Henry Rifle Forums

I'm picking up .375 swaging dies. The two cartridges I'm thinking of making bullets for are 38-55 or the .375 Winchester.

Henry makes a rifle in 38-55

But I'd have to go with a Marlin or Winchester 94 in 375 Winchester.

My hesitancy with going 38-55 is the reports of case thickness versus chamber cuts. Does anyone have experience in shooting the 38-55 and with a Henry specifically?

I have a Marlin Cowboy in 38-55, I don't recall anything about case thickness, but most companies vary from one to the other.
There are two case lengths, and I believe the Henry is chambered for the short brass.
Al has one of the Henry 38-55 rifles. Mine only sees cast boolits.
I use the longer brass, as that was what the previous owner used, and seeing how he shared a few of his favorite loads with me and I had both on hand.

RP

When I bought my Marlin 375 new I wanted a 38-55 but back then they didn't make one. As I was going to hot rod it a little bit, the .375 worked out just fine. I still have the rifle.

Is there much of a performance difference between the 38-55 qnd a 375 win?

Vaquero wrote: ↑

Sun Jun 01, 2025 7:38 pm

I have a Marlin Cowboy in 38-55, I don't recall anything about case thickness, but most companies vary from one to the other.
There are two case lengths, and I believe the Henry is chambered for the short brass.
Al has one of the Henry 38-55 rifles. Mine only sees cast boolits.
I use the longer brass, as that was what the previous owner used, and seeing how he shared a few of his favorite loads with me and I had both on hand.

RP

This is the main article i am referencing

https://www.starlinebrass.com/articles?id=2540

The 375 is a hotter round than the 38-55. I happen to like the 38-55 better. Less recoil and its just a fine old black powder cartridge. Still used in long range events. The older 94 Winchesters have a large bore like the Marlin Cowboys did. They use a 379 to 381 cast bullet. The Winchester was the one I had to buy Starline brass to use as the Winchester brass was thicker. Using that .380 bullet it would not work with Winchester brass in the 94. The Henry has a tighter bore. The bullets I use in the Henry are .378. I like Vaquero also have a Marlin. I’ve only ever used the shorter 38-55 brass. I dont have any of the longer brass that I could even try in the Henry. But I think Randy is right the Henry uses the shorter brass. Guy could call Henry and check with them to be sure. I did have a 375 at one time but don’t anymore. I’ve always been a big fan of 38-55. Used it in levergun sillywet with good results

Thanks all. I've got time today set aside to give JES a call and talk over some options. I'd like to suppress the round, so, that's partially the goal.

I probably should have mentioned that the Marlin Cowboy model 336 also used bullets that were in the .379 to .381 range. I use .380 in mine. I had to have an oversized expander die made for my loading dies because at the time I bought mine there wasn’t any dies made for that size of bullet.

BigAl52 wrote: ↑

Mon Jun 02, 2025 8:38 am

I probably should have mentioned that the Marlin Cowboy model 336 also used bullets that were in the .379 to .381 range. I use .380 in mine. I had to have an oversized expander die made for my loading dies because at the time I bought mine there wasn’t any dies made for that size of bullet.

Al, I have the RCBS Cowboy die set, and they came with an expander.
Yeah, I shoot .380 & .381 size pills.

RP