Black Powder Load Advice for Winchester 38-55

[MikeArthur]

Hey, working up loads for a 1900 built 1894 Winchester 38-55 with nice rifling

seeking advice for bullet mold, the whole works

thanks

mike arthur
hampton horse artillery
267 PT
843 412-1992 :wink:

[Tom Magno, 9269V]

Hi Mike,
I have a 1906 built Win M1894 in 38-55 WCF. I am currently shooting the Lyman 375248 250gr. Be sure to slug your bore, mine runs big - .378 and I am sizing to .379. I am also using the Starline longer brass (to original specs) vs the currently available lengths from Winchester - cut for .375 Win. They will work, and work fine, but our chambers are cut longer and I did not want the bullet jump to be that far - sort of analagous to shooting .38spl in .357. See how some dummy rounds feed. With the longer brass I could not feed the Lee 38-55 (379-250), it was too long in the ogive in front of the crimp groove. It would chamber ok when fed singly thru the top, but would not feed thru the action from the magazine. The Lee bullet feeds and shoots fine with the shorter brass however.
Load it the same way you would load any black powder cartridge - find what volume fills the brass to the base of the bullet, and a bit more, then when you seat the bullet, it will compress just a bit. Use either 2F or 3F - I am using 3F, and the bullet is lubed with SPG and sized .379. Use standard large rifle primers - no need for magnums. I am using a 50-50 mix of pure lead and wheelweights also. There is another fine bullet available from RanchDog moulds - I have some samples and they shoot fine as well. If you size your bullets to the bore +.001-.002, it should shoot great.
If you decide to shoot smokeless, keep pressures to the BP levels. My barrel does not have 'special smokeless steel' stamped on it, but I hunt with low pressure loads of IMR 4198 and it is fine. Check published load data for weaker actions and you should be ok.

[MikeArthur]

Hi Tom--- great to hear from you. You are always such a great spource of solid advice. Hope you won't mind some questions>

When you say your barrel slugs to 378... i assume you mean the widest diameter lan to lan)..as the rifling i have is six lans/grooves so it's easy to measure.

is the lead mix you use the same as your henry? i have a large amount of "Hardball" from Midway 6% antimoney, 92% pure and 2% tin, that shoots great in my 44-40 Uberti henry with 29g 3f and spg

i would like to use the same lead

re the mold..Lyman 575248...is it just lucky that bullets come out 379+ so you can size down to 379? seems big for a 575 mold

the starline brass does not need to be cut, correct??

that's it for now

yours (and many thanks)

mike arthur
hampton horse artillery, 267PT
843 412-1992
charleston, south carolina

[Blair]

Mike,

From what I can see, Tom's suggestions are right on!
I used the same loads he is suggesting for your '94 Win. in a Ballard single shot Rifle.
They worked very well.
I used a slightly softer lead and thumb pressed the bullet into the casings. Overall cartridge finished length is a lot more critical in a leaver action repeater than a single shot.
Blair

[Tom Magno, 9269V]

Hi Tom--- great to hear from you. You are always such a great spource of solid advice. Hope you won't mind some questions>

When you say your barrel slugs to 378... i assume you mean the widest diameter lan to lan)..as the rifling i have is six lans/grooves so it's easy to measure.

The groove to groove diameter is the widest measurement and mine measures .378 - measured from a pure lead slug at about 2-3 inches in front of the chamber leade, basically in the throat.

is the lead mix you use the same as your henry? i have a large amount of "Hardball" from Midway 6% antimoney, 92% pure and 2% tin, that shoots great in my 44-40 Uberti henry with 29g 3f and spg

i would like to use the same lead

Yes, same mix I use with the Henry. If sized .001-.002 over groove diameter, it should be OK. Mine is not as hard as hardball - 50/50 mix is about 8 BHN (or thereabouts). Hardball is about 14-16 BHN, and linotype is around 18-22 BHN.

re the mold..Lyman 575248...is it just lucky that bullets come out 379+ so you can size down to 379? seems big for a 575 mold

Lyman 375248. Originally the bullets dropped .376 and would keyhole. I opened up the mould a bit with aluminum tape (aka 'beagling'). They now drop out around .380-ish, just enough for me to size them to .379 and ensure they are concentric/round.

the starline brass does not need to be cut, correct??

Starline offers two lenths of 38-55 brass. 2.080" and 2.125". My chamber was the longer and the 2.125" brass chambers fine, no trimming/cutting needed. It also will shoot the 2.08" fine, but I was getting a ring of lube crud building up in the throat, and after about 10 rounds accuracy would drop off. With the longer brass, it shoots fine for 20+ rounds before feel the need to scrub it out, but I no longer have any crud ring build up other than normal BP fouling.

that's it for now

yours (and many thanks)

mike arthur
hampton horse artillery, 267PT
843 412-1992
charleston, south carolina