38-55 range report

[pwl44m]

Finally got some rounds loaded up. Loaded up 20 rounds of the 265 gr fngc from Beartooth-9gr Unique,supposed to be close to 1100 fps.Bullets were cast at 380 which after all is not big enough as evidenced by the target.
Responses to Joes post about being unhappy and stuck in Lodi again got Me to thinkin. While I have lots to do "ie" Kitchen torn apart
,floors to finish, Cabinets to hang, Paint. It all weighs on a Person. So I decided Phooey on all that and loaded up My stuff and went to the Range which is about 20 miles away. Well almost all My stuff, forgot My Binoculars, Spotting scope and ear plugs. The first 2 would have helped immensely.
OK start shootin, set target up at 50 yrds. Loaded 5 rds in the Marlin 93 and fired away,having no idea where they were hiting I just fired all 5.They must have hit somewhere so I loaded another 5 and fired those. I borrowed Binos from the Guy next to Me (only other Person there)couldn't tell anything so used His Spotting scope. It looked like I was all over the target. I fired the other 10 rnds randomly, hit a freon bottle at 100 yrds Hmm.
Ok so finish all My rnds and a cease fire is called. Go out and look at the target and was a little surprised. All the rnds that showed up were in a reasonable proximity to each other. Had I known I could have adjusted the sights a little and maybe got it down a bit. You will notice the 3 keyholes in the target (bullets too small ?) The ones that made round holes were pretty close.
Out of every 5 rnds I got a FTF, wait a second , cock the hammer and it fires fine. On the last one I ejected the rnd to examine the Primer, looked like a good hit,loaded it back in and it fired. Need some input on this one. I'm thinkin 2 possibles-old primers, hard primers. They are Winchester large rifle. I remember reading on someones post about light strikes and Someone suggested hard Primers might be the Culprit.
To try and remedy the tumbling bullets I ordered some cast lead bullets cast at 383 supposedly for old worn out Bores.I will try those and see what happens.
The one loaded round in the pic is just a dummy round with the first bullets to see how they cycled (perfect) The loan bullet and the bag is the new ones I got. They are tumble lubed only (what is Your take on that ?)
Any and all suggestions and recommendations are cordially invited. Thx for Your time
Perry

[Borregos]

Good to get time at the range

Have you slugged the bore?

I have found that Federal primers work best for me when I have lightened hammer springs, Winchester primers are harder I have found.

[pwl44m]

I have slugged the bore. The 380s just made a scratch in the slug. The 383s while making a heavier groove still did not make contact with the bore. I hope the bore is not beyond shooting half way decent. I will know more when I load some of the 383s. I need to get some more Primers too.
Perry

[geobru]

You really need to start with a bullet that is slightly larger than your bore, then slug it with that to get a precise measure of teh bore diameter. I'm assuming that you don't have a sizer that is larger than the 383, so put it in a vice and pinch it slightly, from front to rear, until the diameter is larger than the bore. Then slug the bore with it. (Works best with softer alloy!)

If the 383's are undersized, you will continue to have problems with inconsistent performance, which will show up when you run the loads through a chrony.

[CalvinMD]

Like was mentioned...Beartooths are fairly hard and your load might need to be kicked up a notch to obturate the bullet to slug up in your bore

[KirkD]

I am wondering if the extra heavy bullets are being properly stabilized. The 38-55 was designed for a 255 grain bullet. If your bore is oversized, I would use a soft cast bullet and a bullet of around 255 grains.

[pwl44m]

OK, did as geobru suggested, put a bullet in the vise and put the squeeze on it. Fattened up real good, drove it through and man was it tite. Miced it at 389. I will go ahead and try some of the 383s I have and without the gas check that the others have maybe I will have a little better chance at expansion if the bullets are not too hard.
Calvin, this is a BP barrel and I can't kick it up too much.
Kirk, the new 383 bullets are 252 grn and vary a little. If these work reasonable I am going to order some more as He has several from a special order He made and no longer has the Rifle.
If I can just keep them from tumbling I will be happy and think I can bring them down a bit. Just have to remember My spotting scope.
Got some more Primers from My Brother, 3 boxes of CCI and 1 1/2 boxes of RWS. Anybody know how hard these are ? I have to travel 35 miles to find any more.
Another question, Using Unique I have a lot of room left in the case. This gave Me a little concern after reading about detonation and blown up Guns. But Someone stated on another thread that Unique is not position sensitive, am I OK.
Thats all for now.
Perry

[w30wcf]

Perry,
Wow! .389"! I would suggest going to a slower powder and using psb (polyethylene shot buffer) to work as a gas check.
I found that works amazingly well in my 44-40 which has a .433" groove when shooting .427" bullets.

Otherwise, my target looks just like yours with keholing bullets.

w30wcf