Another option, if you don't want to set the barrel back, is the 38-70, which has a longer case. DanT was starting to have some success with his at long range (1000yd) when he met his untimely end a couple of months ago (may he RIP). If you want to stay with the 38-55 you are stuck with setting the barrel back a turn or two. The downside of that is often the need to move whatever is attached to the bottom of the barrel (main-spring and/or forearm attachment) and possible loss of the tulip that many rifles have right at the breach end of the barrel.

John Taylor wrote on Jul 17^th, 2015 at 3:48pm:


It's a Ballard Schuetzen rifle.

Lining the chamber would the absolute last thing I would do. 

Have been threatening to shorten the barrel two inches. A little heavy now at sixteen pounds. 38-55 or smaller is the best chamber for the rifle. I have a 38-40R reamer but is to big for the bore. 


        Joe. 

I'm sure he can and so can I.  Lining the chamber and re-chambering would be the absolute last thing I would do to this barrel. 

May never change it. Shoots great the way it is. 

         Joe. 

Both. 

BP = so so.

Smokeless = excellent.

Iron sighted rifle never used in rare BP BR matches. 

Used mostly for BP OH.   

Sloppy chamber.

Firing pin hits at 12:00. Must use Winchester primers. 

One failed case in approximately 3000 rounds. 

A pain in the ass at times. So far, not enough reasons to fix it. Or........ maybe I should fix it?  I don't know. Maybe one of these days. 

    Joe.

Joe - sounds like a few (all?) of my projects, be they rifles or stereo gear or my garden/yard. Life is so short and busy when one is retired. 

Joe my problem rifle is a highwall in .38-55.  I bought it from C. Sharps unchambered and had a local gunsmith cut the chamber with a reamer I supplied.  The chamber was cut unbelievably crooked.  You'd have to see it to believe it.  It's probably several degrees off of straight!

The intent was to build a rifle for our black powder offhand shoots that had a crescent buttplate rather than a hooked one.

Before I did a chamber cast I had a heck of a time getting it to shoot well. It was very inconsistent.  After doing the cast I could see why.  Because the chamber is so crooked you can't even breech seat a groove diameter bullet without deforming it.  I got it to shoot quite well by breech seating a bore diameter paper patched bullet ahead of the throat.  It's shot surprisingly well that way so I probably won't mess with it.  Good gunsmiths are in extremely short supply in my neck of the woods.

Chris.

Several years back I had a 50 BMG single shot come in with a bad throat. Customer wanted the barrel set back 1/2" and re-chambered. I set the barrel up and started to dial it in and was having trouble. Finally went with a 1/2 " rod and dialed in the bore and discovered the chamber was not lined up to the bore. It's hard to imagine that some one could cut the chamber that far off, like sticking it in a three jaw chuck and having the muzzle end about 1/2" from center.