Thread: 38-55, Anyone got one, shooting one in Taranaki?

Originally Posted by Marty Henry

In my experience it's not so great with BP, fouling quickly eradicates accuracy.
I load 22 grains of 4277 behind a 255 gr flat base bullet for 1460 fps in a 29.5 inch barreled converted martini Enfield. Accuracy is 1 inch at 50 yards with the tangent sights. What are you considering?, I toyed with the idea of a lever action before I brought this.
Single shots are growing on me, but unlike akaroa I seem to prefer martini actions over rollers.

So in other words you need to learn to control fouling
It’s fantastic if you do things right i shoot a 38-50 ( more powder same bullet = more fouling)
A good bullet that holds plenty of lubricant a good black powder lubricant is essential powder coated bullets just do not work with multiple shots for bp

And ether wipeout between shots or blow tube
Wipeout between shots is definitely the best option for accuracy (for any calibre when shooting bp)
The blow tube is a better than nothing type scenario)

But I can get 10 shots holding a pretty decent degree of accuracy at 900y for a 38 shooting 50gn of 1.5F holy smoke) with the blow tube
It’s a pretty tiny bullet for that distance

you have to remember that akaroa1’s opinion on martini’s is based solely on the fact they aren’t good to carry as a hunting rifle (I tend to agree with that) I have a full blown target rifle in 45-70 a factory sporter in 450 no 1BPE and my dad has a mill surp 577-450
So i do have a fair amount of familiarity with martini’s but
I wouldn’t like them for hunting (give me a roller,1885 etc any day as a hunting rifle something with an exposed hammer)
All my target rifles are rolling blocks aside from the martini 45-70 above the roller is by far the superior action TBH