,38 in .357 lever action mirror thread

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

Although a whole different firearm, I bought a 357/38 Ruger Vaquero and it hasn't seen a 357 yet, lol.

[Mistered]

I bought a 357/38 Ruger Vaquero and it hasn't seen a 357 yet, lol.

Heck nothing wrong with this. Most of the time shooting 'full house' .357 ammo is unnecessary - and not all .357 mag guns are suited for steady use of it. I love my 'K' frame .357 Smiths but there is no denying they were NOT made for heavy .357 use. As such I load 'lite' .357s for it and shoot the same out of my BBB. As I often repeat - if a need exists for one to shoot high velocity .357 consistently then a gun designed for it should be chosen.

[Frontiersman]

I haven't had any issues feeding .38spl in a .357 lever. But I do shoot a lot of RNFP and they are pretty forgiving.

The dirty chamber issue is largely dependent on you powder choice, some just leave behind more "soot" than others.

99.9% of the time, I just shoot cowboy .357 loads. It eliminates the debate all together.

As always, hand loaders can have the best of both worlds.

[Preacher]

Same here. I usually shoot Winchester White Box out of mine with no issues with cycling. I also don't have any issues when I do switch to .357 ammunition. I'm also not picky about what I feed my rifle. I don't have any qualms about using cheap ammo.

[Frank V]

Welcome to the forum.
If you reload loading light loads in .357 brass will give good practice ammo. If you don't reload try cowboy action loads they tend to be a little lighter for competition & should give good service.

[txray357]

Same here. I usually shoot Winchester White Box out of mine with no issues with cycling. I also don't have any issues when I do switch to .357 ammunition. I'm also not picky about what I feed my rifle. I don't have any qualms about using cheap ammo.

Have you tried any of the 125 gr defense .38 special ammo?

[Preacher]

No. I shoot the 130gr .38 special WWB.

[Leftofcenter67]

I have a Henry BBS Carbine. I stupidly forgot to bring my .357 ammo with me to the range one time. So I bought 158 grain Federal .38 Specials. They fed properly, however I noticed when using .38 special the brass would eject not so smoothly, and get caught in the ejection port. You flick them away and no problem.
It would still function normally, I just by the time I got to the end of the box that it was annoying enough, that I'll just stick with .357 Magnum bullets.
Maybe just keep .38 Special for my revolver.

[Rifletom]

Now that I've had my BB Brass for a couple of weeks and shot it, I'll say this. It loads and ejects 158gr .38spl loads fine. Same, of course for .357 But, the POI is certainly different. Another poster mentioned he'll keep his .38's for his revolver and .357's for the Henry. Probably do the same. Well, with a few . 38's thrown in for the heck of it. Those .357 lever guns sure are fun.

[jcrowban]

I shoot them from my Henry and also two Rossi 357s. They shoot fine with 357, 38, 38+p. you do get a carbon ring from the 38 but not a big build up from just a few rounds. When I shoot I'll shoot some 357 or just rod the bore to clean the 38 ring before shooting 357. The Rossi doesn't like wad cutters and I haven't tried wad cutters in the Henry.