.35 Remington project using Lyman 358156A mould

[BigDanS]

I am a newbie caster. I have been prepping for the past two years on and off and I have been casting my first boolits this past week. I am using a Lee Pro 4 20 pot and I have a variety of metals. My initial goal was to cast .38's for my students to shoot low power, and work their way up to full power .357's and 9mm / 10mm. I have been casting with a Lyman 358156A mould I bought here a couple years ago. Here are my first castings with COWW and about 5% linotype.

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/CDC6A0CE-8DFF-45D7-A271-AF83369F6E6F_zpsikdbnxtw.jpg


http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/6D0BA554-2438-4E10-BB73-2B18B6A36B30_zpseko3hjhy.jpg

When I say first, I did go through a bunch of other smaller wadcutter castings before trying this. I cast about 750 F and was really happy with the fill out. These weigh in about 164 gr and 12 BHN and are loaded over 4.6 gr of Unique. I liked the look and feel of these so much it got me to thinking about my .35 Remington. There is not a lot of information out there about cast bullets and the .35 Remington, and most of it is 180 gr or 200 gr.

I decided to try these in a 50% Linotype 50% COWW at about 650 F and I am very pleased with the results, about 16 BHN and they weigh in about 162 gr each. I currently have about 50 of these cast.

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/D301B4B0-BEFF-4A60-8B0F-3BF624789B69_zps7zooeqn5.jpg

I intend to copper gas check these, lube with Lyman Orange Magic and size to .358 and load them with either a full load of Trail Boss, or Reloader 7. My question is how fast can I drive these once gas checked? With a gas check and lube these should come in at 170 gr each. The Lyman Cast Bullet Handbook suggests 20 grains or so of RL7, but it would be an anemic 1250 FPS or so. I want to drive these as fast as possible, as accurately as possible without dealing with leading. I will be shooting this from a Marlin 336 :

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/93EA495B-27A4-4338-B637-B4A2CFDD059B_zps9aflaomy.jpg

My goal is to make this an accurate 50 yard bullet for deer or pigs in brush and to reach out to 125 yards is necessary. This bullet has a BC of about .215 and my ideal goal is 2100 FPS . The gun shown has a micro groove barrel, which does not have a stellar cast bullet reputation.

Thank you in advance for sharing your experience and advice.

D

[Mr Humble]

IME micro grooves work fine with HARD cast boolits that are 1-3 thou over the maximum slugged bore dimension. 2100 is a big stretch and 357 Magnum velocities will kill any piggy that walks.

Why are you using a handgun boolit in a rifle ? I would prefer the NOE 360-230-RF RD.

[BigDanS]

IME micro grooves work fine with HARD cast boolits that are 1-3 thou over the maximum slugged bore dimension. 2100 is a big stretch and 357 Magnum velocities will kill any piggy that walks.

Why are you using a handgun boolit in a rifle ? I would prefer the NOE 360-230-RF RD.

Mostly because it is what I have at this time. In my head, 165 gr is the same as a 30-06 in weight, certainly not velocity. However, the Federal Hydroshock in .357 makes about 1700 FPS plus from an 18 inch barrel, and I desire to be a little hotter than that. I am not attached to making 2100 FPS , but it's a goal. I have some 207 gr .361 cast Lyman 358315BV that I could use, although they are not a flat point, and I am not sure how easy it will be to shave them down to .358 / .359:

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/F49D8EDA-9947-47FE-B00B-0B059EDE7FC1_zpsrbmyatan.jpg


I have a Lyman 450 coming and a .358 sizing die. I am not sure how much fun it will be sizing down .003 to .004 in a single pass on really hard alloy. I will likely load a few of these as well.

D

[dubber123]

I shoot 50/50 WW-Pb air cooled, BHN runs about 9. My load is very close to 2,200 fps, and shoots very well, with no leading whatsoever. The 358156 looks to have as much lube capacity as the boolit I am using. There are other factors, I firelapped my barrel, and I have a very good lube. All you can do is try, but 2,000+ would not surprise me in the least. I STRONGLY suggest you size as large as will chamber. My 336 chambers a .361" boolit easily, and fat boolits and MicroGroove barrels are a happy combination.

[45-70 Chevroner]

50 percent lino seams like a waste of good lino. You really don't need that hardness for what you are looking to do. 12 BHN or even less will work well and give better expansion. I would be concerned about that 16 BHN just zipping through the quarry. Johnny

[Four-Sixty]

I too am surprised at how little cast boolit experimentation is done, it seems, with 35 remington and handgun boolits.

I have a CVA hunter in 35 remington and just played with the lee 125 grain RNFP, and some other 9mm cast boolits over 6.5 and 7.3 grains of red dot. The loads look very promising at 40 yards (They spin the target mightily). I looked in my load log and was surprised to see I loaded NO 35 Remington in 2016. I aim to rectify that this year!

[gunarea]

Hey BigDanS
My 336 is a 1971 centennial I bought new in 1972. I have loaded 115gr cast, up to the legendary 200gr RCBS. The 170gr SW I have, is a Lyman and only has a single crimp groove. Load the 200gr for pigs, fast and soft. For our deer, the 170gr is more than enough at handgun velocities. Pistol bullets in my 35 is old news for me and my kids. The guys are correct in their hardness assessment of your slugs. As a Florida cracker, this is experience not theory. I'll go out tomorrow and take some pictures if there is any interest.
Roy

[35remington]

A 35 Remington will easily do 2100 with that bullet weight. Top end with RL7 is in the 33 grain vicinity but accuracy will fade before then. Prefer .360-.361 in my own Microgroove Marlins. Hopefully the great protrusion below the case neck will not cause problems.

336s have short throats and will require that bullet to have little full diameter in front of the case mouth. Deep seated in other words. Best accuracy likely at 1200-1600 fps speeds.

[BigDanS]

50 percent lino seams like a waste of good lino. You really don't need that hardness for what you are looking to do. 12 BHN or even less will work well and give better expansion. I would be concerned about that 16 BHN just zipping through the quarry. Johnny

I bought about 100 lbs of lino a year or so again from someone selling here, I believe they were from Pennsylvania. I finished processing it today into ingots. I currently have 80 lbs total process, so it is my go to metal if I cast hard. I cast my first boolits last week.

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/11FFA428-5B97-413A-9FA9-49D2CDA0D3EF_zpssyceoigu.jpg


D

[45-70 Chevroner]

Boy what a stash! If money was no object.

[Echo]

Mostly because it is what I have at this time. In my head, 165 gr is the same as a 30-06 in weight, certainly not velocity. However, the Federal Hydroshock in .357 makes about 1700 FPS plus from an 18 inch barrel, and I desire to be a little hotter than that. I am not attached to making 2100 FPS , but it's a goal. I have some 207 gr .361 cast Lyman 358315BV that I could use, although they are not a flat point, and I am not sure how easy it will be to shave them down to .358 / .359:

http://i1284.photobucket.com/albums/a561/Daniel_Scipione/F49D8EDA-9947-47FE-B00B-0B059EDE7FC1_zpsrbmyatan.jpg


I have a Lyman 450 coming and a .358 sizing die. I am not sure how much fun it will be sizing down .003 to .004 in a single pass on really hard alloy. I will likely load a few of these as well.

D

I would look at sizing them .360, or at least .359. I use that -315 in my 35 Whelen...

[MyFlatline]

.360 has been the magic number for me, best of luck.

[earlmck]

I have several 35 Remingtons in Marlin 336 and Remington 14 and 141. One of the Remingtons has a tight enough chamber it wants a .359 bullet. So I simplify life and size to that; none of the others seem to object. And just for your interest and amusement, Lee makes a 6-cavity in their beautiful 205 grain (copy of the RCBS bullet I'd guess). I'm liking that one real well.
Oh yeah, I have never had leading using water dropped ww, but accuracy for me seems to drop as I exceed 1700 to 1800 fps. I did a few with Lino and didn't see any accuracy advantage.

[cuzinbruce]

Before you load up a bunch of 358156 in 35 Rem for the Marlin, I would suggest that you make up a couple dummy cartridges. See how they cycle through the magazine and chamber. As someone else suggested, see if there is enough leade in front of the chamber for the that bullet's front band. I have a Rem 141 and have to seat the Lyman 358315 200gr RN deeper than the crimp groove or they won't chamber properly. If I use the crimp groove, the gun won't close, and there are rifling marks on the bullet at the case neck. Also the SWC design can be a problem with some tubular magazines as far as feeding. It is just not as streamlined to slide in. Some guns it may be fine, some not.

[Good Cheer]

#358315 is made to suit the standard chamber dimensions for the .35... but in the real world dimensions can be anything.

Just random synapses firing about the .35...
I want something like this but will probably forego the cost of a custom.
185646

The Lee 200 grainer appears to be suited to the chamber I have now in a 1953 Marlin.
The Model 81 Remington was big in the neck diameter. The '53 is a little bit big and has deep rifling. Might paper patch the Lee.

358315 shot well in the 81 with H335. I always thought that it needed nose plugs to swap out and make FP / HP alternatives but the slugs didn't have the weight to spare so never pursued the idea. And I was left eyed and the Stith mounts were wrong eyed so I sold it.

The 358430 is going to have to get tried with black if I figger out the seating length and the grease cookie.

[rockrat]

25% lino would be plenty in your alloy. Size to .360" You probably can get to 2400fps with that boolit with decent accuracy, easily. I would look at 4895 powder. I pushed that same boolit to 2400fps in my 357max rifle with 2-3" groups @100yds

[Soundguy]

I'm using a lee 200gr fp, gas check for my marlin 336 in 35 REM, sized to .359, using a homemade medium hard loob.

Works great. Its the boolit I'm using as my avatar. Hornady gas check. Lyman #2 alloy.

[earlmck]

I'm using a lee 200gr fp, gas check for my marlin 336 in 35 REM, sized to .359, using a homemade medium hard loob.

Works great. Its the boolit I'm using as my avatar. Hornady gas check. Lyman #2 alloy.

That's the one, Soundguy! That bullet you use in your avatar produced by the 6-cavity Lee (one of the few rifle-style bullets they put out in the 6-cavity). Us 35 Rem shooters are being treated very well by those Lee folks.

When you combine the short neck of the 35 Rem case, the angled feeding of the lever-action, the almost-nonexistent throat of the standard 35 Rem chamber -- well there are a bunch of nice 357 pistol bullets that don't function all that well in the old 35 Rem. But this 200 to 205 to 210 (my Lee puts 'em out at 210 grains with my medium-hard alloy) grainer produced by Lee, RCBS, and Lyman -- we don't need to look past this for our 35 Rem shootin'.

[Soundguy]

That's the one, Soundguy! That bullet you use in your avatar produced by the 6-cavity Lee (one of the few rifle-style bullets they put out in the 6-cavity). Us 35 Rem shooters are being treated very well by those Lee folks.

When you combine the short neck of the 35 Rem case, the angled feeding of the lever-action, the almost-nonexistent throat of the standard 35 Rem chamber -- well there are a bunch of nice 357 pistol bullets that don't function all that well in the old 35 Rem. But this 200 to 205 to 210 (my Lee puts 'em out at 210 grains with my medium-hard alloy) grainer produced by Lee, RCBS, and Lyman -- we don't need to look past this for our 35 Rem shootin'.

Yup, me and a buddy both shoot these in our marlin 336's. We lil them better than commercial ammo.

[GooseGestapo]

I tried the 358156 many years ago in my M336. I had to seat it to mid-foward driving band to get them to chamber. I had to single load them as they wouldn't readily feed due to the sharp shoulder. Also, accuracy was mediocre as I only had .358" sizer. Likewise the Lee 158gr RFN at 1,200-1,500fps (no gas check)

After obama ammogeddon, I couldn't find Remington or Sierra 200gr RN, so I "bit the bullet" and bought a RCBS 200gr FNGC mold. Like the earlier attempts, accuracy was 4" at 50yds or worse.
I aquired a .360" sizer and honed it out maybe another .001".
WOW! Accuracy with 34.5gr of H4895 dropped to ~3" at 100yds. I further cast another batch of bullets of 50/50 air cooled w/w- pure lead and with 39.0gr BLC2, I get sub 2" 5-shot groups at 100yds.
Im getting 2,050fps, and bullets as cast with Hornady gas check run 220gr. That's more energy than even Hornady LeverEvolution factory ammo.
Very effective on deer and pigs. I hollow point the ones I hunt with by drilling a 3/16 x 3/8" deep hp. I get 3-4" exit wounds on deer and pigs. I've never recovered but two cast bullets from game: A 150gr Lee .358 HPGC over 6.8gr of Universal from a 175lb pig I shot in the head ( straight down from deer stand) and; a .311" Lee 150gr FNGC from .30/30 over 7.5gr Unique from 140lb doe. Raking foward lung shot penetrated ~20", found slightly riveted under hide.
Even the half dozen or so deer I've shot with .225" cast have exited!

Feel free to replicate our previous efforts, but I think you'll be ahead to buy a $22 Lee 200gr .358" FNGC mold and $24 .360" sizer die. MidwayUSA has the molds on sale for $19.83. I also use a Lyman 450 and SPG lube.