My reloading 38 rimfire experiments

my antique 38 rimfire H&A dictator revolver with a .375 bore

original vintage 38 rf cartridges with .377 bullet size

There are a few ways to reload 38 rimfire ammo first 2 are the 9mm flobert method.

The first is to use 9mm flobert acorns, and some 38 colt brass.I Drilled out the primer end of
the 38 colt brass with a 11/32 drill bit. Glued the acorn into one end of the brass (removed the lead ball out of the BB's of course ) and i loaded with black powder and a heeled 38 colt bullet. (A .357 hollow base or paper patch bullet should also work) 38 colt brass is basically a shorter version of  38 special brass so it will work also if trimmed down. 

9mm Fiocchi Flobert shot shells

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The other way was to use the flobert shot cartridges (easier to get) cut it down and did the same thing as above.

  

The rim came off when i drilled the 11/32 hole so the flobert rim became the new rim.
of course the bullet will need to be seated before drilling the base because trying to load it with a live rimfire base could set off the round.

You can see here how the firing pin on the h&a pistol strikes the side of the rim.

 I tried a empty .25 caliber nail gun blank here on 38 special brass it could work for some guns with a longer vertical firing pin. my rimfire pistol has a horizontal firing pin (above)and it will miss the blank.

I now have a 38 rimfire revolver with a vertical firing pin, i tried it here with a .27 calibre nail gun blank the
 same way i did the 32 rim.(see above top right)you can see i had the blank set too far in and the firing pin also hit the 38 special case and left a mark but it did fire.i used the blank in a unloaded round just to see if it would work.

My 38 rimfire  dictator(think i need a better tripod)
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I've heard of people using the white tips off strike anywhere wooden match heads to reload rimfires i will experiment with that also. But i can't really see it working very well if at all.
update
I'm trying the match head method in my .32 rimfire blog  

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