The .38-55 Winchester
cartridge (actually .3775
caliber
In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore ma ...
), also known as .38-55 WCF and .38-55 Ballard, was introduced in 1876 by
Ballard. It was used by
Marlin Firearms
Marlin Firearms Co. is an American manufacturer of semi-automatic, lever-action, and bolt-action rifles. In the past, the company, now based in Madison, North Carolina, and formerly based in North Haven, Connecticut, made shotguns, derringers ...
from 1875 on for various single-shot target rifles and their 1893
lever-action
The toggle-link action used in the iconic Winchester Model 1873 rifle, one of the most famous lever-action firearms
Lever-action is a type of action for repeating firearms that uses a manually operated cocking handle located around the trigg ...
rifle. It was later offered by
Winchester in its
Model 1894. Winchester continued to use the round in various rifles until about 1940, and also used it in a few commemorative editions of rifles since then. In addition, Marlin offered it in some
336s, and it was used in non-lever action rifles such as the
Remington-Lee bolt-action.
A modernized version of the cartridge debuted in 1978 as the
.375 Winchester, designed with higher pressures and to be used in modern firearms only. It is not safe to fire factory .375 Winchester ammunition in rifles chambered in .38-55, especially in older examples. The brass is very similar (shortened by approximately 1 mm (.0394 in)), but using modern, higher pressure .375 loads in an older rifle could cause serious injury to the shooter.
The .38-55 is used to hunt black bear and deer at moderate ranges and is also used in
cowboy action shooting
Cowboy action shooting (CAS, also known as western action shooting, single action shooting, Cowboy 3 Gun, Western 3-gun) is a competitive shooting sport that originated in Southern California in the early 1980s, at the Coto de Caza Shooting ...
side matches.
See also
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Table of handgun and rifle cartridges
This is a table of selected pistol/submachine gun and rifle/machine gun cartridges by common name. Data values are the highest found for the cartridge, and might not occur in the same load (e.g. the highest muzzle energy might not be in the same ...
*
List of rifle cartridges
List of rifle cartridges, by primer type, calibre and name.
File:Cartridge Sample 2.jpg, 350px, From left to right: 1 .17 HM2,2 .17 HMR, 2.5 .17 wsm, 3 .22LR, 4 .22 WMR, 5 .17/23 SMc, 6 5mm/35 SMc, 7 .22 Hornet, 8 .223 Remington, 9 .2 ...
*
.375 Winchester
Notes
External links
The .38-55 is back! - John Taffin - Sixguns.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:38-55 Winchester
Pistol and rifle cartridges
Winchester Repeating Arms Company cartridges