Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Winchester Collectors 1894 Winchester, 38-55

I have the same rifle, but it is a 1906 believe. Mine has the original screw in the side plate.The rear sight appears to be a type that had a little slider in it that could be adjusted. Someone lost or removed it and filed down what was left. I put another buckhorn type on it. Front sight appears as your. It is in a dovetail, but locked down with a small screw. I replaced it with a globe type and put a tang mounted peep sight on it. That front dovetail is oversized so I had to epoxy the globe sight in place.

Same with bullet diameter. I use a .381 diameter powder coated cast 250 gr, that gives it a tad more.The bore is in poor shape, but Dyna Coating helped it quite a bit (Thanks MD for that advice) About a 3" group is the best it will do at 100 yards.

I use the shorter 2.080 brass, Starline. It will not cycle the Ballard type bullets with a shorter ogive but likes a longer taper on the ogive.

My load is 14.5 gr of 2400. The old Phil Sharps manual calls for keeping the pressure 25,00 or less for these older rifles.

One thing I had a problem with reloading using Lee dies was the expander stud was too short. It only expanded the case down about 1/4"and I needed about 1/2". It was also sized for the newer .375 bullets . Trying to seat a .381 bullet caused a significant bulge in the case neck and it was usually off center. These loads would not chamber. Better quality dies might not have these problems.

I made another expander plug that gave me the correct diameter for my bullets and increased the length it expanded the neck to.

Then I had to send the seating die back to Lee to have them open up the top diameter to clear the .381 bullets. I sent them the bullet I use and there was no charge.

With my rifle I have to be pretty snappy working the lever t keep it from jamming ( Probably form wear).

Thanks the guys on Marlin Owners 38- 55 Forun for helping me thru all those problems.