Starline 38-55 LONG BRASS 2.125"

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  • Last Post 23 February 2023
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Aaron posted this 21 February 2023

Starline is taking orders for 38-55 Long Brass now (2.125"). Get it while you can. 2/21/23

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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Glenn R. Latham posted this 22 February 2023

Great stuff!  Plus it has thinner necks so you can chamber proper size bullets in your .381" groove barrel!

Glenn

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Lee Guthrie posted this 22 February 2023

I'm hoping.  Just got an email notice that it had been shipped.

I've had it on backorder since Methuselah was a child.  Maybe now I can get my '94 in .38-55 to shoot.  I was all set to have it rebarreled to .375 Win when I found out about the brass problem.

Anyone interested in a .375 Win barrel for a 1994 Big Bore ???  It just happens that I have a spare ........

 

 

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Aaron posted this 22 February 2023

Lee,

Is your '94 an original Winchester, a Miruko Winchester or a Uberti Winchester? Mine is a Cimarron (Uberti) Winchester and boy did I have fits with it. The Winchester brass will not allow use of any bullet over .377" due to its neck thickness. The short (and thinner neck walled) Starline brass allows a .380" bullet to chamber IF the neck has been expanded to .379 with the RCBS Cowboy Expander Plug. That prevented case bulges which were extremely hard to detect with the eye.

Bottom line is the Winchester brass is fine to use IF the groove diameter of your rifle is .375" like most of the mfgs use now to standardize barrels. The Uberti rifles, like the original Winchesters, have the larger bore/groove diameters.

I can't wait to get some of the longer brass in at 2.125" to see if that helps my groups even more. This caliber was a challenge to get chambered, let alone grouping.

My T/C barrel in 38-55 is of course a .375" groove, so I have a place to feed all the Winchester brass into. surprised

 

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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Lee Guthrie posted this 22 February 2023

Mine is a Miroku.  Using "normal" .38-55 brass it will not group.  Pattern is a better term, and even then they are not round.  Have tried bullets sized from .375 to .381.  Nothing works, although I believe that the bullets may have been sized down somewhat in the loading process.  Hard bullets, soft bullets, and even in between made very little difference.  Was wondering about a hollow base bullet, but never got around to it. 

Have a Winchester Big Bore in .375 Win and it shoots great.  Same for my TC.  Same for a friend's Marlin in .375 Win.  All with cast, and usually with an RCBS 375-250, a 250gr FNGC design, sometimes with a Lyman designed for .38-55.  Bullets for my .375 Win rifle and pistol are sized .377 and are fairly hard.

Then I read articles about the length and wall thickness issues and decided to try the Starline brass, which was being touted as a "cure".  We'll see.  Guess if it doesn't take care of the problem I'll have a need for the .375 Win barrel.  

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Aaron posted this 22 February 2023

Lee,

Have you slugged the barrel? What is the groove diameter?

Mine is .380" on the Uberti and the Winchester brass would only allow me to seat and chamber .377" bullets due to the thicker neck wall of the brass. With the Starline 2.085" brass and its thinner neck wall, I can seat .381" bullets and chamber them just fine. I am looking forward to trying the Starline 2.125" brass and seeing if getting the bullets a tad bit closer to the rifling will help or hinder.

The Starline brass with its thinner brass neck allowed me to get proper sized bullets seated and chambered. Of course, the brass neck needs a correct expanding plug to allow acceptance of these larger bullets. All this activity is ASSUMING that you have a .380" groove diameter in the Miroku rifle. If it is .375 then the Winchester brass and .375" bullets should work just fine.

If you haven't slugged that barrel yet, it is absolutely step #1 to determine which brass and bullet diameter will work best in that rifle.

With regard to Starline brass, the shorter brass is giving me 2" groups at 50 yards. That's a fine hunting group. I am just curious if the longer Starline brass will improve that. Of course my old eyes and buck-horn sights are messing with me too.

The black powder loads work best with a .380" bullet and a 20:1 alloy. If smokeless, I use A5744 or now Buffalo Rifle which is identical to A5744. I cast the Lee 379-250-RF and the N.O.E. 379-255-HP which is really 222 grains. I am not real keen on the Lee bullet with its bevel base and am seriously thinking of ordering a Accurate 38-250B mold.

As a final note, I ordered all kinds of specialty tooling for this caliber. Custom expander plugs and the like. To save you some money, the RCBS Cowboy Die set, cured all of my handloading woes for this caliber. Seriously.

I have a Lyman and Lee die set sitting on the shelf now as well as a Lee factory crimp die and two custom expander plugs. Oh well.

With rifle in hand, I confidently go forth into the darkness.

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admiral posted this 23 February 2023

I use the Starline 2.085" brass in my Chief Crazy Horse M94 commemorative 38-55. I bought it years ago when those Winchester commemoratives would only bring $400-$500 on the open market. The groove diameter is .380" and when I tried to chamber a .381" bullet in Winchester brass the action wouldn't close. I ended up turning down the outside case necks on the lathe from .010" to .008" and I was in business. When I heard about Starline's brass years later I ordered 250 of the short brass because my LBT 250gr. LFN @ .381" doesn't have a crimp groove and loaded in the long brass it would end up almost on the ogive of the nose at the COAL. I bought a Marlin Model 375 at an estate sale a few years after getting the Crazy Horse rifle and found that the standard .010" neck wall Winchester brand 38-55 brass with the .381" bullet fell right into the chamber and shot great. It has a Micro Groove barrel that is not .375" groove diameter. Like most Micro Groove barrels the groove size is larger than standard. I never used anything but Winchester 2.085" 38-55 brass in the Marlin 375. Oh, and I did have to make a .380" expander for my  Lyman 38-55 FL 3 die set. The included neck expander plug was around .374" - .375".

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