38-55

O

Old_Joe

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Hi All,

got a problem I need a hand with. I bought a Win lever gun for each of my boyus 40 years ago and just gave them to each a few years ago. These are brand new in box stored well from the day I Bought them. No rust nothing..

The 30-30 works great however we couldnt find ammo for the 38-55. Fast forward to today and my son got some reloads from bullet barn. Stuck one to check it out and it jams. I was afraid to reef on the lever so we did a complete dissasembly. Got the cartridge out and nothing appears wrong. Put it all back together and did a top load and the same thing. Pulled like a mofo on the lever and out it came. So I am guessing it is either out of spec ammo or extractor maybe.

What do you think.
 
Can you close the lever completely on the round or does it only partially close? Any marks on the round one removed to suggest where it is tight fitting, or contacting the rifling? I would try and source some other ammo to double check. If you have a means of accurately measure the ammo you could always compare to SAMMI spec. Let us know what you find out.
 
Let's see some photos of the ammo?
Could be too long in length or ?
I'd be certain there is a box of factory ammo kicking 'bout in someone's
kitty.
Had a box last year and sold it at the gun show.

Put up a WTB and see what happens.

Can you remove a bullet, dump the powder and try chambering the dry case?
 
A buddy of mine has an old (1919) 38-55 Winchester 94, and he was watching the Bullet Barn too but they were out of stock. He finally found a couple boxes at MilArm in Edmonton. Not sure if they have any more stock left, would be worth giving them a call.
 
closes fine, when we had it apart the cartridge slide right in by itself. There is a faint mark just under the brass rim but I see nothing else. I do have a micrometer so thats a good idea, thanks.
 
What is the bullet diameter. The .38-55 has changed over the years. Some will have a bore near .381" whereas some rifles are in the .376" range.

Another thing that has changed is the case length. The originals used a longer case. When the .30-30 came out ( it is based on the .38-55 case ), the .38-55 case was shortened to match the new .30-30 case.

Starline sells both case lengths ( 2.125" and 2.080" ).

Once you figure out what your rifle needs I'm sure you'll really enjoy loading and shooting it. My .38-55's are all chambered for the longer case with the .376" groove diameter.

Chris.
 
You guys are making me want to shoot my Grandpas. It was handed down to me a few years ago. He had it from 1920 on.

I have a few rounds of factory 38-55 for it. Some are really old, maybe even before WWII. OP I could send you a few to try?
 
I owned a 70's era Model 94 38-55 that would only chamber modern factory WW rounds or hand loaded cases with a .376 bullet but the bore slugged out to require a .379 cast bullet. The modern spec chambering simply would not allow a round made to fit the barrel to chamber without a lot of pressure applied by the lever. Once the round was chambered, the only way to remove it was to fire it and use a range rod to extract the case. I suspect your rifle suffers from the same problem.
 
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