38-55 and Old Einsfore 1½ Fg. .

[Dick Dastardly]

Howdy the Fire,

Anyone have any experience with Old Einsford 1½Fg in 38-55 cartridges?  I'm loading up a batch with 2.5cc of the stuff and will be flying them over the graph soon.  I've tried 2.8cc and have a hard time seating the bullets over the 1/8" card wad.  The bullets like to stick in the die and tug out of the brass.  PITA!!!!  2.5cc seems to work easy.

DD-MDA

[wildman1]

Put enough OE in the case to get 1/8" compression put in a very thin cardboard wad (like from a 12 pack soda carton) a paper wad punched from newspaper. seat your bullet and shoot it. DO NOT USE the bullet to compress the powder. You should be able to shoot MOA at 200 yards with a 250g .3795 BACO bullet. wM1
PS. I seat the bullet with my fingers and put enough crimp on it to keep it in the case.

[john boy]

"Olde Eynsford "... http://goexpowder.com/olde-eynsford.html

[Lucky R. K.]

I have not been able to get good results with 1-1/2 granulation of anybody's black powder in my original Model 44-1/2 Stevens in 38-55. The best results I received was with slightly compressed 3F Swiss using both a 250 grain RNFP bullet from an original Winchester mold and a 330 grain Postell from a Lyman mold.

Back when I could see the gun would shoot just about MOA at 200yards.

I have never shot the new Goex powder but I have read good things about it.

Lucky

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks Lucky,

The 1.5Fg is an experiment with me.  I use it in my 45-70 loads.  I'll report back.  My go to load has been FFFg Swiss also and I have a good supply of it loaded up.

The 38-55 is interesting to me because it is more economical to shoot and easier on my old bones with lighter recoil.

DD-MDA

[wildman1]

If you can get  the same velocity as 19gs of 4198 with a 250g bullet you will have a very accurate load. wM1

[Dick Dastardly]

So, what yer sayin' WM1, is that the velocity is the key?  Ok, but I'm playing with Holy Black.  I realize I can get more velocity from FFFg in a 30-30 case (Yes, 30-30 because that's what I'm using fire formed to 38-55), but I want to see what OE 1½ Fg does with my load.  BTW, my chosen bullet is the DD 38-55 Big Lube®LLC 255 grain lube sized to .380 with PL-II.  This bullet flies well with FFFg good quality black powder, but I'm wanting to see if it makes any improvement with a good 1½Fg black powder.

The rifle is a Winchester "Legendary Frontiersman", probably made by Miroku of Japan.  I have a lot of respect for their guns.

I'll continue on this experiment and report back.

DD-MDA

[Blackpowder Burn]

I use 47 grains (by weight) of Olde Eynsford FFFg, a 0.030" fiber wad, and a Big Lube bullet.  My Marlin will give me about 1-1/4 MOA groups with a velocity of 1310 ft/sec.  I leave the brass fire-formed to the chamber so that all I do is clean, expand the case mouth just enough to seat a bullet by hand after I compress the powder charge, and then crimp with a Lee factory crimp die.

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks BB,

That is similar to what I've been doing with my Rem. 45-70 roller.  I mark the brass and always orient it the same way when I chamber it and when I reload it.  That gun shoots very well when my eyes aren't acting up.  I want to get some good results with the lever action 38-55 and I just may have some ammo that will do it's part.  Now, if I can do the same.

I was always under the impression that lever guns could not get the same accuracy as single shot guns.  I'd like to see if that's true for myself.

DD-MDA

[Blackpowder Burn]

Speaking of lever gun accuracy - I just read an article in this months Shooting Times where the author was shooting a Marlin lever gun in 45-70 and got a one-hole group less than 0.5". 

[Dick Dastardly]

Them are good groups BB.  I didn't see in the article where he was shooting Holy Black tho.

DD-MDA

[Gabriel Law]

I wondered how I could get my BP load compressed without using the bullet, and came up with this one.

I turned a brass "bullet to the same specs as my lead projectiles, but made it a slip fit into the sized and expanded cases.  I place a card wad on the powder, install my brass bullet and set it without a crimp.  that compresses my powder exactly as it needs to be.  then I remove the brass and install the real thing.  I don't crimp it either, but have a .001" tight fit of the bullet in the cases.  This is for my Sharps single shot, so it may not work in a lever gun.

[Ranch 13]

I wondered how I could get my BP load compressed without using the bullet.

http://www.buffaloarms.com/powder_compression_plugs_pr-3777.aspx

[Dick Dastardly]

Thanks Ranch 13,

I found a compression plug for my LEE die set.  Works great.  Then, the tang sight on my 73 fell apart so I went to the Buffalo site and ordered a repair kit.  If it ain't one thing, it's another.

DD-MDA