Ken,

  Don't be a hog!  I think it would be nice to post them on here if someone feels comfortable about doing so. Wasn't this load info one of the big gripes when it wasn't published in the Journal?

  Altho I have yet to fire smokeless in my .38/55 I'll start the ball rolling by giving the load I use with BP.

  The gun is an original Win. High Wall with a 28" 4 wgt. barrel, with the standard 1-18" twist. As such it has an oversize tube with the groove dim. of .380". Sights are an MVA Soule mid range rear, and an original Win. bubble front.

  The bullet I use is SAECO's oversized tapered Sae62738. The standard diam. mould is their number Sae37570. Both are as listed in Bufflao Arm's catalog page 15. The alloy I've found the best is 1-30. Bullet is breech seated 1/16" ahead of the case.

  Powder charge is 43.0 grs. bulk of 2F Swiss topped with a .030" Walters wad set lightly on the charge.

  Win. large rifle primers and SPG lube.

  M.V. is 1294.1 fps and the best 5 shot group at 100 yds. so far has been .890", altho 1 1/4" would be a good average. With a 30x Lyman STS on it will group at 3/4" with best groups going 5/8".

  Another good load is 50.0 grs. wgt. of 1F Goex with a 1-25 alloy and using a 50/50 bees wax/olive oil lube. All else the same as above. This has a MV of 1235.9 fps and the best 5 shot groups will run slightly under an inch, with the average about the same as above.

  I also have a Brooks spitzer style 325 gr. bullet that using 45.5 grs. of 1 1/2 Swiss and cast of 1-25 or 1-20, SPG lube, a Rem. 2 1/2 primer, and breech seated 1/8" ahead of the case. All else the same as first stated above. This has a MV of 1210 fps, and best groups run right at an inch. It does tip slightly at 100 yds., so not sure what it'll do at 200 as I haven't had a chance to try it at that distance, since our BP matches are all held at 100 yds. Might change next year!

PETE

Smruf,

  That's one of those wives tales that's been handed down thru the years. If it were so then a lot of gns would have been blown up a long time ago, and even quite a few today.

  I don't know where the idea ever came from, unless it's a holdover from ML'ing days. You definitely don't want to "short" load a Ml'er.

  But, if you ever get a chance to read any of the Shooting & Fishing articles dealing with loading you'll see that many times loaders would put in less than case full loads in order to tailor them for a specific job. Just like we do today.

  A problem might arise if you load a thick enuf wad onto a less than full case of powder. But, I'm not even sure of that since when I breech seat I will put a wad down on less than a case full of BP. With the .38/55 there ends up being almost a 1/4" between the top of the wad and base of the bullet and I've never had any problems. This is using an original Win. #4 wgt. barrel, and not one made of modern steels.

  I guess I have to put in the standard YMMV, and don't do this if you're not comfortable with the idea.

PETE

AZShooter,

  I'll let others answer the first part of your question.

  But stop and think about it for a while. If you are familiar with breech seating, in almost every case the bullet is at least a 1/32" ahead of the case. In many instances more. I've heard of instances of 1/2" being necessary. Now no matter how much powder you put in the case there will be at least this amount of a gap.

  I'm using Swiss 1 1/2 in my .38/55, and for best accuracy there will be at least a 1/4" gap just to the end of the case, from the top of the .030" Walters wad. AND.... I seat the bullet 1/16" ahead of the case. So there you have 5/16". With a wad sitting down on the powder many would consider it a secondary projectile.

  If I use Goex or Elephant then for best accuracy the case will be just full enuf to get the wad in.

  The only way you could get away from this air gap would be to do what they call breech muzzle loading. Here the primed, empty case is put in the chamber and the action closed, and the gun loaded as you would a Muzzle Loader. For this you would need a false muzzle. Altho not a common method of loading in the old days, it was used.

PETE

He specifically mentions using partial loads of fine-grained powder for reloading express cartridges (Like the big english .450) in preference to full loads as - get this - a full load of the stuff could cause pressures high enough to blow up the rifle!  Of course, this is with loads in excess of 120grs (I'd ate to touch off 120 grs of something like FFFg in a .45...).
But still, it proves that even back then partial loads were not a problem.