Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Finally joined the .38-55 club

Have been watching for a .38-55 to call my own for a while, and when I found one at Cabelas in the button magazine configuration I like, I adopted it. It has less % finish than I'd like, but is solid with a shiny bore and was priced right. I have a couple boxes of WW jacketed ammo to try it out with but might have to get some cast lead flat points to load. Trying to decide whether I want to find a vintage tang sight to match my other old Winchesters, or stick with the semi-buckhorn. Hope to give it some woods time this fall.

Verrrrry nice!!!

After some years with various .38-55's you will probably discover that to reach full potential of accuracy and power, you will need to use cast bullets. Because of the rather large groove diameters in Marlins and Winchesters of that era, save yourself some trouble and get Starline (thin neckwalls allow larger bullets in the too small chambers). Before spending money on molds, be sure to slug your bore, you will most likely need a bullet in the .379" to .382" range to get the most out of your rifle. I am fond of gas checks. Anyway, A superb cartridge in beautiful well made old guns, it's well worth a little effort to make it perform to it's potential in my opinion.

Agree with Flintlocke. Mine takes .381 cast, powder coated bullets.It would probably take .382, but they are hard to find,at least for me.

I offer the following from what I have figured out on my own. It works for me, but someone with more knowledge can chime in.

There are two case lengths, 2.080 and 2.125. It is my understanding and what I use is that earlier 38-55's like these take the 2.080. Starline has both.

I found that when trying to seat the .381 bullets in standard cases, that it was impossible for me to seat them without getting a considerable bulge on one side of the case.Enough so the round would not chamber.

I am not familiar with all dies, but I bought a set of Lee's. First,the expander plug is too short and the case does not expand deep enough to match the long cast 38-55 bullet .Second the expander plug is for a .375-.376 bullet, so it does not expand the case enough,which adds to the case bulge when seating the bullet.

My fix, since I have a lathe, was to make a new expander plug, .379 diameter. I made it long enough so it expands the case from the base of the bullet all the way to the crimp groove and added a bit more flaring capability for cast bullets..This gives me a .002 neck tension and greatly reduced the bulge in the case when seating bullets. I then had to send the seating die to Lee to have them open up the die to match the .381 bullet. I can't remember, but I think they did it at no charge or it was certainly under $20.

The barrel on mine is not very good, so I cleaned it down to bare metal and put a coat of Dyna Tek on per recommendation of MuleDeer. That helped a lot.

On bullets, I found that mine needs a longer tapered ogive,or the round will jam when entering the chamber.The first ones I bought were from Missouri Bullet and I had to load one at a time to shoot them.I bought 500 from Penn Bullets and they work fine.
I replaced the sights with a globe front and a Lyman tang mounted peep.I really wanted vernier type, but could not afford the few hundred dollars they cost.The bad thing about the Lyman is that it has no graduation marks on it so adjusting for different distances is a guess. Mine has set screw to lock down the front sight so I had to be creative to get the globe sight locked down.

Lastly, I took loads from an old Phil Sharpes manual. for a 250 gr cast load. 14.5-14.7 gr of 2400. It goes all the way up to 17gr, but I don' t want to push this old rifle.A lot of guys use 10 gr.of Unique.

A lot of information and help can be found on Marlin Owners.com, sub forum "32-40 38-55/375 & Other Non Standard Calibers"

^^^^what he said, good info. For a quick start with your new acquisition...I had excellent results, Marlin 1893, with store bought Cast Performance 265 gr RN FP gas check using 27 gr of H322, Win lg rifle, 1480 fps...5 shot groups at 100yds under 2". I gave up on using .38-55 resizing die, it grossly overworks the brass, I just decapped with a punch, primed, belled mouth slightly, thumb seated bullets and just a gentle kiss of the seating die crimp...just enough to keep the bullet telescoping into the case under recoil, the bullet will actually rotate in the case neck, but does not seem to affect accuracy. In a Marlin 1893 (circa 1930) the bullet must be seated deeply to the crimp groove for reliability. The Winchester '94 is a little more forgiving, but I never noticed any accuracy improvement by playing with seating depth.

Buy you a set of RCBS Cowboy dies. It has two expanders....one for modern day bores and another for "oversized" (not really) bores of Marlins and some older Winchesters. Your rifle is chambered for 2.125 brass and Starline is the best having thin necks so you can chamber the bullets like Flintlocke said.

Great information, thanks guys!

Good stuff TMitch, congrats on a beautiful rifle, dont know if my 1899 year model '94 in 32-40 has Winchesters nickel steel barrel, so treated it as an iron barrel, that said, i found a couple old boxes of Dominion loaded ammo with copper jacketed flat point bullets, pulled those, threw em in the trash, dumped the powder, resized with de capping rod out to save the primers, reloded the brass with a charge of H-335 under some nice 178gr cast lead flat nosed bullets, iirc they run an easy 1555 fps.

Hit a button buck i thought was a young doe last fall in the ribs at 55 yards, it flinched at the shot and kicked a bit, stopped, tried to turn and go back, collapsed into a short oak bush and died, what a cool hunt with that old rifle, hope you have many years of enjoyment with yours, i'd find a cast flat nosed bullet at .380" and some RL-7.

Checked several suppliers. Out of Stock

Very cool old rifle Tmitch. I shot a 38-55 a month ago and that rifle was amazingly accurate. The owner explained to me that his rifle took the longer brass from Starline. Starline has a good write-up on why some rifles require the longer brass with thinner necks. Here's the link:

Starline's theory on loading with the proper length 38-55 cases

Long story short: With that marlin and cast bullets, and proper brass, it produced consistent 3/4" groups at 100 yards, with iron sights, when I shot it. I was pretty impressed.

That is quite a read from Starline.When I acquired my Winchester 38-55 circa 1900 or so,I had no brass so I ordered the 2.080 length. . Shortly thereafter, I bought a sizeable amount of Starline, ,Remington, Winchester brass and several boxes of commercial jacketed and cast rounds.The batch was a mixture of 2.125 and 2.080 lengths. All for $100

The barrel of this rifle is pitted and dark. My first excursion to the range resulted in bullets going thru the target side ways at 50 yards. I was using of Missouri Bullets, 3.379 diameter. A good cleaning and a coat of Dyna Tek help significantly. However,the ogive profile, as I have mentioned, would not permit cycling thru the levering of a cartridge in from the magazine.

Using both the 2.080 and 2.125 brass ,I saw no difference in accuracy, although with this barrel I don't think a valid conclusion could be reached. So after reading that these older guns probably used the 2.080( maybe incorrect) and I had more 2.080 brass than 2.125, I trimmed all to 2.080.

As for the Remington and Winchester brass being too thick at the neck vs Starline, I have about 30 rounds of each.Once I made an expander plug the correct diameter for .381 cast bullets , I have had no trouble seating bullets in any of the cases, and no problem chambering them.

I had a few boxes of the commercial rounds left ,so I sold them to someone here on the fire.

Since this rifle will never be a one hole shooter, what I have works very well .Since the 38-55 is not a legal big game cartridge in Colorado,it will only be used as a fun plinker at the range

My 38-55 is a little different, it was built in the late 1800s, and started life as a .32 long, it was re bored to 38-55 and a new hammer spring was made and installed in 1986. other than theses changes it's 100% org. Remington Hepburn, and it's a real joy to shoot, i have won several open site egg shoots with it, with cast loads. I have taken Whitetail, pigs, coyote, with this rifle. Rio7

Now I am really jealous. Many years ago when those Remington Rolling Block actions were abundant,I always wanted to make a 38- 55 with one.Never got to it though

add me too the jealous list also. that is real nice RIO7

I used one just like that in 38/55 to take a bull elk. Used 286 grain cast flat nose bullets. I shot him trotting through the timber at @100 yards. One lung hit and he stopped running and looked distressed. A second close by and he was very distressed. At the break f the trigger on the third shot he collapsed before the bullet could arrive. Killed a 4 point mule deer buck with custom soft point bullet later that day.

I'd gladly join the club with a Mod 94 in 38-55, fine rifle right there!

That is a really nice rifle and what the others have said is all hood advice. I have several .38-55s and use a Marlin 336 (relatively recent manufacture) for my centerfire silhouette rifle using 265 grain GC at .0379”. ….a hoot knocking down those rams at 200m (if I do my part😄). Have yet to bloody one but am trying along with a .32-40 - one of these days!

Have fun and thanks for sharing!

PennDog

A ram is an awfully big target at 200m. For a good shooting .38-55 anyway.

I suppose it is for a good shot😜……and I have yet to find a rifle that can’t easily out shoot me!

PennDog