Put Together a Box of Smokeless .38-40s Today

Yesterday my orders arrived from Starline Brass and Desperado Cowboy Bullets. This afternoon I loaded up a 50-round box of .38-40s.

It was a bit cool outside and I didn't feel like working in my shop, so I did my handloading today at my dining room table using a Lee Hand Press that I bought many years ago. Mine is an older version, pre-Breech Lock.

The Lee Hand Press uses standard reloading dies and has enough leverage to resize rifle brass. I didn't have to resize the new brass, but did have to run them through the expander die after I deburred the case mouths.

The components I used today were:

• Virgin Starline cases
• Soft-cast 180 grain RNFP bullet from Desperado Cowboy Bullets
• Federal No.150 large pistol primer
• 9.0 grains of Alliant Unique powder

Muzzle velocity should be around 1300 - 1400 FPS. So, about equivalent to a 10mm pistol.

Note that this load should be safe in a Winchester 1892 or Marlin 1894 in good condition, but you should always confirm loading data in a loading manual or two. You and you alone are responsible for the safety of your handloads.

To prime, I used a Lee Ram Prime attachment. This allows you to prime cases on a reloading press on the upstroke. It gives a good feel for seating the primers, but does require you to handle each and every one. If/when I do another indoor loading session I'll probably use my Lee Auto Prime tool.

I used a Lee Perfect powder measure, with my charge weight verified using a Frankford Arsenal digital scale. I've previously tested this scale again a Redding beam-type scale and it's very accurate.

It's been awhile since I used the Lee Hand Press. It works well but I kind of like using nutcracker-style tools like my Ideal Number 6 more. I may look into picking up a Lyman 310 tool with dies for .38-40 and .44-40. Unlike the 19th Century tong tools, the 310 allows you to neck size brass and use different bullets, not just the ones cast in the matching mold. Unfortunately, they don't use standard loading dies.

Hopefully I'll be able to take the Winchester 1892 out to the range again next week, since I now have two handloads to try through it, today's smokeless loads and the black powder loads I put together last week.