That is awesome. He enjoyed having it and knows its legacy with be passed on to you. This thing surprised me. Indestructible and proves older was better than the new cheaply made stuff.
Thanks guys, really enjoyed this video! That is a lovely old rifle! Your struggle with load development reminds me of my own efforts to reload for a similar vintage 32-40 model 1894. I clearly need to get a copy of that Lee manual you are using! One of the best presentations of this type I have seen.
I’m still looking for one at a good deal :). We’ll have a bunch of videos with different powders of our powder coated cast bullets and range time coming soon.
You can get them good today in many aspects but theres something about the old guns made on those old machines thats just better. And these rifles are so reliable they will work for hundreds of years
I have an 1894 Winchester saddle ring carbine with a special order shotgun butt in .38-55 caliber. I slugged the bore and it's right at .379. New ones are .355 bore so it takes some thought. I bought .380 cast lead 255 grain bullets on line. I also cast some with an old Winchester 1894 bullet mold, and it worked. Beautiful rifle you have there. Slug the bore and see what you get. The Marlin bores were a little bigger as a rule.
I believe we slugged it but I’ll double check. These are fun old rifles. We could hunt with these old rifles in close for sure as it’s quite the smack when the bullet hits the targets
I have a ‘93 Marlin 38-55 cal. made in 1894. It’s in very nice original condition with some color case visible and excellent stocks and bore. I always slug the bore on old guns and found the bore diameter about .385. Mike Venturino in his book “Shooting Lever Guns Of The Old West” warns these guns have very large bores in this caliber and sure enough, so I ordered a custom made bullet mould of appropriate size. I used Starline cases fired in another gun to expand them enough to seat the large bullets. I also had to grind out a sizing die and bullet seating die. Another problem was excessive head space. I called Turnbull Restorations and they said they could turn back the barrel to take up the head space or put on a new barrel. I chose the former because the barrel was otherwise in excellent condition and would have the least impact on collector value. Using a soft alloy bullet like 30-1 helps too.
I’ll let Mike know to slug it to checkout the bore size. I just slugged my Sks and it was pretty much .3125. I’m ordering lee moulds to cast and gas check them. My groups with his rifle were surprisingly good.
@@Richard-D , I also have 3 Marlin Ballards in 38-55 with bores .381 to 383 and a ‘94 Winchester, (1923), .379. Anything but standard bore diameter for 38-55 in those days. Meister Bullets has excellent bore slugging kits that cover just about every size 32 to 45 cal.
We’re using old 3030 brass resized and casting our own bullets from wheel weights so we’re back to cheap. Factory ammo and factory bullets are brutally expensive these days
Thanks guys, really enjoyed this video! That is a lovely old rifle! Your struggle with load development reminds me of my own efforts to reload for a similar vintage 32-40 model 1894. I clearly need to get a copy of that Lee manual you are using! One of the best presentations of this type I have seen.
It’s not my rifle but I thought it was a really interesting side project. We’re casting for the SKS and Mosin at 155 gr and 30 cal in 170 gr coming soon too. I’m still looking for a deal of a century on one of these. We may reload as well for the 32-40 as my father in law has one we can do test loads on. Thanks for the thumbs up :)
