My neck measures .395

I'm still tempted to chamber neck ream this up to .405 to allow fixed ammo.

Well, I've had a couple of range sessions with the .38-40 RH. The first trip looked promising but I was having some trouble chambering a few rounds. I left one round to measure at home. What I found was that I didn't have my compression plug set to the right depth and I was compressing the powder with the bullet and the bore riding section would upset and not chamber. Adjusted the dies correctly and the problem went away.

Today's session went much better. All loads used Federal 150 primers, .060" fiber wad, and a bullet cast in an old Ohaus mold that comes out at 265 grains with 30-1 alloy, lubed with Glenn Fewless' lube. I set the bullet to just touch the rifling. This bullet has a short nose so powder capacity is reduced. All shooting was at 100 yds. today.

First I tried 33 grains of Olde Eynsford 1&1/2 F. This gave 1177 fps and a 5 shot group of 1.727" Next I tried 36 grains of the OE and the velocity went up to 1221 fps but the group opened up to 2.824". It appears the Olde Eynsford doesn't like to be compressed, at least in this gun.

Next I switched over to Swiss 1&1/2F. Starting at 31 grains the velocity was 1171 fps but the group was a surprising 4.5". Increasing the charge to 33 grains brought the velocity to 1207 fps and put 4 shots into .875" and I jerked one out to 1.7". I know many people say Swiss powder doesn't like to be compressed, but I've always had better luck with lots of compression. 

I'm not trying to make a silhouette rifle out of this, just a 200yd offhand gun, so heavy bullets and maximum velocity aren't needed.

I'll post updates as I go along.

Steven Durren 

Yes........ thanks for the update.
What is your twist & barrel length?
Would you like to try some BACo 325gr 'Money' bullets? I'm thinking that is about the heaviest bullet I'll be shooting and you should be able to load it longer so can get in a bit more powder. PM me with an address and I'll send along.
I also compress Swiss. ~0.10" in all my loads.

I do not have the information so I will ask. What is the proper length for .38-40 Rem-Hep cases as compared to cases for the .38-50 Rem-Hep.?

Steve - any results with your 38-40?

Have a 12" twist 38cal barrel and was thinking the 38-40 might be a pleasant round thru it. Can always punch it out to 38-55 or 38-50 or 38-70 or 38-72 or 38-90 or 38-100  if that doesn't work. Think those last few are getting a little extreme.

Bartlein barrel & CPA action off to Steve to be fitted and chambered in 38-40RH. 100 .303 cases inbound. Plenty of time to expand to 38cal, cut back to 1.78" and anneal. Should be great fun.