.38 S&W components?

[boilerplatejackson]

John,

I have a stash of nickle plated 38 S & W once fired (balloon head) cases. 150 once fired cases to be specific. Most are Western
cases but there are a few Peters in the mix. Remingtons that is. Are you interested?

Jackson

[River City John]

May well be.
Balloon case would mean loading with a heeled bullet, right? Gad Custom offers all kind of heeled slugs. Hmmmmmm.

I've heard that nickel clean up easier than brass but are more brittle and prone to split.
What has been your experience, Boilerplate?

What kind of things for a swap would you be interested in?

RCJ

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

RCJ said;  "Balloon case would mean loading with a heeled bullet, right?"

No!  These would be properly dimensioned for the regular inside lubed bullet of about .360.

BPJ will confirm?

[Advertising]

[boilerplatejackson]

I do beleive you are correct Sir Charles. The inside diameter measures an easy .357. The outside of the fired case measures about
.380, but those were both brass Remington cases. The nickle OD measured .380, but I could not get an accurate measurement
of the inside case due to the crimp still being in place. Not enough energy to blow out the crimp of the case is my guess. The only time I use a healed bullet is when I am shooting a barrel larger than .360. I own a Remaington .36 (Pietta) Navy with a
Kirst conversion cylinder that I used to labor reloading heeled bullets in. Then I just started shooting .357 cast and they shoot
great in that remington.

Since I bought these with a batch of .38 specials, I dont have any experience reloading this S & W case. I could resize them
in my .38 short colt dies, but the loaded case wont fit any of my .38 specials due to the case taper or the base.  I think you could
get .38 short colt cases to work in your 5 shooter, but the S & W case would seal up better in your cylinder.

I am always in need of .45 Long Colt or schoffield brass. Our CAS brassers cant see anybetter than I can so I am lucky if I
bring home 60% of the brass I shoot. Due to the rairity of these antiquities how bout a 1 to 1 swap RCJ?

[Will Ketchum]

Boiler Plate, you wouldn't be interested in a second 36 Remington with a Kirst cylinder would you?  I have to check to see the brand.

Will Ketchum

[River City John]

Boilerplate,
do you shoot smokeless or BP?
I have a handful of clean .45colt brass, but most have been shot BP so is stained. I clean just enough to get them ready for reloading.

pm me your snail mail address and I'll send what I have extra.

RCJ

[boilerplatejackson]

Will,

At the present I have two .36 Remingtons. One with the kirst conversion and the other as a backup. I enjoy shooting
these rascals with Triple 7 (uncompressed load) or American Pioneer compressed. The sulpher based stuff just binds
and grinds. Been shooting cap and ball for 41 years now, and love the ascorbic acid based powders for CAS.

Anyone looking for a good little .38 should consider buying the one of these Remingtons. The barrel oversize had me
buffaloed for quite a while. Then I discovered that the .38 bumps up better than I thought it would. Good enough for CAS
shooting.

[boilerplatejackson]

River City John,

I shoot both BP and smokeless loads. It depends on how cold a day it is. Yes your BP 45s once, twice, five times fired
would be great. My email is boilerplatejackson@hotmail.com so you can send me your snail mail address. I would give
serious thought to anealing these case mouths before opening up the heavy crimp some of these cases have. Then when
reloading I would go with a lighter crimp so these cases will last longer. Its your fun do what ya want.

[Drydock]

Lee has proper .38 S&W dies for not a whole lot, and the revolvers used by Brendan Fraser in  "the Mummy" were .455 Webleys, not sure of the Mark.

[John Smith]

Lee has proper .38 S&W dies for not a whole lot, and the revolvers used by Brendan Fraser in  "the Mummy" were .455 Webleys, not sure of the Mark.

Actually Brenden Fraser used model 1873 Chamelot-Delvigne revolvers in 11x17R caliber.  One of "the Americans" used a Webley MKV in .455

[Tjackstephens]

River City John, Sent you some reloading info in a PM. Tj

[River City John]

River City John, Sent you some reloading info in a PM. Tj

Got it, Tjack.

Very much obliged!

RCJ

[Steel Horse Bailey]

May well be.
************(edited by SHB)
I've heard that nickel clean up easier than brass but are more brittle and prone to split.
What has been your experience, Boilerplate?
************

RCJ

John, I'm a sad imitation of Mr. BoilerPlate, but in my experience I get 1/2 to 1/3 the use from nickel cases than brass.  Temper these figures by this:  the lower pressure cases, as you would use BP in would last longer than the same loads in smokeyless and MUCH more than any magnum or high-pressure loads.

This isn't hard fact, just a general statement of my own experiences.  I have nickel 38 Spl. cases that have been reloaded since when I started loading back in the early 70s, and some of them have been resized so many times that much of the plating has worn off down to the brass underneath!  I CAN'T say the same of any of my 357M or 44M cases.  45 ACP is about half way between the extremes.  I HAVE lost one or two 38S&W nickel cases of the 200 or so I own and use with no more than 4 firing/reloading cycles.

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

Drydock said; "Lee has proper .38 S&W dies for not a whole lot,"

The only reason I used 9mm dies is because I already had them.  For the number of rounds I was loading, making do made sense.

[Will Ketchum]

Drydock said; "Lee has proper .38 S&W dies for not a whole lot,"

The only reason I used 9mm dies is because I already had them.  For the number of rounds I was loading, making do made sense.

Same here.

Will Ketchum

[River City John]

As I had neither .38s&w nor 9mm, I just ordered .38s&w Lee dies from Midway. 

[River City John]

Got my Lee .38 s&w dies in the mail, and going to use 158gr Snakebite sized .358 over real BP.

As my indoor shooting range doesn't allow BP, I'll have to wait for spring to test fire at our range.


Thanks to all for help. Now to figure out a proper holster.

[Steel Horse Bailey]

John, if those Snakebites are made of soft lead, they'll obdurate to the right size, which I think is in the .361" range, if my (admittedly crappy) memory serves.  A Hollow-base bullet for standard 38 Spl. or 357Mag. loading will be ideal, however, as I said, my .355" size bullets (supposedly for 9mm loads) - while not correct - DID fill the grooves, even using BP.

Wiki has a decent blurb on the 38 S&W and the specs are listed. 
.361" is the correct bullet size.

[River City John]

What's really odd is that Lee lists .358 as the diameter size for their .38 s&w dies.

The site where I ordered my Snakebites also listed two offerings sized .360, but only up to 125 grain.

RCJ

[Steel Horse Bailey]

What's really odd is that Lee lists .358 as the diameter size for their .38 s&w dies.

The site where I ordered my Snakebites also listed two offerings sized .360, but only up to 125 grain.

RCJ

That IS odd, John.

The pills I use are either 115 or 125 grs. and work fine.  Of course, they'll never have the weight/power of the 38-200 round the Brits favored, but ...

My load comes out to about 13-14 grs of 3F (whatever fills the case) and the lead projectile I mentioned in my other post and when shot, feels like a 22, but is considerably stronger than one!  I shoot it from an old (1883 model) Iver Johnson top-break that I bought from an elderly gent I delivered mail to about 15 years ago.  The revolver doesn't look like much, but it LOVES thos rounds and I used it as my Main Match pistol once while loading 4 in the gun at the table and loading the 5th round after the "start buzzer" sounded.  It was fun!  My gun has a "factory target" wooden grip and the 4" barrel I.J. offered back in the day.

Have fun!