35 Remington Cast Bullet Bolt Gun

[Cbashooter]

My rifle is on the way to the Smith getting rebored to a 1-14 twist chambered and throated for a 250g cast bullet.I've had 358 Winchester BR guns before but figured the 35 Rem will give me what I need.
it's a silly thing to do but life is short !
Having a dozen good 35 caliber rifle molds and already shooting a 35-40 Maynard in a custom single shot made it an easy decision.
Rifle is a later 77 Varmint with laminate stock.Barrel is 26"

 

[jcm800]

Have an xp100 in 35 rem, shoot mostly .358 38 cast bullets w/ a Lee collet die. Brass lasts forever if you keep the necks annealed. Even with the wrong size bullets it will shoot golf ball groups at 100.
Let us know how it works out.

 

[Cbashooter]

I had an XP in 35 Rem years ago.it was too much for me in a handgun but very accurate. But i was 22 years old and thought i had to run 200g bullets to the max! Your load sounds alot more fun.
I will make a neck bushing die once I know chamber dimensions.
I've hoarded brass for 40 years amd have a good supply of 35 Rem but cry when I lose a case!

 

[JSH]

I have had a few 35 Remingtons. Wanted a non micro groove 336 for a long while. Prices on lever guns is so ridiculous I seldom give them a second glance anymore.

Have a 14” Contender that has been cut for a rim, using 303 British or 30-40 Krag brass reformed. The rim fixed the issue of the chambering glitches. I have loaded it up and down. Can be a lap dog or a pit bull.

I found the cartridge to be a fine CB selection. SR4759 if you have some was good as were Unique loads.

 

[Cbashooter]

The silhouette shooters did the 35 Rim- ington thing at our club also. My buddy built up a Ruger #1 in 358 Winchester,But he cut the chamber with a rim so his cast loads he uses 356 Win brass and it extracts both cases fine.
He did a 308/307 he liked it so well.

I still have a stash of 4759 and quite a lot of the original 5744.

 

[357Mag]

My rifle is on the way to the Smith getting rebored to a 1-14 twist chambered and throated for a 250g cast bullet.I've had 358 Winchester BR guns before but figured the 35 Rem will give me what I need.
it's a silly thing to do but life is short !
Having a dozen good 35 caliber rifle molds and already shooting a 35-40 Maynard in a custom single shot made it an easy decision.
Rifle is a later 77 Varmint with laminate stock.Barrel is 26"

View attachment 1585216

CBA -

Howdy !

Brilliant thinking on your new set-up !

Many don't realize or appreciate that .35Rem case capacity and typical bullet wt span place rifle powder choices squarely within the " burn rate " zone populated by well-proven
" benchrest " powders.

I have a superb M-336XLR .35Rem that I only use for accuracy/target work. Initial loads I used were surplus plated Remington 150PSPs over small charge of SR4759.

When supplies ran low on both, I switched to jacketed 180s. I now shoot Cutting Edge
turned brass 150gr Extended Range " Raptor " bullets. I am totally convinced 150gr bullet wt is to .358" cal benchrest ... what a great 52gr HP is to .224" cal benchrest; or a great
65-69BTHP is to 6PPC benchrest ( 100yd ).

My go-to .35Rem accuracy powder is now H4198, which shoots better with " reduced loads " than did H4895 or 4759.

My more recent range work was with my experimental wildcat" . 35Remington Neckless ". For the this wildcat, the neck is cut off the .35Rem case, and the " case mouth " hole atop the shoulder is maintained @ .310" diam. I pull swaged lead 195gr .350" diam polymer tipped bullets from saboted .45" cal muzzle loader rounds. I " patch " these unlubed / non-grooved bullets with one single wrap of Nylon DYMO label maker tape, and use a butt joint for both ends of the tape. One load I have shot is easily 1 minute of deer on my scoped rifle

I have a super-accurate 22" .358" cal SS 5-groove 1-16 made by Red Scherer in 1977.
J.D. Jones chambered it in my wildcat .357AutoMag " necked -up " to full .358" cal; back in 1997.

The barrel has been idled, as I now shoot a 6mm wildcat of my own design; using the same Wichita WBR1375 ( s/n 15 ) single-shot action I used for my .358" cal wldcat. The barrel has only had 450rnd through it.

FWIW - The Wichita uses the same thread pitch as Ruger M-77 and Winchester M-70.
The thread diam on the Scherer barrel is only .001" larger all-around than the thead diam of an M-77, and would fit an M-77 if the excess .001" of diam were removed.

 

[357Mag]

CBA -

Howdy, again.

Lot’s of computer challenges, here.

The reason the .35 Remington neckless case’ mouth is set @ .310”, is because the stages lead 195gr polymer-tipped bullet has a rebated boat tail.

The rebated boat tail has a ledge where the boolit body overhangs the smaller diam of the boat tail. Boat tail diam is .308” @ the top where the bullet body intersects.

- The patched boolit is introduced to the breech ala’ Scheutzen style.
- I use a wad of tissue over Pufflon filler… which is also over the powder.
- Closing the lever of the M-336 introduces the charged case from off the lifter…to the
breech.
- The boat tail self-guides the boolit into the neckless case’ “ mouth “.
- With the action in battery, the boolit’s ogive contacts the rifling, and shoves the bottom overhang

 

[357Mag]

…overhang of the boolit up against the flat case mouth opening atop the shoulder….
thereby providing cartdirge/ breech gas pressure sealing.

I appologize for the transmission errors.


With regards,
357Mag

 

[Cbashooter]

I have a 03 springfield 30-06 that somebody ran a giant throating reamer in. I actually breach seat a cast bullet forward of the case.Nearly a quarter of an inch that is .318 . Before I started doing this the best grouping I could get was about three inches because of all the gas cutting. With the breach seated bullet.My groups are now 1.5" at 100 yards some quite a bit less.

 

[jcm800]

Cba... Interested in hearing more about your 358 BR rifle. Did you shoot group, score and what yardages?
I have an extra 35 rem barrel I thought about rechambering to 358 with a tight neck / freebore.

 

[357Mag]

Cba... Interested in hearing more about your 358 BR rifle. Did you shoot group, score and what yardages?
I have an extra 35 rem barrel I thought about rechambering to 358 with a tight neck / freebore.

JCM-

Howdy ! I apologize for my delayed response.
When CBA shoots had just started, I had in-mind to shoot .358" calibre in CBA sanctioned matches. My idea was that I might be able to elevate the number of 10's when shooting
" Score ", by using the larger calibre. And of course, the gun would need a great barrel.
I had Red Scherer ( who was a well known barrel maker in the -70's ) make the barrel.
His Pratt & Whitney rifling machine was set up in a back room of Scheutz Brothers gun store in North Manchester, IN.
I spec'd the rifle barrel to be 1.375" diam where the barrel's shoulder met the recoil lug.
I went with a 5 groove 1-16 SS blank, in a #7 benchrest taper. I thought at the time I would shoot .35Remington. My rifle had a Wichita WBR1375 single shot benchrest-grade action, a 3-lug flat faced bolt; an AR-style extractor; and featured an M-700 trigger that was set to 2 oz.

When I realized there were no CBA shoots in my area, I stored the barrel for 20yr. More on that in a bit....
I experimented with other .357 -.358" cal guns, to see whether any could be made to shoot well enough to be useful for incidental score matches. I traded off an M-336 .35Rem that grouped just average. I next tried a. .357Mag M1894SC, but it was too small and also lacked the necessary accuracy. I then tried a H & R SB-2 " Ultra Rifle " in .357 Maximum,
and it turned out to be THE worst shooting/grouping rifle I ever tried out !! Who was I kidding, thinking I might find an outstanding shooting rifle, from the lower price range of
" Factory " offerings ?

When my .224" cal custom varmint rifle's barrel finally shot out, I decided to at last have the .35" cal Scherer barrel out on. It was a great opportunity to pick a chambering, ane had already been " wildcatting " for 20yr. I had in-mind to try a .358" cal wildcat, instead of shooting reduced loads in a .35 Remington-chambered rifle.

In my benchrest shooting, I had already tried a .22BR; which got me thinking about a notional " .35BR ". My research showed the .357AutoMag case had capacity and dimensions very, very close to what a .358" cal wildcat on BR brass would have.
Hornady offered .357AutoMag dies as a non-stocked item, but they did not have to custom-make them. * I could make a neck sizing die for a .358" cal wildcat by simply using the correct NS bushing in Hornady universal-style shoulder bump / bushing Ns die. *

Found out SSK had a .357AutoMag reamer, and my idea was that I could " expand " the case neck ID up a scant .001" ....and have a true .358" full rifle calibre gun. Unlike the .22BR brass I made from .308basic, I was able to use both 6BR and 7BR brass from
Laupau and Norma... and simply expand them up to final .358" calibre.

I sent the action + barrel to SSK, and J.D. Jones chambered it using their reamer.

After barreled action returned and gun was reassembled, Ii started !load work-up.
I found that fire formed cases had what might be described as almost a " second
shoulder " ( see pic ). This I attributed to the SSK reamer, which was likely spec'd to cut a chamber for brass that had been formed by shortening .308 brass and necking to final .357" calibre ( form the original .357" cal guns ). By using factory-made BR brass, the necks were already thin @ around .010" neck wall thickness to start with....before I necked them up to .358" ID.

The rifle was just stupid accurate ! Case capacity influenced my powder choice, and I went with WW296, as .357AutoMag was brought out as a large handgun cartridge to start with; and I wanted to maximize velocity from the 22" barrel. J.D. had opined before the chamering process that my going w/ a. 22" barrel might serve to reduce Mv,. due to bore drag on the bullet. I did not share his view, and wanted the 22" barrel !length for gun cosmetic reasons for one... knowing I could always have it shortened if need be.

My longest groundhog kill with the rifle was 350yd ( longest shot I tried ). I once shot
3ea 3-shot groups @ 200yd. For all 3 groups, their shots went into a 5/8" bullet hole overlapping cloverleaf pattern.

24gr of WW296 shot great under Rem 150PSPs, and Hornady 180s.

I'll try to send more pics, soon. The webpage has been open for a long time as I wrote, and I don't want to loose what I've gotten done....


With regards,
357Mag