38-55 for Whitetail?

Question

A 38-55 from the early 1900's was just passed down to me. Its a fun gun with an octagonal barrel and a flip up peep sight. Has anyone hunted whitetail with one and are there any commercially available hunting loads you can recommend? Most of the shots I take are well within 100 yards. If it doesn't have enough knock down power Ill stick with my muzzle loader.

Answer 1

With a .375" diameter 255 grain bullet at 1250 to 1320 ft/sec at the muzzle, the factory .38-55 Winchester is a fine whitetail load with a point-blank range of about 175 yards (while still delivering way more energy than any 180 grain .357 Magnum hunting load does at the muzzle,) if you sight the rifle in for 150 yards (that is to say, the bullet rise and drop will happen to fall neatly within the vital zone of a deer.) So it will be plenty for any shot within 100 yards.

Only Winchester offers a hunting load suitable for older guns, the 255 grain soft-point at 1320 ft/sec. Otherwise, the next most-likely source for 38-55 ammo would be Cowboy Action ammunition which fires a 255 grain cast-lead bullet at 1250 ft/sec. You can still hunt whitetail just fine with this load, but the maximum sight-in distance drops to 125 yards, for a point-blank of 150 yards. Again, plenty to do the job inside 100 yards.

If you ever feel like handloading, use data from the Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook, since a fair bit of bore variation exists in older guns, and they're generally not strong enough, and may have too much headspace to handle the 1700 ft/sec loads advertised for jacketed bullets in other manuals, like the Hornady manual.

And as far as knockdown power goes, an old .45 Colt SAA revolver firing a 255 grain bullet at 850 to 950 ft/sec shoot clean through the broadside of an antelope or a whitetail inside 100 yards. So the 38-55 isn't going to be lacking in knockdown power.

Answer 2

I am real curious who made your single shot rifle. I know Ballard introduced the round in 1884 for their single shot target rifles. You got a Ballard by chance??

Winchester was the only company that makes a commercial round for the 38-55. A 255 gr. soft point with a muzzle velocity of 1320 fps. Pretty much a 100 yard rifle.

If you reload, Sierra has a .375", 200 gr. Jacketed soft point and Hornady has a 220 gr. JFP bullet. You can get about 1600 fps out of these (with the right powder). That should get you to the 200 yard range.

Might check your library for old reloading books, you might find a good load there.

Answer 3

You're kidding, right? With a bullet in the 250ish range, it has a wonderful reputation, and cast bullets even heavier (and longer) can be used at about the same muzzle velocity. Like most cartridges that work well, it wasn't out long before people started using the case necked to other calibers. Perhaps you've heard, for instance, of the 30-30?

Answer 4

The .38-55 for Whitetail? It was killing Whitetail and Mule deer in the Eighteen hundreds, it'll kill deer just fine today. The only problem could be ammo availability. If Winchester no longer carries this caliber in their catalog, check with some 'old west' or cowboy action shooter ammo manufacturers. Or consider reloading.

Good luck.

H

Answer 5

Truthfuly which im not always its just about perfect mine was a stevens lever gun 7 shot mag
i was the terror of muskoka district Ont as far as deer were concerned
you dont like it ill buy it for real

Answer 6

I cant answer your question about caliber. sorry,but i will say if your firearm is that old I would put it over the mantel and enjoy it as a heirloom's.Its probably worth more than you think.