I would like to make 35 Whelen brass from 30-06 brass. what do I need?

[krod47nw]

I have lots of 30-06 brass.  I hear i could use some of it to make 35 whelen brass.   What do I need to do this, and what is the proceedure?

Thanks,
Kevin

[Kurt L]

Kevin.All you need is 35 Whelen dies
Do not over lube the outside of the case but make sure you have the inside of the neck lubed well
with lube.

Run them through your 35 Whelen sizer die.

Then trim to square the case mouth. you may have to trim a hair shorter than spec in the manual
but thats fine just get it set so they are all the same length and square.

thats it other than your normal chamfer work etc.

[stimpylu32]

I have lots of 30-06 brass.  I hear i could use some of it to make 35 whelen brass.   What do I need to do this, and what is the proceedure?

Thanks,
Kevin

The first thing you will need to do is to Anneal the case necks , this will soften the brass so it will let it expand at the case mouth .

http://www.6mmbr.com/annealing.html

Trying to go from a .308 to .358 will split the necks if you try to just throw the brass in the 35 W die .

Next you will need some real good case lube , I use Imperial Sizing Wax ( great stuff ) and a little goes a long way . You will also need to fireform the cases once you have them die formed , the trick is to watch your shoulder placement as to not end up with a Headspace problem .

I use the case drawings from Steve's Page to see were I need to place the shoulder .

http://stevespages.com/page8d.htm

This should get you started on the forming part of this project . 

stimpy

[Kurt L]

not to undermine stimpylu32.
but i have done lots of these and some split but most don't ,I use a Hornady die that i did not list.
I think these have a nice taper expander compared to say rcbs.the last ones i did was from 270 Win
brass, I took those through a 30-06 neck die then my Hornady 35 Whelen full length die. I lost 11 cases out of 100.

Anneal the case is also fine but if not done right can be worse than loosing a few to split necks.

[stimpylu32]

Kurt brings up a couple valid points , the brand of dies will make a difference for sure , as he said the shape of the expander will help a ton as a blunt expander will force the brass to move rather quickly while a tapered one will allow the brass to flow more evenly to the shape you want .

The annealing can also be a bad thing if not done properly , as it will get the brass too soft and may even cause the neck to be pulled off from the rest of the case . 

Depending on how much brass you have to work with you may want to try both to see which works best , either way make sure you lube both the inside and outside of the case necks with a good lube .   

stimpy

[Kurt L]

I know agree 100% with stimpylu32

[Tom W.]

And another + for the Imperial wax for necking up.....

[R.W.Dale]

I simply lube and cram the 06 brass into my lee 35 whelen die. I might get a failure rate of 3% mostly on 06 cases that are already pretty tired. Much of my 35whelen brass is LC match from the early 60's

The cool thing about sizing 06 to 35 is they come out short enough to just about NEVER need trimming

[Don Fischer]

I've never done that neck up, never had anything larger dia than 338. But I've taken 06 and 308 cases down to 24 and 25 cal with no trouble. I just don't do it all at once but rather from 30 cal down to 27 cal then down.

So, why wouldn't it work well to go from 30 cal to 338 cal to 35 cal going up? All that would be necessary would to be to get a 338 expander for the 35 die?

[Kurt L]

Yes the 338 would work fine as you ask.
but with the Hornady 35 Whelen die I use  it is not needed.
but with the expander of the rcbs it might be a smoother work up.

[Spanky]

Can you just fire form the brass in the Whelen chamber??

I have a .35 whelen also and lots of '06 brass collecting dust.



Spanky

[Kurt L]

 No thats not a good idea.
Most fire forms are to move the shoulder out and may also straighten the body taper.
But this is most always done withe the same said cal bullet like 35 whelen and fireform to
35 whelen imp.
This been by accident before like some one drops a 270 in a 30-06 and shoots it ,it shoots but ya can't hit the broad side of a barn as its a smaller bullet going down or bouncing down a larger bore.

I would Use a hammer style bullet puller if they are loaded and size your 06 brass to 35 whelen.

[AtlLaw]

I form all my 35 Whelen from '06 brass and my 358 Win fm 308 brass.  My Redding dies came with tapered expander buttons and I just run them through like any other piece of brass.  Haven't lost one yet!   

[jhalcott]

  Firing a smaller caliber in a larger bore CAN work. The problem doing this is getting a headspace  condition when the case is pushed forward by the firing pin and hits the shoulder. Then there isn't enough pressure to drive the case back against the breech or bolt face. Shooting very low powered loads can have the same effect of seemingly shortening the cases. The best way to make 35whelen from 30-06 brass is to use new cases that do not have work hardened necks. Using a tapered expander to open the mouths will lessen the number of split necks. The mouths SHOULD be trimmed to square them up and make them all the same length for consistent neck tension, no matter what method is used! Final trim to length is 2.484"..270 and .280 rem are both a bit longer at about 2.530" but can be used to make 35whelen with a bit more trimming. The final product is a bit more consistent to factory brass though.

[rickt300]

I inside lube the case necks with Armor Alll protectant that is used for car dashes and such. Works great and you don't have to remove it. I just put a patch on a wire brush small enough to get into the 30-06 case mouth, spray some Armor All on the patch and use it to wipe the inside of the case necks. I seldom lose a case but I never try to neck up any brass other than once fired. I like Federal brass best. If you get a lot of expander ball drag with long necked cases I do the same thing, this stuff is slick!  I just can't bring myself to shoot 30-06 ammo in my 35 Whelen, I would rather pull the bullets, poor the powder out and set my expander ball high enough in the die that the primer pin doesn't punch out the factory primer. You don't need a lot of Armor All, just a thin coating. I use both LEE and RCBS dies with their standard expanders. And chamfer the 30-06 brass BEFORE you neck it up.