38-55

infideleggwelder

infideleggwelder

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Was going thru some of my Dad`s things after he passed, and came across a few boxes of Dominion 38-55. I don`t remember him ever having a rifle in this calibre, so this stuff is going to be at least 40+ years old.
What`s a good lever gun to use this in? I have never used a lever gun, and really have no idea about them. But i have this ammo, in really good shape, and nothing to shoot it from.
Thoughts? Price range? I do like older guns.
 
find a guy with a model 94. The ammo isn’t cheep. I am sure you could swing a deal to go shooting if you brought the ammo. I have an 1908 94 in 38-55. Cool gun to shoot. I think it’s 255grian. My son says it shoots like a 22.
 
infideleggwelder said:
Was going thru some of my Dad`s things after he passed, and came across a few boxes of Dominion 38-55. I don`t remember him ever having a rifle in this calibre, so this stuff is going to be at least 40+ years old.
What`s a good lever gun to use this in? I have never used a lever gun, and really have no idea about them. But i have this ammo, in really good shape, and nothing to shoot it from.
Thoughts? Price range? I do like older guns.
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Provide a round count and and shipping from will make you an offer. If u are local to Fredericton NB

Retreever
 
38/55 sell for 3 bucks per round, full boxes can bring more to collector. Brass 1 dollar each.
Savage made 38/55 rare, Marlin had some and a few Cowboy models in the 90s expense, Winchester nice but condition is price sanative. H and R made some single shots but hard to find.
 
Excellent and fun round to shoot. Easy to reload for. A lot cheaper to reload than to buy factory rounds older 38-55’s are around. I have two a Winchester 94 made in 1911 and a Savage 99 made in 1908. I us mostly lead bullets 255 and 335 grs sized to 0.379. I found black powder was very accurate, 2 inches or less at length 100 benched.
You have the ammunition now you just need a rifle.
 
infideleggwelder said:
Was going thru some of my Dad`s things after he passed, and came across a few boxes of Dominion 38-55. I don`t remember him ever having a rifle in this calibre, so this stuff is going to be at least 40+ years old.
What`s a good lever gun to use this in?
.
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the original 38-55 shells were about 1/10 th of an inch longer than modern ones. The significance is that in order to chamber them, the gun would have to be an older one and at a guess made before the 1970s. Also for reloading, Dominion shells are semi balloon head which makes them less desireable for reloading

cheers mooncoon
 
mooncoon said:
the original 38-55 shells were about 1/10 th of an inch longer than modern ones. The significance is that in order to chamber them, the gun would have to be an older one and at a guess made before the 1970s. Also for reloading, Dominion shells are semi balloon head which makes them less desireable for reloading

cheers mooncoon
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Also I believe the new manudfacture .38/55 rifles are .375 bore as is the new ammunition. The old ones are around .380 dia. bore. I have seen a few guys who tried new ammo in their old rifle and the bullets hit keyholed. Convinced they were worn out til they tried them with vintage ammo. You can probably get $60 to $80 a box for old Dominion if in good shape. If perfect condition boxes you can get over $100 from a cartridge collector.
 
""Also I believe the new manudfacture .38/55 rifles are .375 bore as is the new ammunition. The old ones are around .380 dia. bore. I have seen a few guys who tried new ammo in their old rifle and the bullets hit keyholed.""

This may be why my great grandad's 38-55, always tumbles it's bullets. I never figured the family had much to spend on cartridges over the years, so I always questioned a worn-out barrel, although I've never slugged it. But then the primers always back out a little, so maybe she's well worn. My dad's brother emptied that rifle, to kill a charging black bear, which died at his feet, so the story goes.
 
Mike Webb said:
Also I believe the new manudfacture .38/55 rifles are .375 bore as is the new ammunition. The old ones are around .380 dia. bore. I have seen a few guys who tried new ammo in their old rifle and the bullets hit keyholed. Convinced they were worn out til they tried them with vintage ammo. You can probably get $60 to $80 a box for old Dominion if in good shape. If perfect condition boxes you can get over $100 from a cartridge collector.
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I am not sure how much the older rifles were a different bore diameter and how much is a case of poor consistency in boring and rifling. I have owned at least 3 rifles from the late 1800s to early 1900s whose bore was several thousandths oversize from nomimal caliber. The worst was a Marlin 38-40 with excellent sharp rifling but a bore of .410 instead of .401. I think it comes down to the need to slug the bore on rifles made during that time period

cheers mooncoon
 
One of my shooting pals has a Uberti High Wall in 38-55 calibre. It's a mite finicky and took him a while to find a good load, but at 300m you wouldn't stand there. He has a 24" Malcolm-style scope in x6 on top, and it's a pussycat to shoot. Buy all the cases you can find - here in UK they are £3 each from Bertram Brass - CAN$4.80-ish.
 
I had a Uberti as well in 38-55 A friend of mine kept throwing money at me till he owed the rifle! Two years ago, I had the opportunity to buy 2 Uberti 1885's One in 40-65 Win and the other in 38-55. I wanted a 40-70 Sharps Straight very badly so the Uberti got re-barreled and chambered in 40-70 SS. The left over Uberti barrel got screwed on a Danish (Carl Gustaf) rolling block. Both my 38-55's are rolling blocks, one with a Green Mountain barrel & the other, the Uberti barrel. Both are 1 in 14" twist and both love the 300 Gr "Money" bullet with either IMR4198 or D-5744
I didn't spend any time developing a load with 250-255 gr bullets as the 300 gr. work so well.
 
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tacfoley said:
One of my shooting pals has a Uberti High Wall in 38-55 calibre. It's a mite finicky and took him a while to find a good load, but at 300m you wouldn't stand there. He has a 24" Malcolm-style scope in x6 on top, and it's a pussycat to shoot. Buy all the cases you can find - here in UK they are £3 each from Bertram Brass - CAN$4.80-ish.
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I rebarreled a trapdoor Springfield to 38-55 and as said by others, it is a fun gun to shoot with no recoil. For shells, I anneal and fireform 30-30 shells which are cheap like borscht

cheers mooncoon
 
Hush07 said:
""Also I believe the new manudfacture .38/55 rifles are .375 bore as is the new ammunition. The old ones are around .380 dia. bore. I have seen a few guys who tried new ammo in their old rifle and the bullets hit keyholed.""

This may be why my great grandad's 38-55, always tumbles it's bullets. I never figured the family had much to spend on cartridges over the years, so I always questioned a worn-out barrel, although I've never slugged it. But then the primers always back out a little, so maybe she's well worn. My dad's brother emptied that rifle, to kill a charging black bear, which died at his feet, so the story goes.
Click to expand...

If the primer is "backed out" when you extracted it, that tells me that the round is mild for pressure - firing the primer pushed it back against the bolt face, but the case did not expand back as well - so might be as simple as a head space check to know for sure? An acquaintance had same effect on a Savage 243 lever action - was under the impression that his loads were "hot" - but a head space check said he was a lot closer to Field length, than to GO length. His rifle would close easily on a NOGO gauge, but not on the FIELD gauge, as I recall.
 
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