30-30 is made from 38-55 brass and the 375 Win was based on the 38-55 parent case too. Bullet shape has nothing to do with max load. You can get some pretty good velocity out of a 30-30 in a bolt gun, and with spitzer bullets, you will have a much better trajectory. The 30-30 case will handle quite a lot more pressure than it is loaded to for levers, but if you are worried you can neck down 375 brass that is designed to operate at 55,000 PSI versus what most 30-30 are run at which 42,000 psi Sammi and 46,000 psi CIP, though most levers run loads around 35,000 to 39,000 psi. The 130 grain to 150 grain would be the range I chose for flat shooting and good on game performance. Loaded to their pressure potential you should be able to get them moving 2800 to 2900 fps quite easily.
Using Our 38-55 Ammo in 375 Winchester Chambered Rifles
Our 38-55 ammo is designed to work in all 38-55 chambered firearms made with modern metallurgy for smokeless powder. It operates at 38,000 CUP—the 30-30 Winchester operates at an average max. pressure of 38,500 CUP. For those who are not aware, the 30-30 case is simply a necked down 38-55 casing.
OUR 38-55 AMMO WORKS IN ALL WINCHESTER 375 RIFLES
Our 38-55 ammo is also designed to work in ALL 375 Winchester chambered rifles.
ALL means ALL. Winchester, Savage, and Marlin all chambered rifles in 375 Winchester. All 375 Winchester rifles utilize chambers long enough to accept the 2.085 inch 38-55 brass, even though 375 Winchester brass is only 2.020 inches long. By using the longer 38-55 brass,
we accomplish two things:
1. We get the bullet closer to the rifling's and this creates a generally more accurate load.
2. The longer 38-55 brass, with thinner case walls than 375 Winchester brass, gives much more case capacity and this allows chamber pressures to drop immensely. i.e. our 38-55 loads give the same performance (a 250gr. bullet @ 2000 fps) as the original 375 Winchester loading, but at only 38,000 CUP instead of the industry max. pressure of 52,000 CUP that the original 375 Winchester was rated at. |
TIME-TESTED & WELL-PROVEN
The concept of using 38-55 brass to produce ammo for the 375 Winchester may be new to you, but it is not to us, so please simply read carefully and believe me. We've sold hundreds of thousands of rounds of this ammo and about half of it has been shot in 375 Winchester rifles. A couple years before I started making 38-55 ammo as Buffalo Bore Ammunition Company, I was shooting Marlin, Savage and Winchester 375 Winchester chambered rifles and was using good old every-day 38-55 brass in all of them. To be fair and give credit where it is due, it was both Brian Pearce and Mic McPherson that pointed out I could use common, readily available and affordable 38-55 brass to make full power 375 Winchester loads.
I've been doing it for almost 20 years now and have not over-looked anything. If I sound jaded on this subject, it is because I am. Trying to convince folks of anything new, can be a futile attempt, so I am publishing this short text on our site and those who choose to believe me are invited to and we would love to sell you our excellent 38-55 ammo for use in your 375 Winchester or your 38-55. You will love how it performs and you'll be glad you found a source of high quality high performance ammo for your 375 Winchester. As a customer, we owe you this type of high quality ammo and this type of time conserving straight talk. In our 17 years of doing business as Buffalo Bore Ammunition, many thousands of 375 Winchester chambered rifles have gobbled this ammo up and I've not had even one complaint, which I cannot say for all of our ammo.
BARREL BORE
.375 BORE RIFLES
We use a bullet that is sized .377 inch. I am aware that 375 Winchester chambered rifles utilize a .375 inch bore. When fired, the .377 inch bullet will slug/size right down to .375 without raising pressures (we've tested the heck out of this) this is in part due to the construction of the bullet, but also due to our powder choice.
.381 BORE RIFLES
We are also aware that many old 38-55 rifles utilize a bore diameter of up to .381 inch, but most are between .377 and .380 inch. At 38,000 cup, there is enough pressure generated by this cartridge to cause that .377 diameter bullet to hit the rifling lands and slug up to the bore diameter (all the way up to .381 inch) and give wonderful accuracy.
HARD CAST SOMEDAY? - MAYBE
We've considered making hard cast loads for 38-55 also, (I personally shoot hard cast 270gr. bullets in all of my several 38-55 rifles) but they are too hard to slug up when fired, so the user would have to know his bore diameter and because of this and the numerous questions it would generate, I am still holding off on making any hard cast loads. Further, when firing hard cast loads, they are also too hard to size down to a smaller bore diameter without raising pressures and the thought of a customer trying to shoot a .380 inch hard bullet down the .375 inch bore of a 375 Winchester, has me a bit nervous. So to date, hard cast loads for the 38-55 are not in production and may never be.
If you email me and ask if what I wrote here is true, I will simply refer you back to everything I wrote here…..I will not tell you something more or different than what I have put in writing here on the site. What is written here is based on decades of my experience with my own rifles and with selling hundreds of thousands of rounds of this ammo to the shooting public…… Thank you for carefully reading this information.
Good shooting and God bless.
Press Release for Buffalo Bore Heavy 30-30
ITEM 28A
Buffalo Bore is introducing a truly Heavy 30-30 Winchester loading. This new load utilizes a 190gr. custom
Hawk Bullet and gives the venerable 30-30 here-to-for unrealized power and is designed so that the person who owns a 30-30 can now reliably kill elk or moose sized game. The 30-30 can now be carried as a defensive tool in grizzly country and will be much more effective in stopping a grizzly attack than any other 30-30 ammunition in the world. This heavy 30-30 load is not designed for deer, although it will kill deer and if you line them up right, it will kill three or four deer with one shot……….
CUSTOM HAWK BULLET
The custom 190gr.
Hawk Bullet is designed with a harder core and thicker than a normal jacket, so the expansion is minimal, thus ensuring very deep penetration which is needed to break large bones and destroy organs deep inside large game animals. This load generates an unreal 2100 fps from normal 20-inch carbines—this is the type of velocity that the ordinary 170gr. 30-30 loads generate, but again, we are using a 190gr. bullet. The product SKU# for this load is 28A/20.
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Check the below real world velocities from my personal stock, over-the-counter firearms—
truly amazing.
? 2,071 fps -- Marlin Model 336 20-inch saddle ring carbine circa 1950's
? 2,061 fps -- Win. Model 94 20-inch carbine circa 1980's
? 2,075 fps -- Win. Model 94 20-inch carbine circa 1953
? 2,116 fps -- Win. Model 94 20-inch carbine circa 1963
? 2,172 fps -- Marlin model 336A 24-inch carbine circa 1940's
? 2,146 fps -- Win. Model 94 20-inch carbine circa 1980's
? 2,020 fps -- Win. Model 94AE 16-inch Trapper carbine circa 1992
? 1,983 fps -- Savage 99 26-inch rifle circa 1917 - Not a Typo**
| **Note that the longest barrel gave the slowest velocity and even the short 16 inch Winchester trapper model gives faster speeds than the 26-inch Savage 99 rifle, which shows that barrel length is not always the sole indicator of velocities a firearm will generate. |
Buffalo Bore always uses stock over-the-counter- firearms that give real world velocities. Other ammunition companies normally use laboratory test barrels which give much higher velocities than stock firearms. We at Buffalo Bore see this long-established practice as misleading to the consumer.
This 30-30 loading (Item 28A/20) is safe to use in ANY/ALL 30-30 chambered firearms that are in normal operating condition—no exceptions, no need to "double check" with us.
