FromTheWoods said
Yes…Daniel at https://bullshop.weebly.com/bullets.html.  [email protected] makes excellent bullets.  He has furnished us with lead bullets for all of the 1894 calibers except the .38-55.  At the time I purchased the .38-55 slugs, he was not making that gas-checked bullet.

Also, I have yet to come across a bullet he has shipped that wasn’t perfect.

We shoot his bullets in 1873 rifles and in Colt Single Action Army revolvers.

Some of our Winchesters have poor bores, but gas-checked bullets have them shooting with excellent accuracy.  And the checks do aid accuracy at the higher velocities.  

I couldn’t get the above link to work.  However, I did a search and here is a link for me:

https://bullshop.weebly.com/bullets.html

However, once I got there I clicked on bullets and it brought me straight to gunbroker.  Does he just sell on gunbroker?  By the way, presently he has none listed on gunbroker.

jerry thomas said
Keeping in mind I do not reload at this time, I was wondering why I could not use the brass I have from my Winchester 38-55 to reload rather than huy new starline 2.125?  Does that have something to do with using the cast bullets?  Starline is only about 55 miles from me so I would have no trouble getting the brass but most of the time they only sell in large volume..  

There should be no issue with your use of your existing brass.  Regardless of the brass you use, your case neck will still have to be expanded to accept a larger bullet.  The old factory brass I have from years ago measures in the range of 2.075-2.076 in length and worked fine using larger cast bullets (.380″).  Recently I purchased a bunch of the Starline brass in 2.125″ length and ended up having to trim them all down to 2.10″ because with the bullet I use, the longer cartridge case length would not cycle through the receiver.  It worked fine loading through the chamber like single shot, but the end of the bullet would bear on the chamber opening when when cycled.  So I trimmed all cartridge cases back to where the receiver would cycle them.  I believe it has something to do with the steeper ogive shape of my bullets as a result of the wider meplat than what most are using.  These are cast from an Accurate Mold 38-255SG.  

Results may vary for other folks using the longer brass but this has been my experience.  But again, if your just shooting for pleasure, there shouldnt be any reason why your existing brass wouldnt work in my opinion

Chuck said
If you seated the bullet the .025″ deeper would that not allow you to crimp where you wanted?  

I suppose I could have tried seating the bullet farther and not stopping at the shoulder of the seating groove using the 2.125 length brass.  But, as with the thinner starline brass and conventional Winchester brass, and using .380 diameter bullets, the OD of the cartridge at the case neck would not allow the cartridge to chamber all the way, the bolt wouldnt close with a chambered round or would stick.  It didnt matter how I set up my bullet crimp.  What I ended up doing is seating the bullets then running the cartridge back through my sizing die (without the decap stem) just slightly and lightly to compress the brass at the case neck, so that they will chamber all the way allowing the bolt to close.  That was the only thing that I found worked.    Its one of those things where your bore is .380 but the chamber wont allow you to easily use .380 bullets.  If there is a better way of doing things Im all ears, but this the only way Ive been able to overcome this little obstacle.  

The cartridges I am loading, with the bullets above, has an OACL of 2.50″ with brass trimmed at 2.10″. 

I’m using Accurate’s 38255L seated to 2.5” in the 2.125” brass. I’ve read much of what has been written in the 2.125 vs 2.075 debate but in my experience the difference is negligible. Most of my standard brass is getting a little old, some was repurposed as 32-40 brass until the real thing showed up in my mailbox. Only issue with the 38255L mould is probably not a mould issue, my .381 sizer will not crimp Hornady gas checks securely to the bullet shank. I’ve solved that by annealing them to reduce “spring-back” but it was a frustrating process figuring it out. Lyman introduced the 380681 mould a few years back for the .380 bore guns and it’s a very promising bullet but for some reason my rifles don’t care for it. 

Mike