What is the overall condition of the rifle? The wood is in pretty decent shape, but there's next to no blueing left on the receiver except for the loading gate and some on the lever. The barrel is still completely blued, the receiver internals all seem to be in good shape since they were all encase...

Well I brought my hand loads home from work and tried the quick cycling method on them and they chambered every time, but not quite as smooth as the factory rounds did last night. Some felt like the extractor hook wasn't over the rim of the case as the round was going in and it had to snap over the ...

I was going to ask if the nose of the bullets that didn't feed were fatter than the ones that did feed, but that's been answered. I'll be the odd man out I guess. I disagree that they have to be operated briskly. Some guns may not work if they aren't, but I don't think that's proper operation. I th...

The meplat on the Barnes 255gn 38-55 is indeed smaller and the bullet ogive is slimmer than the factory rounds I have that seem to chamber well now that I'm cycling the action faster. I will try the faster lever action tonight on the hand loads I made to see if this improves the intermittent feeding...

Griff, thanks for the cartridge and chamber spec diagrams. The cartridge diagram looks to be pre-SAAMI era, since it states the case length to be 2.1295" and the current SAAMI length for 38-55 cases is 2.085". They state the Max OAL to be 2.550", but I wish they would have gave the mi...

The round gets stuck with the tip of the bullet inside the chamber opening and it appears like the tip may be touching the cylinder wall at the top, mean while at the other end of round the rim is under the guide rails just behind the guide slots. The carrier does snap up with authority as you say w...

The brass I'm using is new Starline 38-55 brass that they state has a length of 2.080" (stated range from Starline: 2.076 - 2.082). I haven't actually measure them myself, but will do so when I get home. The Lyman 49th edition manual (page 281) states the 38-55 OAL for the Barnes 255gn bullet I...

I never removed the guide rails, but I try to see if they were loose at all, but they appear to be quite tight. The case rims do fit through the guide slots, but it looks like the round gets hung up before they reach the guide slots. The nose of the round is in the chamber opening and the rim appear...

I have a 1923 Winchester 94 in 38-55 that is having intermittent ammo feeding issues with both Factory and hand loads. The ammo feeds just fine thru the loading gate into the magazine tube and when I open the lever the round feeds onto the lifter OK and as I start to close the lever the round begins...