Mojave Lever Crew - Roll Call!

[golfish]

All your Rossi's are gone? Other than your Win '92, what levers you got? I kinda forget. That elderly crap memory thing.

MLC

I have the 20" CCH Oct barrel .357. It's my favorite Rossi but the Mag tube is stuck, it's not coming out, at least for me. I've tried to get it loose with no luck.

Then there's the reg old 20" round barrel, blued, .357. You've shot it before. I had some 180gr RNFP coated bullets with 11+ grains of 2400. You pointed out how well that load was shooting and the rest is history this is the one with the canted barrel. It's one of those things that you never see unless its pointed out....then it's like "oh yeah" ....its pretty bad but its shoots great.

[Killer Bee]

Mrs. Bee got her grade 5 skeet today and the kids asked about their Henry's so they came out for some pictures..



my son wanted to try a few fancy poses so.....

[golfish]

I can see a squabble coming.... who's going to get the one with the nicer wood?

[Killer Bee]

^ LoL we're already there.. my son's was hand tended by Anthony when I ordered it couple years ahead of daughter's..

they compete about everything so they were down to which one was shinier

they're individually serialed to each of them by initials and birthdate so they'll have to nitpick something else

[Horsewright]

Thats just cool!

[pennstater]

Thats just cool!

Certainly agree with Horsewright. Pretty damn awesome KB.

MLC

[Killer Bee]

thank you folks! I know how excited I get when I find that special model or year.. it's nice to share that feeling with my family

so I've been hankerin to buy an electric clay thrower on the farm for a couple of years now but always gets sidelined for other activities..

well guess what the first thing out of my lovely wife's mouth while she's fondling her new fancy shotgun - "we really should look into a clay thrower on the farm"

[pennstater]

thank you folks! I know how excited I get when I find that special model or year.. it's nice to share that feeling with my family

so I've been hankerin to buy an electric clay thrower on the farm for a couple of years now but always gets sidelined for other activities..

well guess what the first thing out of my lovely wife's mouth while she's fondling her new fancy shotgun - "we really should look into a clay thrower on the farm"

And there you have it! Perfect scenario.

MLC

[200Apples]

Outstanding, all around.

Really like this pic:

[Killer Bee]

Outstanding, all around.

Really like this pic:

thank you! my son was the director and I was the prop man and photographer.. small blocks of pencil eraser and strips of heavy stock paper keeps them from touching and holds them stable

[200Apples]

.38-55 Winchester 1894, 24" Octagonal barrel and made pre-1920 - No Pics

I just had lunch with a good friend of mine who broke out a Winchester he first showed me over 5 years ago. At the time I was not very familiar with it's .38-55 chambering... however, today when I handled this neat old piece with it's crescent butt plate stock, octagonal barrel, and buttery-smooth (for an old Win '94) action, I felt the spark. I'd like to get some rounds loaded for this gun at some point in the near future.

Starline brass has posted on their website an interesting piece written by M.L. McPherson in 2015 that details the chamber issues of fitting correctly-sized bullets to these guns' bores.

I take it that a few MLC members like Spyder, Randall R or bigbossman might have some experience handloading the .38-55 and I would like to know if these fellers have used this contemporary Starline brass.

McPherson mentions the headstamp including the case length 2.125, yet for sale (backordered) on the Starline website is .38-55 cases of 2.080". Can anyone shed some light on the shorter case where a longer specification was written about by McPherson?

It's too late in the day to contact Starline for any immediate answer.

[golfish]

Starline brass has posted on their website an interesting piece written by M.L. McPherson in 2015 that details the chamber issues of fitting correctly-sized bullets to these guns' bores.

Looks like a good read.

[bigbossman]

It's late, and I have a match first thing in the morning. I'll get back to you with more detailed thoughts on 38-55. Short answer is do not buy the long brass from Starline, and you'll need the slug the barrel to select the right bullet. I use the shorter Starline brass exclusively in my circa 1901 Winchester 1894 rifle, and it is quality stuff.

[Kerplow]

It's late, and I have a match first thing in the morning. I'll get back to you with more detailed thoughts on 38-55. Short answer is do not buy the long brass from Starline, and you'll need the slug the barrel to select the right bullet. I use the shorter Starline brass exclusively in my circa 1901 Winchester 1894 rifle, and it is quality stuff.

[bigbossman]

OK, so here's my take on the Starline 38-55 brass, and my experience with shooting it in my circa 1901 Winchester 94 rifle.

When I set about loading for my rifle, the very 1st thing I did was slug the bore. This is a very necessary step, as vintage bores have a pretty wide spread. Mine happened to slug at .379, so I bought some Hunter's Supply bullets sized to .380 and started up. I had a mix of brass that was given to me by a fellow shooter - WW and Starline brass in both lengths. The immediate problem I had was that, with my chosen bullet, rounds using WW and the long brass would not fully chamber. Rounds made with the same bullet and the Starline shorter brass worked fine. (as an aside, the Hunter's Supply bullets leaded up the bore something fierce, so I ended up gas checking all of them to solve that problem. I have since switched to Oregon Trails).

Turns out, the Starline shorter brass worked extremely well and the gun shoots beautifully with it. I used it in a Miroku Winchester 94 with excellent results, and also in a Legendary Frontiersman. In addition, I have two shooting buddies that both have vintage 38-55's - one a Winchester and the other a Marlin. Both guns favor the shorter brass.

Further, the Winchester's and the Marlin mentioned above are very picky about bullet profile/ogive. My friend advises that when he switched to a Bear Creek bullet, he could again use the WW brass that he had squirreled away. Prior to that switch he had the same issue as me, and could only use the Starline shorter brass. So, maybe the longer brass will now work for me, I don't know for certain and will not, as I got rid of it all when I bought a big bag of the shorter brass. Since it works so well, I see no reason for further experimentation.

I've read the Starline page several times on the reason for different sizes, but in my admittedly anecdotal experience I don't see the need for it. If anyone here is using the longer brass in their 94's, I'd love to hear about it.