35 remington

[hellbilly75]

Anyone have any good loads for the 35 rem?  I've got a 12 inch hunter barrel on my contender and I just wanted to know if anyone had any sweet loads for it.  I've been using 200 gr rn bullets but have also tried a load using 158 gr xtp split tip hollow points.  Curious if anyone else has tried this.

[DennisF]

I haven't tried the 158's but I have shot the 180 XTP's out of mine but can't seem to get under about 2" groups.  Fine for hunting but not the accuracy I wanted.

[kciH]

I shoot one in a XP-100R pistol.  I won't give you the load data because it is quite a bit above the listed max in the books.  The Hornady 180gr SSP single shot pistol bullet has proven to be very accurate, even at the lower velocities, in my .35 Rem.  Hornady has good data for it.  I recommend H322 for good accuracy.

[RonF]

kciH is giving you good advice for the Contender.  Both the 180 Hornady SSP and the 180 Speer flat point give good accuracy and perform quite well on deer from my Super 14.  H322 is the powder of choice as well.  My Sierra manual goes to over 40 grains, but I stop at 39 and get plenty of power and accuracy.  Interestingly, an older Speer manual shows 125 gr pistol loads with lots of RL-7 in case you want to pop a few groundhogs during the off season :grin:

RonF

[wheelgun]

I tried some Varget last year just to see what it would do.It really surprised me at 100 yards 3 shots touching two shots 1" to right.I never did chrony the loads but should be good enough for whitetail.

[KN]

I'm also using 39gr of H-322 with a 180gr Sierra JFP 38cal bullet. Really surprised me how accurate it is. I have also loaded some 125gr JHP for fun with a UNIQUE load. Worked really well.  KN

[kciH]

Hellbilly,
I mentioned that my loads where above the book.  DO NOT, under any circumstances, load your contender beyond the book loads.  The pistol I'm using is based on the Remington Model 7 action and will safely accept rounds that are loaded beyond the factory ammo level, which is held down in pressure due to this being a old round that has had many less robust firearms chambered for it.  

The Remington 150gr load that I tried in it will shoot .6" 3-shot groups.  I fired some factory in it when I was breaking in the barrel and it shot superbly.  This load would be suitable for deer hunting if you held your shots to 100yds, I wouldn't go beyond that by much.  The 150gr load will be a pussycat in your ported barrel if you are sensitive to recoil.

[Possum]

I shot a 1" grouping at 200yds last week with H380 & Hornady 180's.  Call it a freak thing if you will, but I spaced the shots out by dry firing in between the shots.  Seemed to make me shoot better.  I will say that my NORMAL grouping has been 1.5" @100.  I am using the max book load (found in the Lee book & other places) for H380, CCI LR primers, and Hornady 180 SP single shot bullets.  H322 performed very well also in my 14" barrel grouping around 1.25-1.5".

[tipiguy]

I read that you can often get misfires with the first time cases.  It also said that once it was fireformed there shouldn't be any future misfires.  Has this been everyone elses experience as well?  

The book said to form a double neck but as I am going to be using a Lee Loader Kit that won't be an option.

Thanks for all of your help.

Tipiguy

[kciH]

Tipiguy,
if you are concerned about excess headspace, which there shouldn't be, there is one thing that you can do to help ensure your cases form to the chamber and that you have no misfires.  You can seat your bullets so that they are just touching the rifling, so the action will just close.  You will want to use a manual starting load or something close to it when you are doing this.

[Crayfish]

Tipiguy - I have one of those troublesome 35Rem Contender barrels, and no, they don't go off after being fireformed either!!  Talk about frustrating!!!  That is until I tried Federal factory 200gr RN.   These go off EVERY time, shoot about 1 to 1.25" groups at 100yds and go 1900fps out of my 14" barrel.  Good enough for a solid 150yd deer-getter.  

Then I found out that the reloaded Federal brass will ALSO go off every time!  Remington factory loads / reloaded brass would never do this, no matter what tricks I played with the reloading dies.  Now the only problem I'm having is that even the starting loads of H322 with the 180gr Speer FP are still too hot in my gun.  Velocities are in the upper 2200fps range and the cases are on the verge of splitting after just one loading (bright ring and signs of cracking above the web).  I'm going to keep backing it down until the brass looks OK and the velocity is in the 2150fps range, which is where it should be with the 180gr bullet.  I'll probably end up down around 32gr of H322 or so .... no where near the 39-40gr that everyone else seems to be able to get.  As long as the velocity is still there I guess it'll be just fine.  Maybe this brass is thicker or something.  If that doesn't work out it will become a tent stake or a 358x444 of some sort .... we'll see!

Good luck ... Crayfish

[T/C nimrod]

I shot a 1" grouping at 200yds last week with H380 & Hornady 180's.  Call it a freak thing if you will, but I spaced the shots out by dry firing in between the shots.  Seemed to make me shoot better.  I will say that my NORMAL grouping has been 1.5" @100.  I am using the max book load (found in the Lee book & other places) for H380, CCI LR primers, and Hornady 180 SP single shot bullets.  H322 performed very well also in my 14" barrel grouping around 1.25-1.5".

I wouldn't call that freak. What you did by dry firing between shots was give the barrel a consistent cooling period. I did an informal research with Project 41 and barrel temp. If fired at 5 minute intervals, I would get an occasional "flyer". When monitoring actual barrel temperature, the flyers disappeared. Cooling time ranged anywhere from 7-9 minutes, and was directly proportional to recorded velocities. (the higher the velocity, the more heat gain, the longer the cooling period - typical heat transfer)
So, by you slowing down your actual barrel temp. increase, you eliminated a variable. Eliminate all your variables, and vola - instant success.  :grin: