35 Remington Very Improved

[Johnly]

I was looking for something between a 30-30-AI and a 375 JDJ. Having several 35 Remington barrels and a 30-40 Krag Ackly Improved reamer, I decided to do some wildcatting. I machined a .350 floating pilot for the 30-40 Krag reamer and lengthened the chamber so that the 180gr. Hornady SSP was at the base of the neck, but still short of the rifling of the factory 35 Rem chamber. This is how it ended up

http://www.hunt101.com/showphoto.php?photo=216816

The case capacity is 60 grains of 748 which is the same as that of a 356 Winchester and 10% more than the 35 Remington. The 40 degree shoulder should help reduce the occurance of headspacing issues sometimes encountered with 35 Remington barrels.

[Del]

Johnly,
I LIKE THE LOOKS OF YOUR NEW CUSTOM ROUND!!
Have you had a chance to so some loading w/the 180 grn bullet?  If yes, what does it chrony out of your barrel?  And what is the barrel length?

I'm envious, for a couple reasons.  Because you have "several" .35 Rem. barrels and for having the experimenting mind & "know how" to make your own chambering!!  Thats GREAT!

Let us know more when you can!
Del

[Johnly]

Del,

I made a afternoon trip to the range yesterday to fireform a batch of cases.  The lightest load I tried was 10 gr. 800-X pushing a 170 gr. Sierra FMJ, the intermediate load was 26 gr. Rl-7 pushing a 200 gr. Sierra FMJ, and the top load I fired was 40 gr. 748 and the Hornady 180 gr. SSP bullet. The 748 load had noticable increase in the recoil over the other loads tried, but that was no big surprise. I'll try to get some range time in over the next few weeks and see how things are doing in the speed department.

Johnly,
I LIKE THE LOOKS OF YOUR NEW CUSTOM ROUND!!
Have you had a chance to so some loading w/the 180 grn bullet?  If yes, what does it chrony out of your barrel?  And what is the barrel length?

I'm envious, for a couple reasons.  Because you have "several" .35 Rem. barrels and for having the experimenting mind & "know how" to make your own chambering!!  Thats GREAT!

Let us know more when you can!
Del

[22hornet]

Yeah I'm interested also on how's she's doing...

[James B]

I have done a lot of hunting with the 35 Remington contender barrel. 14 inch. I have never had any trouble with the headspacing. I loaded the 180 grain to 2200 fps. On my chronograph. Deer go down in a pile real fast when you hit them with that load.

[STLContender]

What is the parent case? Is it the 30-40 Krag? Looks great, very interested in what kinda velocity you will get. I have a 35 Rem barrel i was thinking about rechambering. I already have a 14" 358 JDJ, so i dont want another one of those( not that there is anything wrong with it, i LOVE it). That might be a good option. Please post results of your testing!!

[Johnly]

The case in the picture was is a standard 35 Rem case with the shoulder moved forward and changed to 40 degrees. Moving shoulders forward on rimless cases is a bit of a pain, so I might cut the barrel to accept the rim of the 30-40 Krag case, or a variant of it. Before I do that, I was planning to do some load development to see if it is worthwile.

[Del]

Johnly,
I've heard & seen where some .35 rem. barrels have reliability problems with ignition - both factory & reloaded ammo.  

Does this new wildcat of yours seem to help solve those issues, w/the shoulder being more prominent?!  

At least a few of us are patiently waiting some chrony results w/ this "new" round.  You mentioned that your chrony fried a while back, do you have access to one to give us some firm speeds?!

Look forward to more info as you gather it!
Thanks again,
Del

[Johnly]

Del,

I have some 180 gr. Hornady bullets loaded up using the listed 35 Rem maximums in Speer manual #12 with 748, H322, and H4895. In the next week or two I hope to borrow a chronograph and collect some data.