38-55 vs Milk Jugs

On my last visit to the Captain's U-Pick Sagebrush Ranch the opportunity to shoot some zombie milk jugs with my Marlin 336 Cowboy in 38-55 presented itself.  I could not resist.

Video of the event can be seen here;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-kTlnhsa2Q

The results surprised me.  I was expecting around 8 jugs worth of penetration.  Instead the 250 grain Lee 379-250 RF passed through nearly NINE feet of water before coming to rest in the bottom of the Eighteenth jug!

The bullet was fairly soft cast, roughly a 20/1 alloy, the load chronographs a very consistent at 1506 fps (average), propelled with the excellent SR 4759 powder at well below (3+ grains below) the RCBS cast bullet manuals starting load. The meplat on the bullet expanded to .285" from .250"

Pretty impressive for a cartridge that was introduced in 1876.