Paco Kelly's Leverguns.com

Familyguy

I've had a "utility" AR since I was a teenager. I'm not quite sure why, but I've recently gotten the urge to build a .308 variant. I'm planning to start with an 80% lower and do the final machining myself on my mini-mill and will likely pick up the barrel, bolt, carrier, and upper from JP ...

Familyguy

Interesting, but I think the AR platform is the path of least resistance. If you mean action noise, port blast, gas in the face… then yes. :D If it's quiet enough that I'm concerned about "action noise" I think the goal has been achieved. :) My local range has demo models of various manuf...

Familyguy

But why not put a silencer on a .44 or .45? I agree to the extent that to suppress well, a 308 needs subsonic ammo likue any other round, and a big fat chunk of lead going slow is what a 77/44 or 96/44 already throws. A 308's advantage is that it is a skinny chunk of lead but goes fast for a flat t...

Familyguy

I was talking to a LGS owner not not long ago. He said he couldn't understand why everyone was using suppressed .308 as the go to gun for all this night time hog hunting that seems to be going on. Based on experience shooting hogs and deer with muzzleloaders a .45 or .50 cal will usually drop the a...

Familyguy

The question was asked, "what is meant by hot .45 LC loads". In my case that amounts to 325 gr. LBT bullets loaded to a level that will penetrate 12 inches of seasoned oak from a 5 in. barreled handgun. I haven't run it through a chrono from my 16 in. stainless .45LC. I did get the video ...

Familyguy

Got around to shooting some of my 23gr H4198 + 260gr cast (with gas check) bullets today. It kicks quite a bit compared to the factory ammo. I don't see any evidence of over pressure, the cases extracted easily, and I was doing 3-4" groups with iron sights at about 75 yards. The cases fire form...

Familyguy

I reloaded a bunch of rounds recently and am planning to do some testing of various loads after doing some hunting this weekend. I used a sparing amount of lyman spray on lube when I ran a few boxes of new starline brass through the resizing die (just to make sure they were all uniform). Before proc...

Familyguy

Man...makes ya wanna cry. One of the boxes of Winchester W3855 ammo I bought on gunbroker for $41 has an original Caldors price sticker on it for $3.18. 13X your money in 25 years. Who needs the stock market?

sigh...

Familyguy

Model 52B wrote:It's still minute of deer at 100 yards.

LOL...and that's where the rubber hits the road.

Now to wipe this coffee off my keyboard.....

Familyguy

I haven't followed the whole .22 crisis thing. Why is it in such short supply? Short answer - because everyone knows it's about as close to 'currency' as one can get in a situation where the economy tanks and there is social unrest and political instability. Personally, I think I'd much rather have...

Familyguy

I left my email address @ shootersupplyusa.com a while back when I was looking for H4198. They emailed me to let me know they've now got it in stock this morning. I checked right away and it was in stock. I checked just now (8 hours later) and it's out of stock again. Sigh.... Fortunately, I was abl...

Familyguy

There was CCI .22LR ammo at my local Walmart when I stopped in today. It's in Sterling, VA.

I haven't followed the whole .22 crisis thing. Why is it in such short supply?

Best,

Familyguy

It's not a problem. It just means your bigger than "standard" bullets are hard enough to not be swaged down by the brass. Shoot them and enjoy. I think that's correct. It looks like the gas check ever so slightly extruded the brass as it was pressed into the case. The rounds load and extr...

Familyguy

After a lot more reading, I see that people reloading pistol rounds also have this problem from time to time (particularly on .45 ACP). Folks are attributing it to "thicker brass" when using some of the larger bullets and that the bullets function normally without safety issues. Others are...

Familyguy

Or, do you observe a bulge in the loaded cartridge case where the base of the bullet is? If so, that means that your bullets are not concentric with the cartridge case and this could very well effect the rifle's accuracy. A way to decrease the non-concentricity -- AKA bullet run-out-- is first slig...

Familyguy

Thanks for the notes. I did an initial batch of 10 rounds. They all came out within .001 of 2.500". I went with 23gr of H4198 and they chamber/extract smoothly in my rifle. The factory crimp die really makes them look like store bought ammo. I can see a slight bulge at the base of the bullet. I...

Familyguy

All of my reloading gear has finally arrived (the primers were the last box to show up). I've been doing a LOT of reading, but one thing I'm not clear on. There seems to be a variety of overall length numbers published for my caliber, 38-55. The Lyman manual says 2.510" when it shows all the di...

Familyguy

I just paid a skosh over $30 for 1# containers of H4198. Once shipping and hazmat was included it approached about $38/lb. Yes, I am bitter, but now I've got enough supplies to reload a few thousand rounds if I have to.

Familyguy

Eyeballed a nice (externally anyway) example at a local gun show in stainless and chambered in 454 casull. Probably just enough gun to make the casull pleasant to shoot and probably one hell of a bear/hog gun if it's accurate.

Just curious. I'm normally not a big fan of guns made in Brazil.

Best,

Familyguy

As has already been said...

For my black powder rifle, I use hot soapy water (Dawn, if you must know).

For everything else, Hoppes #9. Haven't felt the need to alter that since it just plain works.

Best,

Familyguy

I'll be using my Winchester '94 Legendary Frontiersman .38-55. Looks like it'll be factory 255gr jacketed loads unless the rest of my reloading kit arrives very soon.

Familyguy

Carolina Cast has 38/55 bullets in stock as does Laser Cast. They have nice big FP's. can buy them in 100 or 500 quantity. I like the original jacketed bullets. Maybe someday I'll see what's up with the whole cast bullet thing, but I don't feel that urge right now and I'm a bit paranoid about leadi...

Familyguy

vancelw wrote:Pictures of your results are expected.....

Will do my best.

My dad is getting on in years so these days I'm afraid we spend a lot more time visiting than hunting.

Best,

Familyguy

I use that exact load out of my .38-55 Chief Crazy Horse and get 1880 fps out of it. That is published data on Hogdon's site and it is not too much for whitetail. It's certainly adequate, but it's not like it blows the deer to smithereens. The CCH rifle is 30 years old, too. http://data.hodgdon.com...

Familyguy

I've stumbled on this load online: http://www.reloadersnest.com/detail.asp?CaliberID=194&BulletWeight=255&LoadID=5349 Barnes 255gr JFP 28gr H4198 CCI #200 velocity: 1788 fps energy: 1806 ft/lb That seems a little hot for my tastes and overkill for white tailed deer at the ranges I'm expectin...

Familyguy

Hunting season is almost upon us. I put bids on lots of boxes of 38-55 NOS ammo on gunbroker.com and am waiting for all the bits of reloading gear I ordered recently to arrive. It's amazing how hard this stuff is to find through traditional channels and how expensive things have gotten. In order of ...

Familyguy

You could shoot cast bullets with smokeless of course, but the .38-55 is also a fine blackpowder round and, in a Marlin in particular, it is very effective. You could have 25# of black powder delivered to your door in 5 days or less. That would free you from powder concerns for at least a little wh...

Familyguy

Just an update... I've ordered a press, the dies, and brass. Primers, the Barnes .377 38/5520 bullets, and EVERY powder that's listed with published loads that are interesting to me appear to be unavailable. So I found someone on gunbroker.com that had a few boxes of NOS Winchester ammo (at a price ...

Familyguy

The barnes .377 bullets are the way to go. They are usually easier to find than other brands because they're more expensive. Thanks for the recommendations. Any reason to prefer the .377 over the .375? (38/5520 vs 38/5510) I'm able to find the latter for about $20 less for a box of 50. At this stag...

Familyguy

Familyguy if you give me an address to post them to I will send you 40 new unfired Winchester cases free of charge, to help you get started reloading. Let me know if you want them. You just can't beat fellowship like that... Best forum in the 'verse. :D Indeed! Got most of my fixin's ordered. For a...

Familyguy

Hobie wrote:I could have bought 10 boxes at the gun show. It is out there. Just have to pay the piper. Me? I've got mine and I reload. Hoarding, a LIFE style.

There appears to be a gun show in Richmond this weekend so I'm hoping to make it down there and get in on some of this hoarding action.

Best,

Familyguy

I sent a polite WTF to Winchester about having significant difficulty finding ammo for a rifle/chambering they still produce. Specifically, I asked about their standard 255gr X3855 ammo. I got this as a reply: This is a seasonal item that is manufactured every 18-24 months. It should be available in...

Familyguy

Hmmm...just turned things upside down looking for my old brass (including a number of boxes of Legendary Frontiersman nickel plated) to no avail. Looks like Starline for me. Are the different brands of dies interchangeable in other manufacturer's presses? For example RCBS dies in Lee press or vice v...

Familyguy

Old Savage wrote:Where in the PRoNJ?

Cliffside Park and Jersey City. Not a whole lot of hunting going on there.

Best,

Familyguy

Thanks to everyone for all the suggestions. It's been a very long while since I needed to buy any ammo (lived for a number of years in the People's Republic of New Jersey so there was a long hunting hiatus) so this is a real wake-up call. The last box of factory Winchester ammo I have still has the ...

Familyguy

Greetings, First time poster here. I've owned a Winchester Legendary Frontiersman model 94 for 30+ years (my dad bought it for me when I was old enough to hunt way back...way back...). :) After last hunting season, I noticed my stash of ammo had gotten down to the last box. As fate would have it, al...

Search found 36 matches

Re: Added another AR to the stable

Re: Ruger 77/357 with Mystic - that would be cool...

Re: Ruger 77/357 with Mystic - that would be cool...

Re: Ruger 77/357 with Mystic - that would be cool...

Re: Opinions on Rossi R92 levergun?

Re: 38-55 ammo scarcity

Reloading question (case lube...wipe off or use solvent?)

Re: 38-55 ammo scarcity

Re: Opinions on Rossi R92 levergun?

Re: gun show

Re: powder

Re: gun show

Re: General reloading questions (cast .38-55)

Re: General reloading questions (cast .38-55)

Re: General reloading questions (cast .38-55)

Re: General reloading questions (cast .38-55)

General reloading questions (cast .38-55)

Re: powder

Opinions on Rossi R92 levergun?

Re: Cleaning solvents jibber jabber!

Re: What rifle are you hunting deer with this fall?

Re: 38-55 ammo scarcity

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38-55 ammo scarcity