new to casting trying to pin down specifics

[N2T]

I have a 1976 marlin 35rem with micro groove bbl. It likes just about any 200grn projectile I have tried in it, and does very well with 180s also, even shoots 158grn xtps well. However, 180grn spears are a tad tough, and expensive for the amount of shooting I like to do, 200grn rem corelocs are also pricey, and may or may not be being discontinued. 200grn sierra pro hunters are a mythical creature and I have not seen them in over 2 years. I hate not having bullets when I want them...so..on to casting.
I looked at the saeco 245grn mold and while it looks really nice, people seem to swear by the rcbs 35-200. So..though the penetration of the 245grn at 1900fps or so seems like a good idea, everyones love for the 200grn sold me and I went with that mold. Note elk and bear are on my list of critters the 35rem will be used for, I think a 200grn bullet at 35rem speeds (1800-2300fps) is more than enough.
Got my checks, got handles, ordering a pot, dipper and seater/lube die next. The question is..alloy to start with and realistic speed. I was thinking air cooled wheel weights, but some say a 50-50 mix of ww/lino is a better mix for this gun. I would like to see some expansion, but I don't want fracturing at close range. I am thinking water quenched won't work as when I resize I'll lose that effect anyway. I have read about denaturing the nose by placing them in water up the shank of the boolit and hitting the tip with a tourch just till they get frosty. Any help on where to start with my alloy and speed would be great. I plan to start by simply purchasing ingots from here and begin to learn to process my own lead into ingots of various types at a later date. Thanks in advance.

[44man]

Long ago I had a Marlin in .35 but never got the Lyman boolit to shoot. I did not know about slugging and fit. The boolits were just too small in dia. The gun shot 1/2" groups at 100 with jacketed.
Hardness at those velocities is something you need to think of for hunting. Too hard and they might not work on deer but might on tough animals, I have no experience with tough animals.
I do have experience at 1631 fps out of my 45-70 BFR and hard pokes a hole in deer with very little internal damage. I tried 50-50, WW's and pure and removed an entire shoulder! What a huge mess. I did not even hunt with it this year because hardness is still a work in progress that I did not get to. I have been thinking of 75-25 or air cooled WW metal. But the year came and went so fast I got nothing done. It is sad to say only shooting animals will answer the questions. I only have deer here.
My mix was 50% WW's and 50% pure. If you use 50-50 WW's and lino, you might get the best accuracy but failures on animals by shooting armor piercing. Penetration alone does not work because you want the boolit to work inside the animal before exit. Penetration is very easy to get but boolit work inside is not. You MUST have energy applied at the right place.
Then you are going to have a small meplat with the RCBS that will do nothing unless it upsets. It sounds strange but you want the boolit to SLOW in passage without breaking up.
Too soft or too hard are the extremes to avoid. Velocity and ME has never killed a single thing, at least what you can recover.

[Blammer]

Good choice on the RCBS 35 200

When you water quench and then size you do not lose the effects of water quenching on the projectile.

Regular WW's will be fine, you will get good expansion and no fracturing, and can run them fast enough I'm sure. I'd not worry about velocity but accuracy and no leading first.

[captaint]

I would avoid any of the round noses. Go with a nice wide, flat meplat. Veral at LBT molds does a fine job on the kind of mold you want to consider. Not sure I would go any harder than straight WW's - at least if you can get the accuracy you need. Let us know how it works out. Mike

[cbrick]

Excellent choice with the RCBS 200. This boolit has shot very well in everything I've put it in including revolvers. Straight air cooled clip-on wheel weights with 2% added tin should work very well but I wouldn't strive for absolute top velocity's with the 35 Rem, 2000 fps & under should work well.

Rick

[N2T]

Lol well other than the fact that the RCBS is either a great choice or a bad choice cause of it's meplate, things seem pretty much as expected. I'm thinking that i don't need to reach 2300fps for anything, and I'll probably start my loads around 1800-1900fps and go strait WW alloy to stard, air cooled and then try water quenched and then adding tin when/if I need more hardness. I don't think I'll need a big meplate, as I am thinking I'll get good expansion from the WW alloy at 35rem speeds. Now I just have to find a source of WW alloy, lol.

[cbrick]

You don't add tin to add hardness, the tin will add very little hardness to the alloy. Tin is added to aid in mold fillout and for a more ductile alloy. Add the tin but Don't add more than 2% tin to WW alloy.

The meplat on the RCBS 35 200 is 58%.

I agree that in the area of 1900 fps would be plenty in the 35 Rem unless your looking at rather long range shots. You'll probably find that water quenching is not needed at all at this velocity.

Rick

[Larry Gibson]

The question is..alloy to start with and realistic speed. I was thinking air cooled wheel weights,

As mentioned add 2% tin to the COWWs, cast the RCBS bullets and let AC for 7-10 days for max BHN. I use just such with the 35-200-FN in my own 35 Rem (26" barrel) for practice. They run 2150 fps and I can shoot them all day long with excellent accuracy. For hunting I add 50% lead to the COWW/2% tin and HP 3/16" deep with the 1/8" Forster HP toll. It makes for a deadly combination and I won't hesitate using it on deer, pigs, elk or B bears.

Larry Gibson

[N2T]

What would happen if I hunted with the strait WW alloy not adding lead, too hard? Also where do you get the tin to add to the WW alloy, lead free solder?

[cbrick]

What would happen if I hunted with the strait WW alloy not adding lead, too hard? Also where do you get the tin to add to the WW alloy, lead free solder?

Straight WW for hunting? Would work, the variables are what are you hunting, at what distance and what velocity. Adding lead as Larry suggested is valid, too hard will create it's own problems. Air cooled WW with 2% added tin will only be about 12 BHN, if you water drop them they will get to about 18 BHN.

You can use lead free solder or buy tin from someplace like RotoMetals, a sponsor of this site with a link at the top of this page. Some people seek out old pewter items for the tin.

Rick

[N2T]

So if air cooled ww are only 12BHN, (only means not very hard right) wouldn't adding 50% lead make them softer? I would like to hunt deer, elk, bear, hogs, bison, range would be 0-200 yards. Velocity would be from 1800-2300fps, depending on where leading started and accuracy dropped off. I'm looking for some expansion but if not a 58% meplate is still going to make a mean hole through an animal. With deer/lope I don understand these are light bodied, rib shots would probably through an through them and they will be running but I bet I can take out both front shoulders pretty well with a 35rem.

[cbrick]

No need to over think this, the 35 Rem is a cast friendly cartridge for you to start & learn casting. Air cooled WW plus 2% tin either with or without adding some pure lead to it properly sized to fit your rifle should shoot very well. Don't quench them or add the lino you mentioned, simply not needed. Also no need at all to anneal boolit noses either.

Rick

[N2T]

noted, start simple. And 2% tin helps fill out the mold. Slug bbl, size bullets .001 larger, check, lube, let stand ten days and load up.

[cbrick]

.001" should work well, .002" over groove diameter would be good also as long as the throat in the rifle accepts it.

Also as Larry said, it will take a week for the alloy to reach it's final hardness but you can still load them up after sizing/lubing. They will age the same loaded in brass or sitting in a box.

Rick