Mine misfires too.

[James B]

Shot the new 35 Whelen today. Had a box of factory 200 grain Corelokts. One out of six misfired. I cocked it and fired it again and the second time it went off. I might try just neck ssizing the once fired brass and see if that helps.

 To bad because the gun seems to shoot pretty well. Do all of the Whelens have extractors instead of ejectors? I see over the last month or so that others here have had misfires with their 35's.

[cheatermk3]

I think I read a thread here in the last few days that talked about the possibility of a bad batch of Remington ammo.

Hopefully that's the problem causing your misfires, as opposed to a problem with the rifle.

[Fred M]

I think the problem is both, minimum ammo, maximum chamber. Factory ammo is SAMMI minimum and Handi's are known for big chambers.

[poncaguy]

I fired mine last week with 200 grain Remingtons, no misfires, didn't try any of the Remington 250's yet...........

[James B]

I have one box of Federal 225 grainers t00. I havn't tried them yet. Do you guys think that minimum resizing will cure this?

[Fred M]

Put Your press ram all the way to the top. Cut a pieces of pop can an lay it on the shell holder. Turn the die down on top of the alu shim lock the the die and try a case.

The case should be flush with the face of the barrel and the primer flush with the base of the case or a bit below, I f the case sticks out use a thiner shim and try again. Use a ruler across the face and make sure you don't see any day light.

[James B]

Thanks a lot. I will give that a try.

[bajabill]

I pulled the bullets and loaded them real long and into the rifling.  I got 8 rounds to fire, 2 did not.

Then I ran one fired case into the die, not all the way down, primed and fired it without powder/bullet.  It set the primer off.

One additional observation I now have - the primer pocket seems a little deep.  I need to measure it.  The primers seat more subflush than I am familiar with compared to other brass I load.  Im going to get about half of my brass once fired with light loaded 200 gr bullets and then get on with life.  I checked the once fired brass and see no signs of abnormal thinout near the base.  The shoulder does not seem to be pushed forward too bad, I think it is more of a OD problem near the neck and the radius corner at the edge of the corner.  I have read that the slight neck has been an issue with the whelen over the years, and even more of an issue with the .375 attempts.

[mt3030]

...I have read that the slight neck has been an issue with the whelen over the years, and even more of an issue with the .375 attempts.

In the mid'70s before I got my first Whelen I had read the same thing. But I went on to play with both 35 and 40 Whelens and never had a problem. These were all on Mauser 98 actions, and the great extractor of that model might have held the cases to the rear and prevented me from seeing any of the problems others have seen.

[Fred M]

Yes this is true, the 35 Whelen has been plaqued by this minimal shoulder problem for a long time. In a Mauser with the claw extractor it is not noticable the extractor holds the case back. Neck sizing in a Mauser will cure this problem, but not in a Handi. Handi calibers need the shoulder  adjusted/set back after each firing.

This is the reason why I thought the 35Whelen to be a poor Handi choice.

The primer below the case bottom is normal. I have a primer pocket uniformer tool that reams the bottom of the hole 0.130" deep. The primers I use are .126", so they will be four thou below the case bottom. The 4 thou will take care of any primer variation. Primers should not be crunched down, only seated to to a clean bottom.

Most head space gauges include up to 10Thou head space. Don't know what H&R uses for head space on the 35W. Now all you have to do is add a bit of gap to the barrel face and the hammer will drive the case forward some, and you will have a miss fire.

The best you can do is get your own cases, expand the neck to 375 and form a new shoulder with no head space, meaning the the case is flush with the barrel face. Then watch the cases and set the die so the base of the case is always flush when sized.

When I chambered my 257R and the 6x47 we used a new case for a gauge, no head space. If the case is stretched by the springy action, the die ist set to move the shoulder back to flush again. Of course I never use factory ammo so I don't know if the fit well.

Eventual the cases will seperate after asbout 8-9 reloads because of the stretching action. Some calibers  in Handi's will will not stretch/spring back the action much but most do. Gung-Ho pressure and velocity is not recommended for this reason, besides it does very little for the effort.