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by HarryO I originally wrote about the 38-40 shortly after I got my first one. I was pleasantly surprised that it was accurate right out of the box without needing a trip to the gunsmith like my 44-40’s did. After getting more guns chambered in 38-40 (and shooting a few thousand rounds through them), I am no longer surprised, but I am still happy. The guns include a Colt Bisley clone (which has since been converted to 41 Long Colt), two 1873 Colt SAA clones, and an 1873 Winchester clone, all in 38-40 caliber and all from Uberti. If you do decide to give the 38-40 a try, here are a few additional pointers on hand loading for that caliber. The most important thing to remember is that the case necks are thin and weak compared to more recently designed cartridges. Neck buckling is a real and serious problem. Once the neck buckles, the case is lost forever. It cannot be salvaged. This problem can be reduced dramatically by trimming all of the cases to the length of the shortest case you have. Even if you buy brand new cases, find the shortest case and trim the rest of them to the same length. The exact length is not too important as long as they are all the same and the dies are set up for this length. You usually only need to measure a half-dozen to a dozen cases to find the shortest one. This step is also VERY important for accuracy. A uniform length means a uniform crimp means uniform ignition means better accuracy. You should also size and neck expand new cases. The case necks are so thin that if they have been handled very much, they will be out of round, which can lead to buckles during sizing or bullet seating. I have seen new ones that are "D" shaped when I get them. In that case, stick a small Phillips head screwdriver in the mouth of the case, put the tip in the primer hole (from the inside) and rotate the screwdriver until the mouth is close to round. Then it can be resized without buckling. If you do all of this and still have buckling problems, buy a Lee Factory Crimp Die. Seat the bullet in the usual seating/crimping die without crimping it. Then run it through the Lee die. It pushes down on the case holder, not the thin case neck. Neck buckles from crimping are a thing of the past. If you shoot both the 38-40 and the 44-40, you need a way to easily tell the difference between the cartridges/cases without having to read the head stamp of each and every one. That is not easy with my eyes anymore. So, my 38-40 cases are nickel-plated brass and my 44-40 cases are ordinary brass. It is much easier to find nickel-plated 44-40 brass, but I already had 500 or 600 brass cases in that caliber before I got my first 38-40 and I was not going to scrap them. After a lot of looking, I finally found some Starline 38-40 cases in nickel-plated brass. The mouth of nickel-plated cases do crack more often than ordinary brass cases, but it is a small price to pay for the safety. One other small advantage with plated brass is that it is a little thicker and stiffer, so neck buckles are reduced slightly. If you don’t shoot both calibers, nickel-plated brass is not necessary. Anyone who has done much shooting with the 38-40 knows that the neck lengths of factory cartridges are longer than the chambers that they are shot in and longer than what standard sizing dies size them back to. That means that you can get a few snug handloads if you shoot cartridges in several different guns, even if you full length size them. I shortened the sizing die so that the neck will match the dimensions of factory cartridges. It does not take much shortening. For my guns, only 0.070" was needed off the bottom. A grinder, some care, and a finish file are all that are needed to do this. If you shoot only one gun in this caliber, this is not necessary. You need to match the bullet with the type of powder you use and the gun you shoot it in. If you don’t cast, Hornady makes a very good swaged, soft-lead bullet that works in the 38-40. It is a truncated cone bullet without traditional lube. It is dusted with a white powder lube that works at normal 38-40 speeds. There is no crimping groove, either, but a Lee Factory Crimp Die will make the crimp wherever it is needed. It is packed in bulk boxes that are labeled 10mm for some reason, but they still work great in the 38-40. I have a pair of old Lyman/Ideal 40043 single cavity moulds for the 38-40. They cast a little under 0.403" and size easily to 0.401" when made from a 40:1 (soft) lead/tin melt. The newer mould number is 401043. The only problem with this bullet is that there is no crimping groove. None. The bullets were made to be seated over a full case of black powder and crimped over the front driving band, on the curved part of the bullet. The compressed BP prevents the bullet from being pushed back into the case. When using a small amount of smokeless powder (like Unique), there is not enough powder, nor is there enough neck tension to keep the bullet in place if you use it in a lever action rifle. When fully loaded, the magazine spring can push the bullets back into the case under recoil, raising the pressure. For smokeless powder in lever action rifles, do NOT use the 401043. The lack of a crimping groove is NOT a problem if you are shooting the bullet in a handgun -- ONLY. The recoil in a handgun tends to push the bullet forward and the crimp on the front curve of the bullet effectively stops it. If you are looking for a bullet with a crimp groove to use in the 38-40, there are relatively few choices, but they are out there. I use a Lyman 401452 in the 38-40. It is a semi-wadcutter, designed by Gordon Boser, that looks a lot like a Keith bullet. It is not as traditional looking as the 401043, but it has a dedicated crimping groove and it is accurate in all of my 38-40’s. Unfortunately, it is no longer made. However, some of the other mould manufacturers such as NEI and LBT make similar moulds. There is one small problem with some the more recent semi-wadcutters in some lever actions. If the meplat (the flat on the nose of the bullet) is too wide, the bullet can hang up where the chamber necks down as the cartridge is levered into place. When this happens, the nose is damaged, along with throwing off your lever rhythm. This only happens with bullet designs that have an exceedingly wide meplat (almost like a full wadcutter), and lever actions that angle the bullet upward to chamber. The 38-40 is extremely easy to load and shoot with black powder. After all, it was created for BP. If you are only shooting them in a handgun (and maybe carbines), the bullet grooves carry more than enough BP lube to handle the fouling and keep it soft for quite a few shots. Just make sure you use BP lube, NOT smokeless lube. However, if you are shooting them in a 24" barreled rifle, there may not be enough lube in the bullet grooves alone. Try shooting them first, but if the fouling (after a few shots) is hard near the muzzle, you need more lube. You will not get any accuracy with hard fouling in the barrel. In that case, a thin lube-wad/grease-cookie between the bullet and the powder is necessary. I use a wax paper disc above and below a 1/8" thick lube-cookie to keep it from migrating into the powder or sticking to the bullet after it leaves a short barrel. Of course, even with adequate lube, there is a lot of fouling with BP, which means the gun will eventually need a quick cleaning before you can continue shooting. When everything is "just right", that can be a lot of shooting, though. There is no way to predict the number of shots before cleaning since it depends on the type of powder, the type and amount of lube, and the temperature/humidity when and where you shoot. I don’t weigh the BP powder charges. Just fill the case to where it would be full after the bullets are seated, with a little bit more for compression. Goex BP benefits from quite a bit of compression when loaded (up to 1/4"). In fact, I made a steel compression piece to do it instead of trying to use the base of a soft-lead bullet to compress the powder. Swiss BP needs very little compression (about 1/16"). I use Magnum primers with BP. The velocity/accuracy is more uniform with hotter/longer-lasting primers. If you can get a hold of it, Swiss BP has less fouling than GOEX (you can shoot longer between cleanings), although there is no real difference between the two in accuracy. BP is fun in these cartridges, almost idiot-proof, and easy to use in both handguns and rifles. Surprisingly, the BP load is not wimpy. I do not have any equipment for measuring pressure, but based on what the published load books say, I believe that when loaded to equal pressures that the BP load is more powerful (has a higher velocity) than smokeless. A case full of FFFg Goex BP give me right around 950fps in a handgun with Swiss usually adding about 20fps to 30fps. Smokeless does not have these restrictions, but it does have a few problems of its own. It is harder to get a smokeless load that will work in both handguns and rifles without handicapping one or the other. You already know about the problem with bullets that don’t have a crimping groove. Original handguns, Winchester 1873’s or their clones, and many Colt clones cannot handle the pressure of modern smokeless rifle loads. Finding a smokeless powder that is accurate in both a 4-5/8" barrel and a 24" barrel is not always easy. Most of the smokeless loads I have tried only fill the case 1/2 full or so. Be careful not to double charge the case. In addition, smokeless can be position sensitive. Position sensitive means that, as a practical matter, the accuracy will often (but not always) be poor. If you decide to use a filler with smokeless, it will increase the pressure and velocity. In an old gun, that might not be wanted, so you may want to reduce any load that you decide to add filler to. Also, make sure you completely fill the case with filler so that the bullet compresses the filler when seated. This will hold the powder back against the primer. If the powder/filler combination is loose, they will mix with handling, leading to hang fires or misfires. I have tried various kinds of fillers with low-density loads and am unsure if the results are worth the effort. There is no question that it does increase the practical accuracy slightly (no position sensitivity), but the improvement is small and can be approached by holding your gun the same way each time before firing. In other words, point it up, slowly lower it towards the target, aim and shoot. Unique works well with the 38-40, as could be expected. I have used that powder in the handguns from 7.5gr up to 10.0gr. Note that the upper loads develop quite a bit more pressure than BP loads. They should not be used with original BP guns or newer Winchester 1873 clones. My "plinking" load is 7.5gr with Lyman 401452 bullet and a standard primer at a little under 900fps. If Marlin ever offers there 1894 or anyone offers a Winchester 1892 clone in 38-40, I would try stiffer loads of 2400 in them. That powder works extremely well in my stronger 44-40 rifles (a Marlin 1894 and a Rossi 92) with jacketed bullets. I won’t push my Winchester 1873 clone beyond BP loads, though. All the Winchester "dash" calibers are fun to shoot, but I really think you will have more fun with a 38-40. Give it a try sometime. |
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