Needless to say, I like it. At present I only have two bullets for it, the Lee 250 grainer and the Lyman 264 grainer. The Lee is a plain, bevel base bullet, the Lyman is a gas check design. Both are shooting quite well. When I first got the rifle, I had cast some bullets up using some 20:1 I made up figuring two things, first, most of my shooting would be low velocity, second, I was wondering how this alloy would do as a hunting alloy. Well, it shoots good. There seems to be difference as to how the alloy grips the rifling or obturates, or both, as it has so far proven to be more accurate than wheel weight with 1.6% tin added (1 pound of tin to 60 pounds of WW) We are only talking the difference between 1.5" groups and 1" groups, but the difference seems to be present none the less. Some more shooting will tell the tale. What is most noticeable is velocity. With my 44, I found it nearly impossible to break 1400 fps and have a group that was even deserving of the name. Not so at all with the 38-55 barrel. The Lyman 264 is going into 1" regularly (50 yards) with 28 grains of 1680. AA#2 manual shows this load giving 1845 fps. That is a 375 Winchester load, makes 33,000 psi, so be careful if you load it up in a weaker action than the Handi, it will give it a good battering. I added 1 1/4 pounds of shot to the butt stock and with the added weight of the longer barrel my rifle weighs 10 1/4 pounds, there is little doubt you have pulled the trigger on that load.
The Lee 250 makes a nice plinker. I am using 7.2 grains of mil surp #107 (very like Blue Dot) getting a velocity around 900 fps (an educated guess) and it hits my hunter sillywet pig (half size of ISHMA pig) every shot offhand at 50 yards. The load is very gentle to shoot and gives lots of good trigger time.
As is usual with Handi's, there are the inevitable flyers and weird groups. Each load will throw "2 group" groups, though not always and not predictably, and each of these loads will produce remarkably tight groups, I have fired examples of each that gave 5 shot 5/8" groups. I am glad that I had my 357 and 44 barrels prior to this barrel and had 2 years of experience with them shooting cast bullets. What I've seen from my 38-55 barrel is better than the first groups I was getting from either of my other barrels. This might be explained as a result of experience, yet I never got quite as satifactory results from my 45-70 barrel. Where it gave occasionally good groups, the 38-55 gives occasionlly bad groups. and where it took the best part of a year of experimenting to get good cast groups from my 44 and 357, I've gotten good groups from the beginning from the 38-55. And where accuracy rapidly deteriorates above 1400 fps with the other barrels, the 38-55 shoots as well at full velocity as it does at plinking velocities. the only exception to that is the 180 grian bullet from the Lee group buy last year. I was sent a sample of these, and my 357 Max with 24.5 grains of 1680 shoots it 1.5" at 50 yards. This would be over 1850 fps, some good shooting indeed.
Finally, the bullets i am using drop at .379-.380 and are being sized down a few thousandths as I run the loaded case intohte resizing die enough to make them chamber (I do have the 375/379 chamber/barrel diameter mismatch) I have satisfactorly proven that my 357 and 44 both shhot better using bullets that are .359-.360 and .431-.432 respectivly. The common sizing diameter is .358 and .430 for these. Leftoverdj in a thread back int he winter stated that cast bullets int he Handi need to be at least .002" over groove diameter to shoot well, my shooting over the last few months bears this out as well. Now the problem will be waiting for deer season to give the 38-55 it's baptisim of fire and blood.
