I have come up with a .38 Long Colt revolver

D

Doc Hoy

New member
I want to cast my bullets and don't want to have to worry about heeled bullets.

I want to shoot black powder.

What are the accommodations I have to make to shoot something like my .38 special/.357 Magnum bullets in these rounds? They are the Lee 125 grain RNFP which weigh in at 130 to 131.

The dia of a .38LC is .361 IIUC and my .357 bullets size a bit smaller.

I have not slugged the bore of this revolver. It is about a hundred years old but in very good condition.
 
If the bullets are too small you'll probably get some leading and accuracy will suffer. Do your bullets drop from the mold at 357-8 or are you sizing them?

Some of my 358 molds drop at 360 to 362. If yours do, then smear some soft lube into the grooves and load them as cast.
 
My Lyman/Ideal usually drop .358-ish. But I do have a couple of Lymans that drop .3570-.3575 sometimes. Maybe it's time to look into powdercoating and add .002+ to your .358's. You'd be sizing them up and lubing them at the same time! :D
 
Since you are using black powder you could try paper patching them. Wrap a strip of paper around them till they measure .362, and test a few. You might be surprised just how good this works.
 
If you are willing to go with a light bullet, then a mold for 9mm Makarov would be worth looking into. I know it is larger than .357, next over that would be a mold for .38 S&W. Though the S&W is about .359 for spec though some molds may drop large enough if not sized.
 
Two responses....

M&P,

Thanks for the lead.

I was searching for bullets molds that are larger then .357 and arrived at roughly the same conclusion but I need to slug this bore before I go to the store.

Axelwik, et al.

If you reverse the beagle on a mold, can you use it to turn bullets back into lead?



Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
 
Got home from the gun show with some Starline brass

for .38 Long Colt.

Got out the micrometer and found that apparently the only different in the case between .38LC, .38 Special and .357 is the length. Rim dia and base dia are essentially identical.

The .38 LC cases chamber in the .1877 and also in the 1895 (which also followed me home from the show) about as snug as my .45LC goes into my Ubertis and Vaquero and .44 Magnum in the Iver Johnson/Uberti.

I have some live ammunition (.38LC) ordered from Cabelas and when I arrives I will check the expansion of the cases after discharge.

Does anyone know of any reason why I can't use my .38 Special/.357 dies from Lee to reload the .38 Long Colt rounds? Maybe the bullet seat doesn't go down far enough?
 
Lee .38 Special and .357 Dies....

DO NOT work for .38 Long Colt.

They are too long for the flair insert and the seating insert to catch the case.
 
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Doc the Lee dies will not go short enough to flare I am sure of, and I am going to guess that the seating die will not go short enough to remove any flare that you did get to hold the bullet. You may be able to order a set directly from Lee themselves. They can usualy make a custom set cheaper than most of the others will sell a standard set for.
 
m&p

Correctamundo.

I bought it from Titan Reloading for under 30 bucks plus another turret to set up for the .38 Long and Short dies.
 
This is a little outside of casting but...

I am going to take along three revolvers shooting today.

First is the Belgian clone of the 1877 Colt. I will be taking this revolver to test the cases (.38 Long Colt) to see if, and how much they expand.

The second one is the 1892 Colt DA in .38. I will be shooting the Long Colt rounds in this revolver as well. The bore on this revolver is larger than that of the 1877, so I am just checking the revolver to see how it shoots these rounds. This revolver will prolly turn into a wall hanger unless I am surprised.

The third is a .357 from Uberti which I know shoots .357 real well. I want to check the .38 Long Colt rounds in this revolvers too. I am trying to get a better idea of how these .38 LC rounds work.

I also still have about a hundred "mistake rounds" in.357 which I need to go through.

If I can get the rounds to work right in the 1877 I will prolly reload the rounds for that revolver and use it as my primary .38 LC revolver.

I have the dies on order and I think the mold that I have for .357 will give me bullets that work.
 
News from the range....

When fired in the Belgian revolver, a .38LC case expands by nearly 10 thousandth. That's right..... 10 Thousandths. I believe this means that the cases will not go through a sizing die but I have little experience there so I might be wrong.

The revolver is deadly accurate but I certainly don't want to shoot it with the cases I have.

On the other hand, these rounds do not expand at all when fired in an Uberti .357 Magnum.

So I think I have one wall hanger.

I shot the 1892 Colt DA and the bore is so shot out, the rounds won't stay inside six inches at seven yards.

So I think I have another wall hanger.

On the positive side, the Ballester Molina is a tack driver. I love that pistol. Shot up all of the steel case rounds without a hitch.

I also think I am past the problems with the .357 BP rounds I loaded.
 
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