboy Action Rossi/Win'92 if that helps. It's enough of a recoil that you know you're certainly shooting something but you can do it all day and not have a stiff shoulder when you reach across the table to get the mashed potatoes.

Brass is easy to get courtesy of Starline. Bullets are not uncommon by any means. But there isn't the wider variety such as seen in the .45 caliber that is used in the .45-xx series. So far I've been working down through some Starline casings and Bullet Barn 255gn LRNFP bullets to see what I can do with them before trying to look at other options.

If you read around about the .38-55 guns you'll quickly learn that there seems to be some variation in bore dimensions such that it's worth having the chamber and throat including some of the rifling cast so it can be measured. That leads us towards optimizing the bullet size for that bore. I recently got a bar of Cerrosafe and will be casting my own rolling block rifle soon. In the meantime I've only shot around 60 to 65 loaded rounds through it and I've got about 120 casings loaded with a combo of Unique and Cream Of Wheat to fireform the rest so I can begin loading with better fitting brass. As supplied the Starline is quite wobbly in my own chamber. Once it's sized by fire forming I can begin to get serious about finding accurate loads for the rifle.

A great forum for single shot rifles can be found at castboolits.gunloads.com/forum.php . In the meantime google or bing or whatever for "single shot rifles", "sharps rifle", "falling block rifle", "high wall rifle", "rolling block" and other similar combos of keywords. It'll give you a feel for the look and styles of the old actions and stocks. You'll quickly come to realize that H&R copied those old original guns with their Buffalo Classic and hopefully you'll get over that bothersome little looks stigma.... :D

If you shoot any rimfire as well for cheap plinking there's also a big range of old Boy's Rifles out there that are single shots that use a sort of falling/pivoting block action which is similar in look and feel to the big bore rolling and falling block singles. Check out online images for such guns as the Stevens Favourite, Remington Model 6 and Improved 6 and Stevens Crackshot. There were many others but these three models were among the more common and popular. With 6 to 8 spare rounds poked between the fingers of the support hand as a "magazine" a fella can have a lot of fun popping off targets or cans with a slick little single shot. I know that I really enjoy the ones I've got. Yes, "ones". I have never fancied myself as a collector but these single shot rimfires seem to have gotten under my skin. I'm up to around a half dozen or so various makes and models. I've even bought a couple with known shot out/corroded bores simply to re-line them and restore them to full operation once my shop renos are done. The darn things are like trying to eat just one potatoe chip.... :D
 
MC One Shot said:
Lyman made a run of Mini 1874 Sharps of which one caliber is on 38-55. Bought one for the wife this summer. She is capable of shooting 2'' or less at 100 with hand loads off the rest. Have used both jacketed and cast bullets (.381")with good success with BP and smokeless powders.
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I would stay away from theses. Lyman did not make them, they were made by Chiappa, for Lyman.

My experiance with Chiappa is that they have zero quality control, sort of like Marlin after Remington took over.

A friend bought one of the Chiappa/Lyman Sharps, in 38-55. The firing pin was puncturing primers due to its sharp point.

I bought one of the Chiappa 1886's. Brand new, it had 3 deep tooling marks (gouges would be a better term) all the way down the barrel. It took 9 months for North Sylva to replace it, and the new one has a locking lug so loose due to being machined too narrow that the hole gun rattles from being carried. They wouldn't do anything about that.
 
tjsudbury said:
I would stay away from theses. Lyman did not make them, they were made by Chiappa, for Lyman.

My experiance with Chiappa is that they have zero quality control, sort of like Marlin after Remington took over.

A friend bought one of the Chiappa/Lyman Sharps, in 38-55. The firing pin was puncturing primers due to its sharp point.

I bought one of the Chiappa 1886's. Brand new, it had 3 deep tooling marks (gouges would be a better term) all the way down the barrel. It took 9 months for North Sylva to replace it, and the new one has a locking lug so loose due to being machined too narrow that the hole gun rattles from being carried. They wouldn't do anything about that.
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Yeah, I've had a bad experience with Chiappa's quality uncontrol, and have heard of a bunch of others. But the one Lyman mini-Sharps that I handled looked really nice, and seemed to be well built. I wonder if the guns built for Lyman are held to a higher standard than their own branded ones? I hate the idea of a full-sized heavy Sharps that isn't at least .45 caliber. These little ones have a lot of appeal in the .38-55 chambering. Is MC One Shot's experience typical or is he just one of the lucky ones?
 
It's unfortunate that you dont like the 1885, I love them and ordered one several months ago from Clay @ Prophet River. He says it should be here before Xmas. I ordered the sporting rifle with P/G and shotgun butt in 38-55. If the quality is anything like my Miroku 92 it should be outstanding. Looking forward to playing with the 38-55 and cast bullets. Wish it came with oct barrel but it don't. Anyone know the bore dimensions on this rifle by any chance?
 
tjsudbury said:
I would stay away from theses. Lyman did not make them, they were made by Chiappa, for Lyman.

My experiance with Chiappa is that they have zero quality control, sort of like Marlin after Remington took over.

A friend bought one of the Chiappa/Lyman Sharps, in 38-55. The firing pin was puncturing primers due to its sharp point.

I bought one of the Chiappa 1886's. Brand new, it had 3 deep tooling marks (gouges would be a better term) all the way down the barrel. It took 9 months for North Sylva to replace it, and the new one has a locking lug so loose due to being machined too narrow that the hole gun rattles from being carried. They wouldn't do anything about that.
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I was able to view, inspect and handle the rifle before I bought it. I have heard the mixed reviews as well and this one does not have any visible QC issues. The bore could be a thou tighter though.

Bottom line is the Wife likes it very much and so far it appears to be a decent shooter.
 
I like the look of the 1885 with the case hardening actually, had a chance today to handle one in Dryden ON. It was in 45-70, a very very nice rifle.

As soon as I can afford, looks like there will be a new family member in the vault!
 
I've got a decent old rolling-block in .38-55, and it's a great shooter. Not sure who put it together, but the bore is a true .375, so I can use just about any bullets I like. The chamber is also very tight, so there is very little resizing required when reloading. The only thing I want to change is the stock; it's a nice piece of maple, but it looks like it was whittled by a blind toddler with a dull chainsaw. I've got a walnut blank sitting in my garage waiting for me to start making a proper stock. Winter project!

I keep my loads to black-powder only, as it's a vintage black powder action and the firing pin hasn't been bushed either. But you should see the looks I get when I send one of my Lyman 330-grain cast boolits downrange with a massive stinking cloud behind it. Whatever you end up going with, you should have lots of fun with it. I have also been looking at one of the Lyman falling-blocks, but there have been many bad reviews. I'll have to stick with my old roller for now, until I can afford a CPA Stevens 44 1/2 falling-block in .38-55. They don't give those away!
 
Cleftwynd said:
I like the look of the 1885 with the case hardening actually, had a chance today to handle one in Dryden ON. It was in 45-70, a very very nice rifle.

As soon as I can afford, looks like there will be a new family member in the vault!
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Glad you took a good hands on look at these because they truly are a well made and beautiful rifle, way better than any of the Italian or Brazilian stuff IMHO.
 
Cleftwynd said:
Who are the current manufacturers of 38-55 single shot rifles?

Are there any single shot rifles that you know of that you would consider a good quality classy rifle? New or used. I would love a fancy wood Number 1 in 38-55, or a real pretty classic.
Click to expand...

I have a Uberti hi-wall in 38-55. it is a reproduction of a Winchester hi-wall. it is made by Uberti in Italy. it has a nice walnut stock and the receiver is case hardened. it is very accurate with cast bullets.[the 38-55 cartridge was designed in the early 1870,s for target shooting and it does that very well]. I use 280gr cast bullets.
 
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