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303mike Offline OP
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Anyone usin' a Model 375 'round these parts? If so, have you ever used it with .38-55 ammo?

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What parts would that be? Where do you live?

Even if it would fit why would you want to use 38-55 ammo in a 375 Winchester?


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303mike Offline OP
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Bledsoe, You live just beyond the sunrise from me, I'm in Washington. Why use .38-55's, why not? For one practical reason, the ammo is easier to find. And the .38-55 is like an old friend, I've got lots of ammo for it. As far as power goes, the .375 is nothing more than the old .38-55 High Velocity loading. In my Marlin the .38-55 cartridges chamber very nicely even though there is a difference in the case length. The real meat to my question was wondering if others have used .38-55 ammo without having the rifle's chamber reamed or lengthened for the longer .38-55 brass. At this time I want to guess that the Marlin chambers for the .375 and the .38-55 are the same length.

Last edited by 303mike; 05/19/11.
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Very possible that they are the same length. Take a fired 38-55 case and flare the mouth a bit and then chamber it in your 375. That should tell you if the longer 38-55 case will work in your 375. Then slug the bore to see how close it is to the 38-55 bore size. My 38-55 has a .379 bore and my 375 has a .376 bore. I have never tried 38-55 ammo in my 375. I shoot .380 cast in the 38-55 and don't think I will get good accuracy if squeeze them down to .377 in my 375. Your may be different.


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303mike Offline OP
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Thanks for the idea! I had not thought of trying to chamber an empty case. I'll try that and report back.

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My report: When I said how a .38-55 cartridge would easily fit in the rifle's chamber I was using a factory loaded round. After wondering if the crimp at the mouth of the case was allowing the bolt to close even with the slightly longer case length, I tried to chamber a handload with a cast bullet which was not crimped. That fell right in. Next, trying Bledsoe's advice, I chambered a fired case that was not resized. That also chambered very easily. Next, I'll have to fire one of my .38-55 handloads in the .375 but I'm sure that won't reveal any problems. So far, I'm convinced that the .375 Winchester barrels on the Marlin rifles actually used .38-55 chambers.
Now, one reason I like the .38-55 so well is because many years ago I had a buddy and hunting partner who used a Winchester Model 1894 Saddle Ring carbine in .38-55 as a deer rifle. I was with him when he bought that gun and he paid the terrbily high price (at that time) of $135. His rifle has a Nickel Steel barrel for smokeless loads and jacketed bullets. He'd buy factory ammo and then pull the bullets, then reload the cases with cast bullets. Those were just for shooting. The jacketed bullets were saved for handloads with generous doses of Hi-Vel #2 to duplicate the old .38-55 High Velocity loads. With those 255 grain soft-points fired at about 1750 feet per second, that carbine of his would sure knock a deer down.
I also have an old .38-55 but in a Savage 99. One nice 4-point blacktail has fallen to my rifle, hit from 104 paces.
There is a practical reason why I want to use .38-55 ammo in my .375 and that is because I have a good set of bullet moulds for the .38-55. Those bullets could be used in the .375 but they'd need to be seated deeper or left with a groove exposed to be equal in length with the .38-55 loads. It is just much simpler to use the .38-55 brass. That's particularly true with Lyman's bullet #375296, a gas-check bullet weighing 265 grains. My mould for that bullet is a double cavity modified to cast one solid nose and the other one a hollow point. The hollow point bullet does quite well for hunting.
Now I'll have to see how well the faster rate of twist in the .375's barrel handles the cast bullet loads. Perhaps another report shall follow.

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The brass works in both rifles? How about the different diameter bullets? Will the 38-55 bullet (.380) shoot well in the 375 (.377)? The accuracy suffers in my 375 when I shoot the oversized (.380) bullets and accuracy suffers in the 38-55 if I shoot anything smaller than .380's. It's kind of like shooting 30-30 in a 32 Special.

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303mike Offline OP
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Bledsoe, Our .375s are probably more alike than our .38-55s. In my .38-55 I use the .377" sizer with results that please me very much. I expect to use the same size bullets in the .375. So far the only cast bullets I've put through the .375 have been some of the old Ideal #37583, the .38-55 short range bullet and those worked very well. Give me time though, it might be a while before I get around to giving those heavier bullets a good try.

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Short range bullet? What is a short range bullet? Out favorite load for the 38-55 is 245 gr, LaserCast over 10 gr. of Unique. Would that qualify as a short range load? You would NOT believe what that load does in both range and penetration.

Good luck with yours.

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303mike Offline OP
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"Short range bullet? What is a short range bullet?"

Bledsoe, Years ago several cartridges were available in Short Range loads, factory loaded. The .38-55 SR used a 145 grain lead bullet loaded over 20 grains of loose black powder. Ideal copied that bullet, offing it as #37583. The short range bullet for the .32-40 was #39150, a 98 grain bullet that was originally loaded over 13 grains of black powder. For the .303 Savage the short range load was called a "miniature load" (following the Britisher's term) and it used a 100 grain bullet, either lead or a full metal jacket. Ideal's copy of that bullet was #31110. The .30-30 and the .25-35 also had short range loads. During the 1970s Lyman tried to increase sales for their .32-40 and .38-55 short range bullet designs by offering them as conical bullets for percussion revolvers, either .31 or .36 caliber. I don't know of anyone who used them for shooting in the percussion pistols but Lyman's move did make these two short range bullet mould more available and sometimes new ones can still be found. Your 245 grain bullet sounds similar to the Lyman/Ideal #375249 and with 10 grains of Unique that bullet should be approaching 1300 FPS. That doesn't qualify for the old short range load but it is certainly a fine loading. (I do believe it!) The old short range loads had velocities with their lightweight bullets of only 1000 FPS.

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Thanks, Mike

Good information. Our 245 gr. bullets are exiting the 24 inch barrels of the 38-55 CB's at about 1375 fps avg. so that would not be a short range load. We are shoot steel plates at longer
ranges. The 400 yd. plate is 16 inches square, aperture sights, and off hand or with shooting sticks. The 600 yd target is a bit larger.

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I shoot the Winchester 38-55 brass in my Marlin all the time with cast bullets.I cast my own with a Lyman 264gr mold and use 30.0gr IMR3031.Bullet is sized to .377
I use the 375 brass for the higher power jacketed loads.
The 38-55 loads are more accurate than the 375 loads.

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303mike Offline OP
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Levergunz, Thanks most severely for that info. Your cast bullet load is the same thing I've used through my Savage 99 and I'll try it now in the .375 Marlin. With a load like that, what use
do you have for higher power jacketed loads? Seriously, I liked the 250 grain factory .375 load much more than the 200 grain and I've never tried the 220 grain bullets. With a good cast bullet load shooting the heavy 265 grain bullets, what else can you ask for? Thanks again.

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303mike Offline OP
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Okay, yesterday I ran some .38-55s loaded with bullets from Lyman's old #375296 at about 1500 fps through my Marlin 375. Those worked just like the gun was made for 'em, which it obviously was. Now I'll probably be using .38-55 brass in that gun most all of the time. Thanks for the help and advise.

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303mike, just out of curiosity, why do you think Winchester came out with the 375win if it is identical to the 38-55? Just for marketing? The way i understand it is they are indeed two different cartridges, maybe very very close in dimensions but different all the same. I know that the 375win cases are thicker in the web and case head, as well as different bullet diameters, albeit very close. Im a firm believer in Murphy's Law so i will use 375win brass in my Marlin but i dont doubt your knowledge....


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