Thread merged

Hi,
I bought a Marlin Cowboy .38-55 last year and was a litttle suprised at the cost of cartridges (Buffalo Bore are $47 per box, the Winchester are cheaper but anemic).

I wanted to get into reloading anyway so this gives me an excuse.

I've been doing some reseach and it seems that the Lee Precision Anniversary kit is the way to go given my budget. I don't like the Lee dies because it only opens up the end to accept a .375 calliber bullet (they are the same dies as the .375 - cost saving measure by Lee Precision) and I want to use .377 or .379 which are closer to the bore of the .38-55 (am I wrong here?).

Anyway, question is: Will the Lee press accept Lyman dies which are made specifically for the .38-55?

Thanks in advance

Dave

Yes, the Lee press will acept other brands of dies....and I've been happy with the Lyman 38-55 dies. Do fine the Lee won't allow seating a .380" bullet (at least in my set) but will allow seating something between .378 and .379"...some of that depends on the thickness of the cases being used (with older cases being thinner).

Lee has been pretty responsive...can ask if what you want is possible, and they'll respond pretty quickly in my experience. After all, their new .38-55 bullet mold is designed to toss them a bit large, so they have to be aware of the dimentional needs.

So even with the Lee press and Lyman dies I won't be able to use .377 bullets? Will .379 bullets work? I am still confused about the diameter of the Marlin 38-55. Can you shed some light on that. I just bought mine last year and heard that they had some problems with the earlier released ones in 1999.

For the money, I definately think the Lee Anniversary kit is the way to go. I can't afford many boxes of the Buffalo Bore for the 38-55 :)

So even with the Lee press and Lyman dies I won't be able to use .377 bullets? Will .379 bullets work? I am still confused about the diameter of the Marlin 38-55. Can you shed some light on that. I just bought mine last year and heard that they had some problems with the earlier released ones in 1999.

For the money, I definately think the Lee Anniversary kit is the way to go. I can't afford many boxes of the Buffalo Bore for the 38-55 :)

No bad comments on the Lee anniverary kit...it will load ammo as good as the operator.

Let me be clear...the Lee dies I tried would not let me load .380" bullets...would barely let me load .379" bullets (still some case neck rubbing). The Lyman dies allow me to load .380" bullets without interfearance. We're only talking .001" of variations, so the next sets of dies may not give the same results.

The 38-55 was always made with a bore of .378-.380" (with a few outside those lines), so the current productions ones are acltually more like the originals. The "why" of it is hard to pin down...was just how they did things back in the BP days, or so it seems. Older .45-70's will often go as large as .460"...50-70's as large as .517" (and some of the old copnversions from percussion will go as large as .520"). With BP and soft lead bullets, it didn't matter as much.

Can use the search option on this site to hunt up previous discussions on the 38-55 and the Modern Marlin... but I do think with lead bullets and careful relaoding, you'll find a load that works for you.

Hi Dave...I bought the same gun about a year and a half ago and got a set of RCBS Cowboy series dies for it. These die sets come with two expanders. One marked .376 which mikes closer to .374" and one marked .379 which mikes .377". So far they have given me good performance. I have shot hornady 220gr. FN which are .375 dia. Barns bullets which are .377 dia. and cast bullets ranging from .377 - .380". I have found myself using the large expander for all these bullets.
With the smaller dia. bullets I expand about one dia. deep which allows me to insert the bullet into the case by hand and seems to give me better concentricity of tip to case in the finished product. I have never liked balancing a tip on a flared case and allowing the press to shove it home. I have noticed on a lot of my straight walled cartridges an uneven case bulge after crimping and this problem seems to go away using the oversized expander. Although I suspect that the evenness of the crimp becomes more important when doing this as you lose some case tension on the tip.
I have slugged the barrel on my gun and it mikes .3805" across the groves. My buddy has the same gun as us and his slugs the same as mine. Amazingly mine does not shoot the .375 dia jacketed bullets too bad. Cast bullets seem to be another story, it definatly likes cast bullets in the .380 range. Although all the smaller dia. cast bullets I have tried have not had a gas check where as the .380 dia. one did.
I have never had a set of Lyman dies so I cannot tell you anthing one way or the other about them.
Hope some of this helps.
JohnSo even with the Lee press and Lyman dies I won't be able to use .377 bullets? Will .379 bullets work? I am still confused about the diameter of the Marlin 38-55. Can you shed some light on that. I just bought mine last year and heard that they had some problems with the earlier released ones in 1999.

For the money, I definately think the Lee Anniversary kit is the way to go. I can't afford many boxes of the Buffalo Bore for the 38-55 :)

Steelersfan, the Lee dies work fine, the sizer is a .375 win but the seater is a 38-55. Trick is start out with the sizer at least .100 from the shell holder with the ram all the way up. This will get you in the ballpark for size. Then when you seat a bullet, and you have a bump in the case where the bullet is back off the sizer a little more until it is gone. I use .379 cast (I have used .377 and accuracy was good with cast or jacketed) and .378 jacketed. My bore slugs .3785 which according to Marlin is supposed to be .379. Just lucky I guess. The cast bullets if you can't get in the larger diameter, don't despair switch to a softer alloy and it will obturate easier. The 38-55 lends itself to Unique very well, which make the harder alloys obturate fast. (Fast powder, goes bang quicker in turn giving the bullet a swifter kick in the butt end and making it swell at the breech end where it should do this a strange phenom but if it works) I have used .375 with RX7 but it took more powder than I would care to state to make them quit tumbling Take care and have fun. Swany

Expanding the .38-55 to take the .379 bullets will generally leave an off center expansion. Especially in the expanding dies with a larger than case size internal dimension. I have the RCBS Cowboy Dies and a set of the Lee dies. The RCBS expander die is greatly over size inside. The Lee die is very close to sized case dimensions. If you have access to a lathe, make a new expander plug for the Lee die similar to the instructions in the Tips section of this web site. By using the 4 steps, you can even set the expander plug up to size the case up to .380 inside without getting the off center expansion. It works like a charm.