This article written by Joe Weist appeared in the May/June 2002, #157 issue of the Fouling Shot.
In a discussion with Tom Gray once he mentioned that he thought the .35 Remington should make agood bench cartridge for someone wanting to shoot a .35caliber bullet. I had a T/C Contender in .35 Rem. onceand had trouble with it.I picked up 7,000 .35 caliber gas checks at a gunshow and a Hoch mould from Pat Iffland. (Editor: Isn’tthis how it always works — you pick up a few relativelyinexpensive components for which you have no earthlyuse, and say, “Gee, I need a rifle to use these in.”) I hada 40X action with a PPC bolt that had been modified totake a SAKO extractor. The bolt face only had to beopened a little to accept the .35 Rem. case.
I picked the brains of Tom Gray, PatIffland and the Editor for a recommendedtwist, added everything together and took theaverage — a one turn in 17 inches. Douglasmade me a pre-fitted barrel 28” long, weighing9.8 pounds. The throat is .359” by .125”long. All my bullets seat to the base of thecase shoulder, which puts the top of the GC atthe base of the neck.These pre-fitted barrels are chamberedshort. Normally, one would have tohave a chambering reamer and a headspacegauge to finish the job, but since this rifle is formy own use and it’ll never see a factory cartridge,I opted for a slight modification to thecartridge instead of buying or renting thereamer and gauge. I pulled the bullet from anew factory round, deprimed it and used thiscase for a headspace gauge. I faced off thebarrel shoulder until the bolt would close on the new case, but not close if a .002” shim was placed onthe bolt face under the case head. The barrel is tightenedon with a leather “strap wrench.”For moulds I now have the Hoch 360268 274 gr.,Eagan MX2-35 250 gr., an NEI with two different cavities;one for their 358255 250 gr. and the other the 358268280 gr. (without the DD rings). I had both cavities cutoversize to cast .362” bullets. The bore-ride noses cast.351-.352”.I bored a Lyman Lubrisizer die to .360” and madea .378” neck sizing bushing. I made a plug to fit a Lyman“M” die that tapers from .355” to .361”. This leaves theinside of the neck tapered from .354” to .360”.The gas checks have to be expanded to fit theEagan and NEI bullets so they are all annealed first.I took a factory 40X stock and took a bunch ofwood out of the forend and buttstock and filled the areaswith molten lead. The action is glassed in on pillars. Thetotal weight of the rifle is 17 lbs. 8 oz.
As luck would have it, it was deep in the winterwhen the project was finally done. The range wassnowed in, and I had to carry all my equipment 100 yardsto the bench. This first time out only a few of my loadedrounds would fire, and some of them took three strikes ofthe firing pin (shades of the T/C Contender problems!).The next time out I used pistol primers and things workedmuch better.Now that I had fire formed cases, I switched backto the rifle primers and was plagued by misfires again. Itook the bolt apart to install a new 32-pound firing pinspring and found the insides badly rusted. The rust wascleaned out and the inside of the bolt lapped smooth.The first outing with the new spring and rifleprimers didn’t go much better than the previous trip. Butby now I have managed to fire over 300 rounds and havesome promising loads.
In a discussion with Tom Gray once he mentioned that he thought the .35 Remington should make agood bench cartridge for someone wanting to shoot a .35caliber bullet. I had a T/C Contender in .35 Rem. onceand had trouble with it.I picked up 7,000 .35 caliber gas checks at a gunshow and a Hoch mould from Pat Iffland. (Editor: Isn’tthis how it always works — you pick up a few relativelyinexpensive components for which you have no earthlyuse, and say, “Gee, I need a rifle to use these in.”) I hada 40X action with a PPC bolt that had been modified totake a SAKO extractor. The bolt face only had to beopened a little to accept the .35 Rem. case.
I picked the brains of Tom Gray, PatIffland and the Editor for a recommendedtwist, added everything together and took theaverage — a one turn in 17 inches. Douglasmade me a pre-fitted barrel 28” long, weighing9.8 pounds. The throat is .359” by .125”long. All my bullets seat to the base of thecase shoulder, which puts the top of the GC atthe base of the neck.These pre-fitted barrels are chamberedshort. Normally, one would have tohave a chambering reamer and a headspacegauge to finish the job, but since this rifle is formy own use and it’ll never see a factory cartridge,I opted for a slight modification to thecartridge instead of buying or renting thereamer and gauge. I pulled the bullet from anew factory round, deprimed it and used thiscase for a headspace gauge. I faced off thebarrel shoulder until the bolt would close on the new case, but not close if a .002” shim was placed onthe bolt face under the case head. The barrel is tightenedon with a leather “strap wrench.”For moulds I now have the Hoch 360268 274 gr.,Eagan MX2-35 250 gr., an NEI with two different cavities;one for their 358255 250 gr. and the other the 358268280 gr. (without the DD rings). I had both cavities cutoversize to cast .362” bullets. The bore-ride noses cast.351-.352”.I bored a Lyman Lubrisizer die to .360” and madea .378” neck sizing bushing. I made a plug to fit a Lyman“M” die that tapers from .355” to .361”. This leaves theinside of the neck tapered from .354” to .360”.The gas checks have to be expanded to fit theEagan and NEI bullets so they are all annealed first.I took a factory 40X stock and took a bunch ofwood out of the forend and buttstock and filled the areaswith molten lead. The action is glassed in on pillars. Thetotal weight of the rifle is 17 lbs. 8 oz.
As luck would have it, it was deep in the winterwhen the project was finally done. The range wassnowed in, and I had to carry all my equipment 100 yardsto the bench. This first time out only a few of my loadedrounds would fire, and some of them took three strikes ofthe firing pin (shades of the T/C Contender problems!).The next time out I used pistol primers and things workedmuch better.Now that I had fire formed cases, I switched backto the rifle primers and was plagued by misfires again. Itook the bolt apart to install a new 32-pound firing pinspring and found the insides badly rusted. The rust wascleaned out and the inside of the bolt lapped smooth.The first outing with the new spring and rifleprimers didn’t go much better than the previous trip. Butby now I have managed to fire over 300 rounds and havesome promising loads.
The misfiring problem had to be fixed. I checked the “headspace” and found it had not changed. My neck sizing bushing was not pushing the shoulders back and the firing pin protruded .062” from the bolt face. It dented pistol primers deeply and rifle primers deep enough that they should fire. A friend looked at the problem with me and suggested I remove the spring-loaded ejector. The next time out I had no misfires with rifle primers. The pressure of the ejector, coupled with the tiny shoulder on the .35 Rem. case apparently was enough to push many of the cases far enough away from the bolt face that the firing pin couldn’t strike rifle primers hard enough to fire them. Now that my ignition problems were solved, I went back to pistol primers since they had proven the most accurate.
200 yard group with the NEI SP bullet
.35 cal. bullets used in these tests: Hoch 360268, Hoch 360280, NEI 358268 (280gr.), NEI 358255 (250 gr.), Old West 360270, Eagan MX2-35 One of my best 100 yard loads, one that shootsinto 1/2”, is the Hoch bullet loaded with 36 grains ofAA2495 for a velocity of 1773 f.p.s. However, this loadopens up to 6” at 200 yards. This bullet will shoot under1” at 100 yards with H322, AA2015, RL-7, Benchmark,Varget or 4064.I haven’t worked with Eagan’s MX2-35 250 gr.very much yet, but so far it shoots into 1-1/4” at 100yards. The NEI 250-grain bullet loaded with 38 grains ofAA2495 will shoot to 2045 f.p.s., gives 1-1/8” groups at100 yards and holds up well at 200 yards. The 280-grainNEI bullet grouped around 1” at 100 yards with 40 grainsof 4064 at 2030 f.p.s. and did not do too well at 200 yardsuntil I modified it.
I figured the bullet’s longbore-ride nose needed to be alittle larger, so I carefullylapped out the cavity until Ibrought the as-cast size up to.354”. However, at this size,the bullet was pushed welldown into the case whenchambered.I had purchased a.360”x1° throating reamer,intending to throat the rifle andmake a matching bump die. Idecided to make the bump dieand use it to taper-size thenose on this NEI 280-grainbullet, leaving the throat as-is.I adjusted the bump dieto taper-size the nose from.354” to .351”. The base of the bullet now seats part waydown the case neck. The bullet shoots much better. Mybest group at 100 yards is .374” and at 200 yards, 1.6”.I have used both straight linotype and 1/2 lino 1/2wheel weights, with no difference detected. Wagner’s J2lube has been used and leading has not been a problem.This has been a fun cast bullet rifle but a realcannon compared to my .30 BRs. After firing a shot, alook through the scope will find the rifle pointing at thenext target to my right!I’d like to try another barrel with a little faster twistto see if I can get better accuracy at 200 yards. I’d alsolike to try a 280-grain pointed bullet for the long targets.If I don’t wear it out, I’ll be shooting it at the 2002CBA National Tournament in Kansas City. See you there!•
