What is the twist on an original .38-55 barrel

[Brent]

I am curious about what the twist was/is on original .38-55 barrels for the latter day 1893 and 93 models. I'm also wondering what their intended projectiles were. I presume approximately 250 grs flatnose, similar to the lyman bullet for instance. Someone must know for certain what these were.

Thanks,
Brent

[marlinman93]

I am curious about what the twist was/is on original .38-55 barrels for the latter day 1893 and 93 models. I'm also wondering what their intended projectiles were. I presume approximately 250 grs flatnose, similar to the lyman bullet for instance. Someone must know for certain what these were.

Thanks,
Brent

Original twist was 1:20". Original cartridges of .38-55 were loaded with 56 grs. of BP with a 255 gr. bullet of 20:1 mix. later smokeless loads were 1500 fps with a 255 gr. jacketed bullet.

[Brent]

Thanks. I was betting it was 18" twist. I'll have another, unrelated, question in a moment.

[marlinman93]

Marlin did do special orders, but specimens of special order twist rates are extremely rare! I own a Ballard #2 done with numerous special order features, and the .32 Long chamber/bore is very strange. It's a .316" bore with a 1:15" twist. So nothing matches with Marlin's typical .32 Long bore. I would guess with the rest of the gun being done in factory schuetzen style that the customer used it as a breech seated rifle, and wanted a larger bore and faster twist; not caring if it could shoot fixed ammo.