Where to find 38-55 ammo?

Prolly be an idea to start reloading now as it will only ge more expensive for factory ammo.
Rust woods and The Bullet Barn would be good places to start with for components and Henry and Budget Shooting would be a third ...not sure what his inventory would be atm.
Rob
 
I'm actually pretty surprised it's that available and affordable. Would have thought it would be on par with 32-40.

Definitely a good candidate for reloading if a person is going to shoot more than a couple boxes per year.
 
Caroline supplies always has some.....at 85 bucks a box. If you are going to shoot any volume, reloads with cast bullets is the way to go. I got my hands on some Barnes jacketed hollow points to load up for deer at Bashaw as well.
 
Here's some #'s for you to ponder that may help. With factory ammo at $2.80-$3.00 each, reloading might be attractive for you if you shoot any amount over 4 or 5 rounds to check POA before a deer season & then 2 or 3 rounds during the season. I can load 38-55 with hard cast commercially bought bullets for about $.70 apiece or with home-cast slugs for $.30 apiece. ( 45-70 is about $.80 and $.35 respectively). A very capable reloading system that will make very quality rounds can be rounded up for $200 or so and enough components to load 200 rounds can be had for another $150 (of course using fired brass).

So you could load your first 200 rounds for $350 bucks compared to 200 factory rounds at upwards of $600. You break even on your loading system purchase at the first 120 rounds or so and your system is amortized down with every round after that.
 
Just a heads up regarding factory ammo. While I cannot speak for the custom reloaders, I know that the
Winchester offerings are quite "soft" generating only about 1250 fps.
The Old CIL/Imperial loadings were at 1600 fps with the 255 grain Jacketed SP.
This load was safe and effective even in older rifles.

I have a reproduction M94 Winchester "Legendary Frontiersman" that I load for.
It is happiest with the 255 Barnes original JSPFN at 1735 fps, or a Lyman 285 Cast GC at 1650.
Both these loads will shoot around MOA. Shot my largest Whitetail to date with the former load.
Love the 38-55! It is a round that is under-appreciated by many. Dave.
 
Hand-load. bestest. I load for a Marlin 93 (1904), a Win 94 (1905) and a 70's era Win 94. a Prophet river carries Starline brass and there is a fine gentleman here that casts lead, gas-checked for a very reasonable prices. Jethunter is his name here. Do some research, somewhere along the line they changed the case len and ppl messed up their rifle by re-chambering. Prophet river carry both lens of brass. 2.0 and 2.125. Sooo cheap to load for and sooo much fun to shoot.
 
awesome little cartridge in todays world, i actually load my 375 win as if it were a 38-55 with 250 gr hard cast coated and velocity around 1700-1800 range.

loving these hard cast coated , no sign of any leading in barrel an ive shot 200 or so an havnt cleaned the barrel yet lol, still hits where i aim her.

enjoy , perhaps try a box of ammo, you will love the gun, reload and love it even more so.

welcome to the gang
 
Winchester factory offers are the ultimate in Milquetoast IMO.
The bore on mine is so worn that it is almost like like dating a stripper...high maintenance. Oversize PL bullets ( powder coated) and fast powders to bump it up. But I have a metric ton of brass and shoot the crap out of it prior to season opening.
Despite the fact that I live pretty much in the desert...it's the 'Bush Gun' . Chuckle if you want, but it gets at least one a season...two this one.
You feel like an old cowboy when you shoot it as well,:d
 
tokguy said:
Winchester factory offers are the ultimate in Milquetoast IMO.
The bore on mine is so worn that it is almost like like dating a stripper...high maintenance. Oversize PL bullets ( powder coated) and fast powders to bump it up. But I have a metric ton of brass and shoot the crap out of it prior to season opening.
Despite the fact that I live pretty much in the desert...it's the 'Bush Gun' . Chuckle if you want, but it gets at least one a season...two this one.
You feel like an old cowboy when you shoot it as well,:d
Click to expand...

i love this kind of enthusiasm around beautiful old guns and cartridges... respect Tokguy
 
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