veral your opinion on a 35 rem bullet

[Lloyd Smale]

looking for a hunting bullet for the .35 rem that will feed well in a marlin. Educate me!!!

[Graybeard]

Lloyd I think I have his 160, 180 and 200 grain moulds all if you want to borrow to see what you like best before buying. I really love the 200 myself and really got the other two for use in .357 Magnum mostly.

[Lloyd Smale]

bill when i get recovered from this surgery i may take you up on that lone of the 200 grain mold. If veral agrees with the weight i might just buy one anyway. the only good .35 hunting mold i have is the 200 rcbs. Its been a real good bullet for me but i feel hamstrung with only one mold. i guess what id really like is something a tad heavier as i shoot cast in my 356 too and would like the bullet to work in that one also but it needs to run in the marlin.

[Graybeard]

Works for me. Just thought trying them might help you decide which to buy from Veral. I also have the RCBS 200 and like it pretty well but love that LBT 200.

[Veral]

  If I were experimenting with the 35 Rem I'd make several molds to find what I like best, but I sure can't recommend that procedure to anyone buying my molds!

  I think with the low velocity potential of the 35 I'd be inclined to stay with the 200 gr and not over 220 gr.

  If Bill has the FN profile, definately take him up on the loan offer.  It is superior to the LFN if it will feed smoothly.  It it hangs up in feeding, then order an LFN in the weight that pulls your trigger.  I would bet the gun would stabilize a 250 gr if one loaded it heavy, but have never had opportunity.

  I have a neighbor who was a missionary to the Indians in Alaska for quite a few years.  In chattering to him one day about my kill concepts he said.  So that explains why I never had to shoot a moose more than once and all those guys shooting 06's 308's and similar fast guns had to hit them several times!  This guy killed a lot of moose, so I trust his report, and gained a very healthy respect for the 35 Rem.   I've never owned one nor known anyone personally who could give me accurate information about their performance.

[Lloyd Smale]

I wish i could afford to buy a selection of molds but that isnt in the budget. Like i said the main reason i want a slightly heavier bullet is that it will do double duty in the .356. Ive killed lots of game with the .35 and quite a bit wtih the 356. I have to agree with your freind. In my opinion the .35 gives up nothing to an 06 or 270 class gun on shots out to a 100 yards and if anything has given me quicker kills on deer pigs and bear. I think alot of it has to do with the fact that proper bullets are loaded and are usually handloaded for it. The 200 corelocks kill like theres no tommarow. I have to admit though that my cast experiece is slightly lacking with them. My girlfreind has taken a 200 lb boar and a 100 lb whitetail doe with her 35 using the rcbs 200 and both were one shot kills that the animal took one leap and piled up and i took one 8 point buck wth the 356 using some saeco 240s that Frank from mt baldy gave me to test. It worked the same. One shot one leap and tenderloins. Why do you feel the rf is a better design then the lfn. Is the metplat bigger?

[Sweetwater]

Lloyd-
I need to plead a little ignorance here. What is an rf design? Round Flat Nose? I am interested in this thread as I have also conversed with Veral on a potential mold for a 356W. My Big Bore 94 will not feed the Cast Performance Bullet Company 180gr WFNGC at any seating depth. It just stovepipes, unless I seat it out to where it won't chamber. I haven't taken any game yet, but hope to change all that in coming seasons.

Veral-
I just hit the unemployment line for a few weeks until this snow pack goes down (another 14inches last night and today and still falling in Sandpoint), so will have to wait to further the project until we get back on track with the check book. I did convert a couple of the WFNGC to a not so wide FNGC (with a file and a chamferring tool), though it is .350dia from case mouth to .150 from the tip of the nose, with a .220 meplat. COAL is 2.56. Your DV formula calls for 2272fps at 125. That's a piece of cake with a 250gr bullet - I believe enough for anything in North America - Correct? If we drop it to say a 220gr, at the same velocity, same meplat, the reduced recoil and blast should be significant ie more pleasant load.
The question becomes: Do we maintain an adequate margin for encounters of the nasty kind?

Regards,
Sweetwater
It seems to feed fine. Not terribly scientific and not what I want a mold cut to, but I like to tinker and had a spare moment.

[Lloyd Smale]

sweetwater I think your asking alot of your 356 with cast bullets to be a good gun for "encounter of the nasty kind" Ive shot enough game with .35 rifles using cast to know that they will do the job with properly placed bullets in a hunting situation but they wouldnt be my choise for an application like protection against stuff that bites back.

[Sweetwater]

Lloyd-
Rest assured I would not hunt them with the 356W; we consider handguns 'adequate' for such an encounter (beats a sharp stick) , so I guess I was trying to cover all the bases. I work in known Grizzly country here in North Idaho, but so far have only encountered black bear who are intrigued bu my survey equipment, but so far have not wanted a piece of me; they just make me nervous. I do carry my Bisley Blackhawk 41mag stoked with 265gr WFNGC from Cast Performance and a suitable amount of W296. I'm really wanting a superior bullet for Elk as the largest game I am apt to hunt. I've been with others after Moose, and I'm not in an adrenaline rush for a moose tag. Elk, on the other hand, make my blood boil. I really have a love affair going with them. I took several in Wyoming, but haven't been successful in North Idaho yet. Anyway, that's the short story.

Regards,
Sweetwater

[Veral]

  RF is not one of my bullet designations, but comes from Lee I believe and I think I've seen it on several other manufactures products.  It stands for round flatnose, which means a rounded ogive and flat nose of coarse, . which can mean anything so far as size of the flat.  But size of the flat should mean everything, not the reverse.

   The LBT FN (for calibers from 35 down) is a specific sized meplat, which is .090 smaller than bullet diameter.  Any caliber over using the same profile I, for some unknown reason 27 years ago, called a WFN, but specs are the same.  The WLN has the same meplate but a much longer ogive, and I never recommend it for lever action rifles.   The FN or WFN can be seated deep enough to chamber in about any lever rifle, but it sometimes takes a bit of care closing the action.  The LFN on the other hand, has a meplat .125 smaller than bullet diameter and feeds in about any lever or bolt rifle around.  It's meplat is large enough to get into the ideal kill zone DV of 125 with most rifle cartridges and revolver cartridges in rifles if caliber is over 35.  Max DV or optimum kill speed is 130 and an expanded 35 bullet goes WAY over that, so don't let any softnose bullet lock your mind into thinking a hard cast, NON EXPANDING bullet with adequate meplat and impact velocity is not completely  adequate on big bears ans such.  I would chase the biggest brown bear in a heartbeat with a 35 rem loaded with an LBT LFN moving out at 1900 fps or so.  Any weight from 180 gr up would make me comfortable, but I'd prefer 200 gr or a bit over for better accuracy.
 
  Sandpoint is just 26 miles over the hill from my place and I can see almost half of the distence, across grizzly bear country, which comes right up to my back yard.  One tried to open a neighbors screen door a few years ago, but couldn't figgure out how to swing it and didn't think to just take it off, so it wandered away.  On second thought, he may have seen the woman witch inside which would definitely send anything with an IQ over 10 in search of better company.   Not that I don't like her, and everything.  The point being I live with grizzleys, ----------  and only a mile from her, so I think I know what it means to keep enough gun handy.