.resizing 30-06 to 35 whelen.

[burntmuch]

Im getting ready to get set up to reload 35 whelen. I have a bunch of 30-06 brass. How hard is it to resize to 35 whelen. Im looking at the RCBS dies. Will the expander  do it or is there a better way.Or should I just buy 35 whelen brass? Im fairly new at reloading so type your answers slow. Thanks Jay

[jhalcott]

  Jay there is a lot of Whelen brass around. Mid south shows it on order.100 pieces for $39+. It is not hard to reform 06 brass to 35 whelen.BUT if the necks are hardened from a lot of shooting,you will loose many to split necks. If you can anneal the necks first ,you will loose a lot LESS. Remember to trim the case mouths to square them up after opening them to .35 cal. You will probably have to fire form the brass before it will be completely right. If you have a rifle with a FACTORY chamber ,the brass MAY be a couple thousandths short when you are done. I believe Remington made their chambers about .010" longer than many custom chambers. My gun needs to have 35 Whelen  brass trimmed or it will jam in the lead.

[Luckyducker]

I am kind of sticking my neck out on this one as I have no experience with the 35 Whelen, but here goes.  I can't see how it wouldn't work since the Whelen was wildcatted off of the 30/06.  They didn't have 35Whelen brass back then.  I have necked down brass but never necked up but I don't see any reason it won't work if you are careful of case length.

[stimpylu32]

BM

For the work involved you will be better off to just buy 35 brass , but if you have more time than money it can be done . first you need to annel the brass .

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

Next you need to size the brass in the 35 FL Sizer die .

Then you will want to trim the brass to square up the neck

Lastly as jhalcott said you may need to fire form the brass to get a proper fit to your chamber .

It cam be fun but its also a pain sometimes . 

stimpy

[John Traveler]

I've successfully converted many thousands of pieces of brass to a larger caliber as follows:

1.  neck anneal the starting brass (.30-30 Win, .308 Win, .30-06, etc) using propane torch or molten lead immersion.
2.  neck expand in stages (.30 to 8mm, 8mm to 348, .348 to .357) or make up a special long tapered expander plug by filing a rod held in drill chuck or lathe.
4.  full length resize.
5.  trim to length and deburr.
5.  anneal again.

Generally, the finished cases will be a bit shorter than the factory cases, but a couple of firings will bring them to spec.

This may seem like a lot of trouble to make usable cases, but is often the only alternative to hard to get or expensive brass.

[burntmuch]

Thanks guys. Stimpy that was real good reading. I guess for 40 bucks I ll order 100 . I might try annealing some this winter,just to try it.. Right now Ive got 40 empties to start with.

[jhalcott]

  The biggest worry I have when some one asks about reforming brass is that they (or some one else) might try to load the ammo in a chamber for what's marked on the brass. While it might NOT be real dangerous to slip a .270 or 30-06 into a 35 whelen chamber, it would be rather hard to close the bolt if it was the other way around. It is POSSIBLE to close the bolt on a .270 rifle with a .308 in the chamber. I have chambered a .260 round in my .280 just to see if I could. My point here is ,FIND A WAY TO MARK THE BRASS SO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS. Safety should be YOUR first consideration, Then economy. You could sell the excess 30-06 brass to fund the whelen brass!

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Some folks make things more complicated that they need to be.

I resize .30-06 and .270 cases to .35 Whelen all the time.

I have a Lee full-length sizer/deprimer.  I just lube the outside of the case and the inside of the neck and push it through the sizer die slowly.  Lee's depriming pin has a really gradual taper to it so the stretching is gentle. 

After resizing I make sure to trim the cases.  .270 cases especially, because the .270s are longer to begin with.

After passing through the full-length sizer I just load 'em up.  No fire-forming necessary. 

Quite honestly, the only thing I do differently with a .30-06 case that I don't do with a .35 Whelen case is run it through the sizer slower than I would with a Whelen.  The only problems I've suffered was an occasional .270 case would buckle - big deal I didn't pay for it to begin with.

I've got guys at work dumping off their .270 and .30-06 cases and I won't need to spend that $40 for a long time. 

I do use actual .35 Whelen head-stamped brass for hunting when I know I'll have brothers and buddies who use .30-06 and/or .270s.  Although it's hard to imagine someone mistaking a Whelen for a .30--06 I don't care to chance it.

[Foggy]

like Black Jaque Janaviac said it's easy But Ihave never made 35 out of 270 before
I neck up 30-06 brass to 35 all the time (there's always someone giving away 06 around here.)
lube the case good lube the neck  go slow and easy and tada 35Whelen.  I have made 40 faactory rounds and 60-70 homemade rounds  then again I got more time then money

Later
Foggy

[Catfish]

The biggest problem will be that the wall on the case neck will be thin which mean they will have to be worked more when loading them. This leeds to short case life, which is not much of a problem if it`s the only use you have for the brass.

[Steve P]

Another thing you need to look at is your head spacing.  On some of my stuff, 7x30 waters for example, I have to make a false shoulder.  Since 7x30 made from 30-30, I just adjust my sizing die so it does not size all the way down the neck.  It leaves a false shoulder to hold the brass in place while firing the fire form round.  With a Whelen, worse case scenario, you may have to actually go up to .375 and then back down to 358 if the gun is not head spaced properly. 

When you start sizing the brass and opening the neck, don't size the first couple all the way.  Try them in your gun to see how they fit.  As they open up, that shoulder will sometimes actually increase the length of your brass enough to give you a good reference for head space.  (A stock -06 brass should go right in the chamber.)  As you start to open up the neck, you should find an area where the brass becomes a little hard to chamber in your gun and it takes effort to close the bolt.  Adjust your die to this point.  You want that effort to close the bolt as it positions your brass to proper head space.  (Don't be fooled if your brass is beyond trim length.  You will need to watch that also.)  Over length brass can cause the bolt to close hard also.  You don't want the case opening to cause the effort, you want the shoulder to cause the effort.

Takes lots of words when typing it out, but just a minute or two when adjusting your die to give you better home made brass when not using the factory made stuff.

Good luck, stay safe, have fun.

Steve 

[jhalcott]

  You are absolutely right Blackjack, but I was thinking about the brass that has been shot several times then dumped for what ever reason. New or once fired brass IS easier to work with than older stuff. I just tried to load a 35 whelen with a 200 grain bullet(dummy case) in my rem 700 30-06. The bolt would NOT close on that round. I doubt it would close in a .270 ,BUT I ain't gonna chance it in hunting camp!

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

JHAlcott,

Oh, resizing already-used-several-times brass.  Yes you're right.  But the good news is, I'm so flush with once-fire brass that whenever someone hands me a bag full of range pick-ups I smile, say, "Thank you", and take 'em home and throw 'em in the recycling bin.  I don't feel the need to bother with some other reloader's discards.  Most of the guys at work just give me their once-fired brass.

Even if a load can't be chambered, having correct head stamps at a "mixed company" deer camp will help prevent you, or your buddy from climbing into their stand opening morning only to find they can't chamber their cartridges!