Just Aggravating........New #1

[kombi1976]

One wonders why the 35 Whelen has so many headspacing problems even in factory rifles and yet the 9.3x62 which is so very similar, at least outwardly, does not experience these issues.
It would be interesting to know what the shoulder angle is for the '62 as compared to the Whelen.

[Hank08]

Doug, I believe I used a tapered expander to .416 then necked back down, left a little 2 step shoulder til it's fireformed.  Darrel D. is right and if you seat your reloaded  bullets hard into the rifling I believe they all would fire and then size to just touch the shoulder.  I think Ruger is going to say "meets our specs" so you may still have to do this after getting it back.
H08

[Darrell Davis]

Just another thought.

Doug, you mentioned it might be hard or impossible to seat you bullets into the lands with the throat being sooooo long.

Fire forming can get pricey with jacketed bullets, and there simply may not be any good options available with the "J" bullets.

My thought is to go to the cast bullet area here at GB or possibly better because of the great number of CAST "BOOLIT" people signing into the site, the Cast Boolit forum.

Put out the word that you are needing some looooooong and heavy for caliber "boolits" for the 35 and I suspect the chances are very good you will find some help.

AS here, there are some great people on the Cast Boolit forum and if someone has what you need, good chance the cost for cast/sized/lubed "boolits" will be very minimal.

Not only will you probably get help with Boolits, but very likely help as per good fireforming info.

Don't let those who get torked about "Boolits" rather then Bullets bother you, they are just taking themselves and the subject, overly serious.

Keep em Coming!

CDOC

[Dixie Dude]

I have a Mauser action in .35 Whelen.  Never had a problem.  Made my own brass from .3006 and factory.  Maybe it is because the bolt head on the Mauser action holds the cartridge in place while firing and it doesn't matter about the shoulder. 

[Darrell Davis]

Dixie Dude,

I think you are very likely correct about the Mauser action/extractor being responsible for your success.

I am assuming you are also opening the case to .35 and seating a 35cal bullet, plus having some amount of false shoulder.

I had a 30 Gibbs, in which not only is the standered 30/06 case taper mimimized, but the shoulder is blown waaaaay forward.

Some folk and as I recall, Gibbs himself did fireform standard 06 ammo to 30 Gibbs, without case forming or long seating bullets.

This must have been made possible by use of the extractor to hold the case in position as a typical "push feed" action or in Doug's case a #1 action, would simply push or allow the 06 case into the larger chamber and contact between the firing pin and primer would be unlikely at best.

Personaly, I didn't like the sounds of the case being held in position (in forming such as 30/06 to 30 Gibbs) by the extractor, so always chose the long bullet method.

If I had started with 35 Whelen brass I could have put a false shoulder in place, allowing a bit of a crush fit as the action was closed and the forming process would have been quick and simple.

Maybe we could all look for a source of NEW 40 Whelen brass  (fat chance of that!!)  and help Doug solve the problem.

Keep em coming!

CDOC   

[Dixie Dude]

I have some standard Remington 35 Whelen rounds, some Federal 35 Whelen rounds, and I formed 35 Whelen rounds by necking up with the die.  I did not fire form.  No problems yet. 

[drdougrx]

Oh...this is  gonna be JUST ducky.....Many thanks everyone.....we'll see what happens when it gets back.  I do like the idea of the extra long "boolits" though.....i'll do whatever I need to....

[1Longbow]

I had the same problem with a Ruger model 77 in 35 Whelen. Went to the range and click,click,click,upset would not be the word. It just so happened that another shooter had a custom built Whelen there and the same thing. It ended up being the factory Remington ammo, bad primers according to them,I've hand loaded for it since then and no problems--1Longbow

[Fred M]

Used brass with too much head space is your problem. Form a false shoulder and you trouble will be gone. Size for (0) head space lightly lub the outside of the case and fire form. Once your die is set up lock it. Case head should be tight against the falling block.

[mrcooper]

I bought a used ruger bolt model 77 in 35 whelen tang saftey one It would not fire but one out of ten. tried to fire form brass no luck, sent it back to ruger it came back working great. It was head spacing problem. Looks like ruger has problem with their reamers, (for the past several years)