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PRESS REVIEW
CARTRIDGE DETAILS
a William Malcolm 3x that was period
correct for this rifle.
The Malcolm chosen was a 0.75
of an inch tube, 17-inchlong model that
is externally adjustable for windage and
elevation.
P e r f o r m a n c e
Lyman Ideal Model .38-55 Win
Load
Velocity
Accuracy
Winchester 255
1,650
2.53
Handloads
Nosler Partition 260/20 IMR 4227
1,632
3.36
Lyman 375449 264/23 A5744
1,638
1.28
Lyman 375248 249/20 IMR 4198
1,435
2.58
Lyman 378674 330/18 IMR 4198
1,232
6.70
RCBS 378-312 312/18 IMR 4198
1296
5.50
Bullet weight and load measured in grains, velocity in feet per second (fps) by Oehler 35P chronograph, and accuracy in
inches for 3-shot groups from 100 yards.
The .38-55 Win cartridge was
introduced in 1876, and is named for
its approximate .38 caliber bullet and
55-grain load of black powder.
The .38- 55 was invented by
Ballard, which was purchased by Marlin
Firearms the previous year.
The .38-55 was chambered in
various single-shot target rifles and in
Marlin’s 1893 lever action, seeing later
use by Winchester for its Model 1894
lever-action rifle.
The .38-55 case was also necked
down to .30 caliber, loaded with smokeless
powder and christened the .30-30 Win.
Winchester continued chambering various
rifles in .38-55 until about 1940, and used
it in a few commemorative rifle editions
since then.
Also, Marlin used this caliber in
RANGE TIME
some 336 models. Amodernized version of
the cartridge debuted in 1978 as the .375
Win, designed with higher pressures and
for use in modern firearms only. It is not
safe to fire factory .375 Win ammunition
in rifles chambered for .38-55, especially
in older versions of the .38-55.
The brass is very similar, or identical
in some cases, but using modern, higher-
pressure .375 loads in an older rifle could
cause serious injury to the shooter.
The .38-55 is renowned for its
exceptional accuracy at ranges up to 330
yards, and is often used to hunt black bear
and deer at moderate ranges. The caliber
shows up in Cowboy Action Shooting side
matches, too.
I took special care for the break - in
period of this rifle. To smooth the bore, I
fired jacketed .375 250-grain Noslers for
the first 50 shots. Between every two shots,
I cleaned the bore. The next 50 shots were
cast Lyman 264-grain gas-checked bullets.
With all of my cast bullets, I weigh
them before sizing and lubricating to
segregate by weight. With bullets over 150
grains, I try to put them into groups that
fall within 1-grain. The bullets that fall
too far outside of the average groups are
considered culls.
I sized and gas-checked the culls
and used them for seasoning the bore. The
break-in exercise not only helps accuracy,
it makes cleaning easier and improves
barrel life.
Overall case length for .38-55 is
2.08 inches. I used 100 virgin .30-30
Win brass to form usable .38-55 cases, but
their total length was 1.960. In addition, I
necked up another 20 Remington .30-30
cases. I annealed theWinchester case necks
to make themmore flexible for reforming,
but left the once-fired Remington brass
to see how they would compare with the
annealed cases.
Going from .30 caliber to .38
caliber in one pass was asking for a lot of
ruined cases, so I opted to neck up to an
intermediate size.
I have a set of dies to form .357
Herrett from .30-30 cases, so I used the
expander plug to neck up the cases. An
expander die for a 9mm or .357 would
work as well.
The next step was to expand up
to .38 caliber and resize with the .38-