Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting 38-55 bullets and loads

I've recently acquired a couple of Winchester 94 rifles in 38-55. I plan on some occasional shooting and whitetail deer hunting with them.

i know nothing about cast bullets or loading them. I've been reading a lot lately and trying to educate myself on cast bullets and loading them.

the previous owner of one of them loaded for it, and loaded it with 28 grains 3031, 245 grain RNFP .380.

the other has shot very well with the Winchester factory ammo 255 grain jsp

im looking to purchase some commercial bullets for them 240-260 grain and i plan on loading them about 1500-to maybe 1600.

any insight or recommendation would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

First of all, you need to slug the bores. 38-55 bores can vary and you've got to fit cast bullets to the bore dimension or you're wasting your time. I haven't shot much in the way of jacketed in that caliber so can't help much there. My all time favorite load was a light charge of Unique and a 260ish grain cast bullet. Practically no recoil and excellent accuracy.

You are in the area of making the best of a bad situation. After you slug your barrel, you are likely to find that you need a cast bullet that will be in the vicinity of .381". OK, that's fine, but the problem arises when you try to seat a .380-.381 bullet in the case without shaving lead...you need to fire up your file and drill press and make and expander button that will uniformly expand the neck to take your bullet. You can do it. The biggest problem now is..your assembled cartridge, .380-.381" bullet, plus the neck wall thickness of the brass may very likely exceed the diameter of the chamber. Schidt. What to do now? Well, go smaller on bullet diameter until your loaded round will freely chamber is all you can do unless you want to alter the chamber. In this case you will sacrifice some accuracy and possibly get some leading. But maybe perfectly fine for hunting accuracy. For slightly undersized bullets at hunting velocities there are some tips to make it work, one, use a gas check style bullet in the weights you prefer, don't listen to the pilgrims suggesting hard bullets..stick with softer bullets...10 to 15 Bhn (they need to expand upon firing), don't be afraid to give them a pretty good boot in the ass, not because you need the velocity for hunting, you want the accuracy. H322, 4198, RL-7, 5744 etc. will be your friends, perky primers like Win Large Rifle are your friends. You can live with smaller bullets than your rifle would prefer if you smack them quick and hard...like black powder used to do back when the .38-55 was developed. In my experience, the .38-55 is a stone killer with cast bullets, just be careful of what may be standing behind your buck or bear...the 260 ish bullet is a loaded freight train..it doesn't want to stop.
One man's opinion.

More stuff you didn't want to know. Store bought cast for the .38-55...I have had great results with "Cast Performance" .380", gas check, 260 gr flat nose. Kind of my 'go-to' bullet before I shell out the money for a custom mold. I have had several .38-55's, the CP bullets worked in all them. Custom molds? Don't be scared, Accurate Molds in Utah will deliver a mold built to your specs for under a hundred bucks to your door. A cheap old Lee sizer(you can custom order your size for cheap) gas check put-er on-er, and plain old Lee Tumble Lube, tips for hassle free success.
Sorry for the long winded replies, but I wasted a lot of effort, time, and money getting started in the .38-55.

Definitely find some Starline 38-55 brass with the thin .007” neck wall thickness. Winchester brass has 010” wall thickness. This will solve the problem mentioned above where a .381 bullet plus two .010 neck walls equals about .401”, larger than the 38-55 chamber neck at about .396”

Starline brass loaded with a .381” bullet will be 0.395”

i was interested in the 260 CP bullet. I have starline brass and primers. Still looking for dies

Also on a side note, anyone use the Vollmer or Hawk soft core jacketed bullets?

i appreciate the help so far

My 38-55 is a JES rebored Marlin that takes .377 dia. bullets. I've pretty much settled on two loads. 10 Universal with the Accurate 38-250B mold(pretty much the Lee mold with a larger meplat, stronger driving bands and no base bevel), plain based, no gc shank. Gives a little over 1225 fps, is very accurate and works great on steel gongs. My main hunting load is the same bullet over 21-4198 with a tuft of dacron. About 1450 fps and even better accuracy. If I really want to hit one hard I use 31-3031 for 1600 fps. For sure not needed for deer.

Whether you need dies or not...maybe not. With my chamber dimensions, I don't need 'em. With a once fired case, I de-cap with a home made punch and a small hammer. Re-prime with a handheld tool. Powder the case and thumb seat the bullet to the longest length the action and chamber will accept..the Lee Liquid Alox will hold the bullet in the case while you insert the cartridge in your press with a Lee Factory Crimp Die...apply the most gentle crimp you can get that will just prevent the bullet from telescoping into the case in the tubular magazine under recoil.
I sold my model '94's and kept the 1893 Marlin...only because I prefer the Marlin Safety smokeless action and rifling...one is not 'better' than the other. When your ducks are aligned, sub 2moa five shot groups at 100 yds are well within reality. I got my best results within the velocity range of 1450 to 1550 fps, but my bullets are softer than Cast Performance...I'm just using wheelweights and a little tin for nice mold fillout, averaging around 12 Bhn.

I want to just throw this in. I just recently sold my 38-55 and I have 142 cast bullets I don't need. They are Leadheads brand, gas checked, 265 gr in .378 dia. They shot great in my 38-55 and also my 375 Winchester. I had a full box of 500 and 142 is left. Will sell them for $35 shipped. Let me know if interested, Wallace in Ga ph 478-918-5392

I had Alan Siegrist rebore 2 Marlins for me, I still have one. The bore is .377 and I use the Starline long brass. I had mountain molds make me a 2 cavity mold for a 220 gr GC bullet that has a vaguely WFN profile Slightly smaller meplat than usual so it feeds easier. 34 gr. Of 3031 and a RP2 1/2 primer gets me about 1750, with ragged one hole 50 yd groups and consistent 1.5” at 100. I need to shoot a deer with it someday. 3031 was just the ticket for hunting loads in the 2 38-55s I’ve loaded for.

Old70

Dunno much about the .38-55 other than they work well with about 55 (DUH!) grains of Swiss 1.5 FG and a 30:1 alloy 300 gr. bullet from a Dave Mos mould.. 4th from the right...


Best I could do with it at 100 yards, offhand.

Just worked through 6 months of load development for a 115 year old Winchester 1894 rifle in 38-55. It's bore is .380", and fairly worn. Vollmer Precision 255 grain jacketed SP in .380" diameter will do 2 moa at 100 yards with a Lyman No. 2 repro tang sight and a Willams fiber optic front sight helping my old eyes. 21 grains of IMR4198 for about 1400 fps.

For cast bullets, I got the best results with Rimrock Bullets 240 grain RNFP sized at .382". About 2.5 moa at 100 yards, with same IMR4198 load. I shortened Starline Brass to 2.040" to help chamber these rounds in .396" throat. 10 grains of Unique powder makes an accurate load with less recoil.

FWIW. Winchester factory SP rounds grouped at 8" at 100 yards. .380 cast bullets mostly keyholed into an approximate 18" pattern. .381 cast bullets grouped about 6" with an occasional flyer.

Might try powder coating those .381 to get another .001 or so. I made a new expander plug for my Lee dies that expands the Starline brass to .379 and it expands all the way to where the base of the bullet seats. Keeps that bulge in the brass to a minimum. I use 2400 in mine ,it is about the same age as yours

Thanks. I use a .379” expander plug for my Lee dies from Track of the Wolf website. Works great.

For the OP, Moyer Cast Bullets in PA has several 38-55 bullets available in sizes up to .381”.

Picked up a new Uberti 1894 earlier this year. This rifles bore has one those large bores diameters we hear about occasionally. Myself and my gunsmith both slugged the bore at .382" on 3 different occasions. Taylor Arms, the importer, told me it was .377". Talked with Bruce at Montana Bullet works. The largest he can size is .381". For both his 265 gr and 278 gr LBT Flat Nose GC, he agreed to air cool them (website says water cooled) so maybe the bullets would bump up .001" when shot. So far, I'm please with the 278 gr, giving me groups as small as 1.5" @ 50 yds for 5 shots using H4895 in Starline cases. Sights are the Skinner 94-AE version. Andy Larsson, Skinner Sights owner, took very good care of me. I've yet to try the 265 gr. Now that my hunting season just ended i'll have time to get back to testing.

I just picked up a Legendary Frontiersman in 38/55. I'm going to use it as a shooter. I have dies and 60 rounds of factory stuff. 20 Winchester, 20 Jamison. and 20 Dominion. The Winchester and Jamison cases are 2.80 and the Dominion are 2.125. Haven't had a chance to shoot it yet.

Forget about slugging the bore. That old truism has been debunked countless times by cast bullet cognoscenti. Do a chamber cast to determine throat diameter (either with Cerrosafe or do a pound cast) and size the bullets accordingly, manipulating the brass to accommodate that diameter bullet. If bullet diameter matches the throat (.0005" under is ideal if you can manage it) you shouldn't experience leading as the hot gasses are bottled up tightly behind the bullet from the git-go, and can't squirt past which induces leading and inaccuracy.

Learn to seat your bullets dead straight in the case. Cast bullets aren't as forgiving as jacketed in that instance (not that it isn't important with jacketed too). Cast gets by nicely with only .001"-.002" "grip" by the case neck. Any more than that and you risk deforming the bullet or unintentionally sizing it smaller by the act of squeezing it into a neck whose tightness is engineered for the proper holding of a jacketed bullet.

The bullet alloy should be regulated to achieve the best compromise between accuracy and bountiful expansion on game (if that's your goal). Go as soft as you can get away with.

Casting/using cast bullets is both a simple task and complicated at the same time. Truly an art, and quite the interesting rabbit hole to dive into. Don't go trying to re-invent the wheel - this stuff has been worked out over about the last 10 generations. Read cast bullet manuals, and read what your forebears failed at and accomplished before jumping in with both feet - it'll save you a lot of time, money, and anguish.

Gnoahhh, I’ve read a few versions of the pound cast endeavor, but they left me less than enthusiastic about pursuit. Would you tell us how you do it please?

I don't, Dan. I'm a proponent of Cerrosafe. I know a lot of guys swear by pound casting and it has gained traction in some circles which is why I included it in my observation. There's just something about inserting a steel rod in a bore and then hitting it with a hammer to expand a lead slug in the throat/leade that leaves me a bit cold.

I've never found it necessary to slug bores, but there are always exceptions. Use the largest diameter bullet that will allow chambering without difficulty. Use the softest alloy that will not lead the bore at your intended velocity/ pressure. This will almost always be your most accurate load. Powders like H4895, Reloder 7, one of the 4198s, 5744, and the obsolete SR4759 are good powders for most purposes in the .38-55.