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Author Topic: Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets  (Read 742 times)

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Offline ben.

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« on: June 27, 2005, 12:14:48 PM »
Didn't take long to realize chamber to small. Used a suggestion from this forum to correct. Seated a cast bullet 5/16 deeper than the neck. Didn't fill the case with lead, which may be better. Ground the rim off and drilled the flash hole out to except a screw. Used 240 grit on nose of case. Turned it in the chamber with a screwdriver and drill. Kept expanding the 5/16 inch and replacing the grit till case chambered all the way in the chamber. Took an hour or more. I've shot .377, .378 and 379 bullets since. .379 most accurate. Bullet is a Lee 250 gr.  Going to try a .380 when ever I get one honed out. On a fired 38/55 case neck measures .396. A blown out 30/30 the neck measures .398. A 375 case fired in a 375 measures .401. Result from expanding chamber is no more sticking cases, no more bulge and a round chambers easily. By the way the last .379 load fired a 3/4 inch 3 shot group at a 100 yds. Next time I go to the range I'll find out if that was just luck. ben1025
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Offline quickdtoo

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2005, 12:19:57 PM »
Great shootin, Ben!!!  Wouldn't it be nice if H&R would just build th 38-55 Target right to begin with!!! :roll: They've been told exactly what's wrong with the chamber/bore, I just don't understand why they'd rather buy back a rifle than fix em right before they even sold em!!! Right JPH45!!!

Tim
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Offline JPH45

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2005, 03:37:37 PM »
Yeah Tim, it would be nice, so would a 44 Mag that had a 429 broove diameter, and a 357 Mag that was really a 357, and a 30 cal that was 308, not 310. I don't mind a 379/380 38-55, just wish the chamber wasn't undersize for the barrel dimensions. I simply quit sizing the brass, only run it into the expanding die, seat a bullet then run it into the sizing die sans decapping stem just enough to let it chamber, 1-3/4 turns into the press seems ideal. The rifle shoots good, as does the barrel, but why oh why can't NEF make something that is in spec. Since Winchester and Marlin lever rifles share this same flaw perhaps I shouldn't hit so hard on NEF, but it would be nice to see them take the lead in solving this problem...would go far to raising their standing in the firearms community.
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Offline Leftoverdj

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2005, 05:53:40 PM »
The boys on one of the Marlin boards told me that the Marlin .38-55 has the same problem, BUT if you send it back to Marlin and explain that you are using cast bullets, they will ream the neck at no charge. Makes you wonder why another part of the same company doesn't do that.
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Offline missed_shot

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #4 on: June 28, 2005, 01:00:57 PM »
WOW Ben . That's great. I also have the lee 250 grain mold. What powder and charge did you use ??--  Also does anyone have any pictures to show what Ben has done to widen his chamber. I've seen the instructions on how to work on  the trigger pull. Something like that would be wonderful for us who need pictures on how to do something . :D
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Offline ben.

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #5 on: June 29, 2005, 01:30:08 AM »
missed_shot: I used Unique powder with a 1 grain dacron filler. Since working on the chamber only fired one time. Fired .377, .378 and .379 sized bullets. bhn 13 for hardness.  Accuracy on one firing was .379 best followed by .377 with .378 last. This was also true for pre chamber work firing. Did fire 1 inch 3 shot group with .377. Puzzled why .378 not doing as well. I fired the 38/55 only 4 times. One time since the chamber work. I have been firing cast bullets almost exclusively since 1971. From 22 hornet to 458 win. I'm 74 years of age. I'm an experience cast bullet shooter. Will be doing more experimenting with this gun, except for seating depth. Unless I buy more moulds. I'm seating now to the crimping grove which leaves the bullet touching the lands. Saw my first nef at the shooting range 3 years ago. Now I have maybe a dozen of them. The amount of unique I'm using is more then the lyman book calls for. I haven't chrono these loads yet. My handle on shooters was ben. ben with a period. It's the same here. When it shut down and we went to aimoo it was changed to ben1025. It was changed to gunloads or something and it's still ben1025 over there. Anyway I'm either ben. or ben1025 I had 900 post on the shooters cast bullet forum. Since it shut down haven't posted much. ben.
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Offline missed_shot

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Target 38/55 With Cast Bullets
« Reply #6 on: June 29, 2005, 12:07:36 PM »
Good job BEN. keep up the good work. You are the master when it comes to casting . Your age proves that casting lead is not harmful. Good talking to you. MS
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