charge was reduced to 48 grains, which remained the standard for many years. (Incidentally, with the coming of smokeless propellants, the 38-55 case was trimmed from 2.1295 inches to 2.039 inches, then necked down to 30 calibre and emerged as the 30 WCF, more commonly known as the 30-30, but I digress). Over the years, the chamber dimensions seem to have shrunk, to the extent that up to fairly recently, available brass has measured 2.082 - 2.1 inches. (See photo on page 96).
Due to demand, from the American shooters wanting a true reproduction, Starline have recently introduced a ‘long’ case. Their standard case is 2.08 inches, whilst the long one is 2.125 inches. Diameter on both cases is the same and both cases are .002 inches thinner at the case-mouth than the current Winchester case. The thinner case-mouth enables the shooter to use larger diameter bullets for better accuracy. In order not to cause confusion, they have marked the bases differently, the old ‘short’ case retains the original stamp but the ‘long’ case is marked 2.125.
Both reproduction rifles we are concerned with have been made to original chamber
specifications and so are able to use either size case. The shorter cases obviously leave a little extra space in front of the case mouth, this may or not be a detriment, I don’t know for sure as, thus far, I have only used the shorter cases but I intend to try the longer Starline brass at the first opportunity.
Next, the bullet. (Above). Single-shot rifles are able to use long, pointed-nose bullets and so two excellent moulds spring to mind. The Lyman 378674 335gn Postell shaped bullet, specifically designed for long range silhouette shooting and the Paul Jones 38001, a similar shape but with a longer nose and weighing 365gn, both these are highly recommended. I cast with a 20:1 mixture of lead to tin, but excellent results have been achieved with a 30:1 mix. When it comes to sizing your bullet, it pays to slug the bore of your rifle and then choose a sizing die .001 inches or .002 inches larger. My Uberti barrel actually measures .377 inches across the lands and .383 inches groove diameter but although I size my bullets to .379 inches I have still had very reasonable results. I will purchase a .38in sizing die when one becomes available. For what it is worth, I believe that the Pedersoli barrels are measuring
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QUIGLEY SHOOTING ASSOCIATION NEWS
around .375 - .379 inches but I can’t confirm that yet.
Next, let’s look at the fuel. I like Swiss powders but there are many other shooters using other makes and
swear by them, so it comes down to what you are happy with. I have found the following data safe with my equipment but as I have no control over others, the usual precautions must be taken to ensure the data is safe with your equipment. The most accurate results so far have been obtained with 40.6 grains of Swiss No3 (ffg) compressed .36 inches with a home- made powder compressing die, a .060 inch vegetable fibre wad (Walter’s, Midway UK) and a Lyman Postell weighing 336gn sized to .379 inches and lubed with White Label BPCR lube. I use fire-formed cases, I do not resize them, I thumb seat the bullets up to the third grease groove, leaving one groove exposed, I then run them into the full-length resizing die, with the de-capper removed, until resistance is felt. This gives a slight taper-crimp which allows the bullet to be rotated but not fall out when inverted.
For shooting up to 600 yards I have found that simply increasing the powder charge to 44grains of Swiss No3 gives an accurate load which manages to ‘buck the wind’ quite well, although when tested at 100 yards the group increased slightly over the 40gn charge - this could easily have been ‘pilot error’. A colleague in the USA has had good results with a charge of 50gn Swiss No3 so I may well make some up to try and let you have the results in a later offering.
Khall6548@aol.com
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