Hello:
I've got a new (just in time) Winchester Legacy .38-55. The barrel slugs to .3794" which is just about exactly what Winchester says it's supposed to be. Naturally, the first bullets I loaded for it were .380s. No way they will chamber. I double-checked to make sure my OAL was good as well as my crimp not causing a bulge. It just is not going to take the .380s. I haven't run into this problem with other rifles that I relaod for. The question I have is whether for accuracy's sake, its worth having the chamber reamed so I can accomodate bullets that are over bore size.

One more thing. With 60 year old eyes and the Marble peep site that came on the gun, what kind of accuracy at 50 or 100 yards are other folks getting with the.38-55?

Pete

Try reducing your cartridge overall length (COAL). I have a similar problem with Lee 310 grain bullets in my .444 Wionchester. Reducing the COAL allows me to use this bullet. My Winchester lever rifles have no actual throat just a sharp angle from the chamber to the rifling. This meest the SAAMI chamber drawing.

My father whos eyes are a "bit" older than your shoots very well at 100 yards with reviever sights. The trick is to first paint your bead a flat color (they make sprays for this) then use a large target. A target that is not obscured by the bead is needed. 8" is not too large at 100 yards. Bring the bead up to the target from below. When you center the bead on the black bull you will easily see a good ring of target above the bead.

If you prefer a six oclock hold use construction paper and cut your squares large enough to be as wide as you bead. Then bring your black bead up to the square.

For iron sight shooting there is no better method of setting your sights than negative trajectory. Crossman and Whelen wrote quite a bit about this as did A. W. Kabernagel in the 1956 Gun Digest.
Crossman wrote about it in the Book of the Springfield and Whelen in the Hunting Rifle

Edit] Lost my mind and forgot to list bead sizes and target coverage at 100 yards
.
1/16" 7.5"
3/32" 11.25"
1/8" 15"
3/16" 22.5"

Francis Sell wrote that you needed a small bead to shoot small groups unles you had eye problems. I shoot better with a larger bead but I must use bigger targets to do so.

Pete,
I have a Marlin 38-55 with a .3795-.380 groove diameter and I did enlarge my chamber so I can shoot .380 and .381's out of it. It definitely shoots the larger cast bullets better than the .378's that I could fit in before I enlarged the chamber. To me it was worth it. I shoot the gun a lot in lever action silhouette matches and informal target shooting. I have the Marbles peep and I can shoot about 3" groups at 100 yards and 1.5" at 50 with it. I can do 1 3/4" - 2" at 100 with a scope on the same gun with the same load. I did replace the bead with a Lyman 17 globe front which is better for targets but not so good for hunting in my opinion. I think some people outside turn the brass a little to help chamber the big cast bullets, but I decided not to go that route.

Might be worth it to have the chamber attended to, that's at least the one option that makes reloading less of a pain. My Winchester wouldn't allow .380" bullets and factory brass....would allow (barely) .379" bullets and blown out 30-30 cases (the necks come out a tad thinner).

Not sure that you couldn't lap ut .001" with a bit of effort and runing some fired cases in the process....I haven't tried it, but would be temepted.

I lapped the bottom two base bands on that mold to .380" and left the rest of it alone...know it wasn't a 100% clean release but it did allow chambering and the rifle shot that bullet very well.

Thank you for your replies. I picked-up a tip on the Levergun forum that I wanted to pass on to you folks. It was suggested that I remove the decapper from the sizing die and then take the finished round and swage it down. I put some Imperial around the crimp, bumped them a couple of times in the sizing die and now the .380s drop right in. This poor man's neckturner reduced the diameter .0015" which apparently was just enough for the .380s to work.

Pete

Thank you for your replies. I picked-up a tip on the Levergun forum that I wanted to pass on to you folks. It was suggested that I remove the decapper from the sizing die and then take the finished round and swage it down. I put some Imperial around the crimp, bumped them a couple of times in the sizing die and now the .380s drop right in. This poor man's neckturner reduced the diameter .0015" which apparently was just enough for the .380s to work.

Pete

Now pull the bullet from onw of the swaged down rounds and measure it...may be fine, may be going to the trouble of starting with full diametere bullets for no good reason.

Now pull the bullet from onw of the swaged down rounds and measure it...may be fine, may be going to the trouble of starting with full diametere bullets for no good reason.

Hello:

I did just that and compared the pulled bullet to one never loaded. The one that was swaged on the band beneath the crimp groove and on top of the top lube groove lost .001". All other points I measured remained the same as the new one.

What do you think?

Pete

Sounds OK...cases do need a little bit of "slack" to release the bullet at ignition.