i,ve got a uberti hiwall in 38/55 i,m starting to get serious with. i,ve been loading black powder, compressing by hand with a dowel ,card & lube then thumb pressing in the projectile.best bench 50m (3 shot) group i can get is 1 1/2 in (1 flyer) but the average is 4 ins. i,ve been advised to resize and crimp. will this tighten the group? i,ve got lyman dies.:confused:

You need to resize and crimp bullets in. It is no wonder your groups are not good. The sizing and crimping will give you more consistent case volumes and pressure from shot to shot and with it (if barrel is good and bullets sized right) better accuracy. What charge and bullet are you using?

thanks 54cal.the barrel,s been lead lapped with a slight choke at the pointy end (had a tight spot in a couple of places) i,ve been loading 2g smokless (out of30/06 m/g rounds. i was given a 1/4 lb jar of it) under 38g 2f chinese cracker powder. the bullet is 255g by .380 and bore seated.

I am not so sure that the duplex load is a good idea for max accuracy. You might try resizing and crimping and uses all black powder. You do not want pure lead here either but not too hard. A 38/55 is a neat round to play around with and capable of fine accuracy in right gun with right loads even at several hundred yards if you can get trajectory right. It kinda lack energy for long range iron silhouette shooting for good consistent "kills" but does not lack the accuracy to hit them. Also though factory loads it has a much lower ME than 35 Remington factory loads, it overtake the 35 at 300 yards and beyond in retained energy which speaks a lot of the efficiency of the old round. Its a shame they never made a 38/65 or a 38/70 or so. Could have been a great round with good range but without the recoil of the 45/70 for target work.

winchester had a 38/72 loading which did,nt last. cartridges of the world stated that it was,nt much better than the 38/55 . but WOT a case. the case is 2.526in and loaded is 3.112in.i bought a cartridge at a gun show($22 au.) a couple of years ago. nickle jacket, round nose lead and was last w.r.a.co factory loaded in 1946 according to the paperwork. new cases are available from bertrum here in ozz. double anneal them before use. i,ve been tempted to rechamber but it would blow out the 55 cases and i,m not sure how that would effect grouping.

I think with a heavy hard cast bullet and the right load a 38/72 would be a very interesting cartridge to play with.

54cal i,m in full agreament with you on the 38/72. but is there anyone out there who can tell me weather you can shoot 38/55 out of a 38/72 chamber??? with reasonable results. i know the cases would blow out a bit but that could be corrected by bigger projectiles.