Vintage 38-40 ammo questions

[lever addict]

Ok I hate to ask but... I need one 38-40 case in Starline and one in Winchester. I need one of any 38-40 bullet anyone may have in varied sizes up to .411 and one .401 just to check for chambering and feed.

I'm not looking for a freebe I will pay for your loss including shipping! No rush. HELP!

[jwt]

I'm sizing at .402 in my 117-yr old 1892 Winchester. Shoots like a charm out to 75 yards with Unique. I never use blackpowder this antique.

[Sweetwater]

Shoot me your address and I will send some of what "I can find" - LOL - no charges, happy to help out. Enough of you guys have shared with me!! I have RCBS Cowboy dies I could put in the package "on loan" - no extra charge! LOL! What do you have for a press so I could maybe send the correct shell holder?

Jeff
NRA Life

[lever addict]

Sweetwater PM on the way.

[V65Magna]

LEVER ADDICT, I can send you a couple of new WW and Starline 38-40 cases and I can send R-P fired cases.If it is legal to send loaded rounds I can send a couple of R-P jacketed soft points also. These R-P loads are what I used to take a nice deer a few years ago from an 1892 Winchester rifle.

If you need just send me your address. Glad to help if I can.

V65Magna

[lever addict]

V65Magna....PM sent!

[lever addict]

Well today I hand pressed (no dies yet) a .410 bullet in the 38-40 and it will not chamber. The barrel slugs at .409. For the hell of it I fired a .401 bullet over 6 gr of unique into the ground. The bullet made a softball size hole in the grass at 8 feet and the bullet ony went about 4" in! Well no wonder...as I figured no rifling on the lead. Well maybe a faint line of two! No real pressure could build up in the barrel and it sounded funny. WELL I knew that was going to happen, but I just had to fire the dam thing! I still got a big sh%& eaten grin on my face!
I also had another reason for shooting it. I measured the case neck diameter. The OD was .420 so I guess thats what the chamber is. The ID was .403.

It looks like I have to ream the chamber on this ol girl if i'm going to enjoy it!

Or do I try pure lead bullets and black powder. After all it is a BP rifle. I want the best accuracy though. Hmmm what to do? What to do?

[Sweetwater]

Your other alternative is to have the barrel lined. My '73 had the rifling drilled out of it by a great-uncle. I had it lined back to the original 38WCF (38-40) and it shoots like a dream. I think being brought back to the original spec is better than reaming the chamber. JMHO

Jeff
NRA Life

[30wcf]

Lou,
If your oversized barrel is still in fairly good shape, black powder and soft lead bullets will work aok. Just this evening, I tested some original W.R.A. CO. .44 W.C.F. black powder cartridges in my 1873 Winchester that was made in 1882.

I pulled the bullets, removed the powder and mercuric primers, then annealed the brass. I replaced the primers with Remington 1 1/2's (cases had small primer pockets ), reloaded the powder, compressed it and then reseated the bullets after replacing the dried up lube with NASA b.p. lube.


The purpose of the test was to "step back in time" to see what kind of accuracy the original owner experienced with this vintage Winchester and its oversized barrel that measures .436" at the rear and .4335" at the muzzle.

The pure lead bullets (5 BHN) measured .424" and thus were .012" undersized (!).

I put up a target at 25 yards and fired 5 rounds. 4 bullets impacted into a nice 1 1/8" group with 3 cutting a nice cloverleaf. Yes, black powder and soft lead bullets do work in oversized barrels.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

OR you could use PSB with smokeless.
Same rifle, .428" bullets (.008" undersized)



w30wcf
w44wcf (black powder)

[lever addict]

30wcf thats great news! Unfortunatly for me I don't think I can find any 5 BHN bullets for sale on line. If you know of any let me know.
Yes the barrel and rifling are in beautiful shape!
I am going to experiment with some 8-9 BHN bullets sized at .403. This will get me to .006 under bore. I would like to try some Unique and PSB. Could you recomend a powder and PSB weight measurement? What PSB do you use? Maybe I need to use a powder that fills the case more with use of the PSB? If this gets me decent accuracy then all is good! If not I may ream the chamber!

Sweetwater I prefer to not relign the barrel although I know my problems would be solved. I want the rifle to remain original.