38-55 ammo scarcity

[3leggedturtle]

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.

[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 leading. That said, the prices are attractive...about 10% of what the Barnes cost per round. Laser Cast shows only .380 diameter for the 38-55 while the Hodgdon reload manual shows loads for cast bullets @ .376. Is that extra 4 thousandths going to make a difference in terms of safety?

Best,

[vancelw]

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 leading. That said, the prices are attractive. About 10% of what the Barnes cost.

Best,

At the velocities you're going to be shooting, with a gas check you won't have an issue with leading. Nothing some solvent won't fix.
Casting is more fun than reloading by itself. It's something you can do on a rainy day. And when you figure each cast bullet costs pennies compared to dimes and quarters for jacket bullets.....

But enjoy that rifle and post pics and we'll all be happy. I'm not very mobile right now from a broken ankle so I see a lot of casting in my immediate future.

[vancelw]

38-55 Winchester 255 gr. Super-X® Soft Point
BallisticCoefficient:0.354 MuzzleVelocity:1320
Distance TimeElapsed LineofSiteHeight Deflection Velocity Energy
0 0.000 -1.000 0.000 1320.000 985.608
25 0.058 2.011 0.067 1284.006 932.589
50 0.117 3.704 0.268 1249.826 883.600
75 0.178 4.006 0.602 1217.589 838.606
100 0.240 2.844 1.070 1187.370 797.496
125 0.304 0.141 1.668 1159.227 760.139
150 0.369 -4.178 2.392 1133.156 726.333
175 0.436 -10.188 3.240 1109.107 695.830
200 0.505 -17.963 4.206 1086.965 668.324
225 0.574 -27.577 5.286 1066.564 643.472
250 0.645 -39.100 6.474 1047.723 620.939
275 0.717 -52.602 7.766 1030.257 600.409
300 0.791 -68.150 9.158 1013.982 581.589
325 0.865 -85.811 10.648 998.755 564.254
350 0.941 -105.651 12.230 984.423 548.176
375 1.018 -127.732 13.904 970.890 533.208
400 1.096 -152.119 15.666 958.034 519.181
425 1.174 -178.873 17.515 945.794 505.999
450 1.254 -208.058 19.449 934.083 493.545
475 1.335 -239.735 21.466 922.851 481.747
500 1.417 -273.965 23.565 912.053 470.539

Looks like with Winchester factory ammo all you're going to get is a 150 yard 4" MPBR.
You can do better with reloads.

I sent you a PM Familyguy

[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...

[AJMD429]

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...

Although the feds are (seriously) talking about seizing the 401k's of "wealthy individuals who really don't need the money they have in them", that is probably less likely than them seizing the ammo inventory of hobbyists or investors who have "what a reasonable person would consider an 'unusual' amount of ammunition"...

I can elaborate on both topics with references from news stories if you want, but it will have to be in the Political section.

[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 formed nicely and there's no longer any bulge where the base of the cast bullet was.

I might back off a little on the powder (perhaps 22.0-22.5gr), but I like this hobby.

Thanks to everyone who posted.

Best,