How would a modified Lee Loader work?

[BCall]

I am just curious. I like having Lee Loaders. I don't use them much, but I enjoy using the ones I have on a limited basis. I load most of my ammo on a conventional single stage press, but have been spending some time fooling around with some loaders I have collected. My goal was to get one for every caliber I reload for, and I am close. I do not have one for 35 Whelen though, and am unsure if one was ever made in the cartridge. If one had access to a lathe, could a 30-06 loader be "rechambered" for 35 Whelen? Maybe cut a new bullet seater, or use one from a 35 Remington loader? Just curious if anyone thought it might work. Thanks, Billy

[flutedchamber]

I guess you are talking about the Lee "hammer style" loaders?? If so.. first I am not sure there is enough meat left on the die to do the caliber conversion that you want to do. Second, you would need a chambering reamer of some sort to cut the correct angles, etc.

For giggles try sending an email to Lee and ask if they will make a hammer loader in 35 Whelen. You may be told the force needed to resize the case exceeds the design of the tool.

[BCall]

I was talking abou the hammer loader. Just curious why you think it would be excessive in 35 whelen but not 35 Remington or 45-70? Am I missing something? Lee won't do any custom work for the loaders anymore. They used to, but are about to quit making them I believe, guess they don't want to fool with them anymore. Thanks, Billy

[1hole]

You COULD do that conversion but...it may be more trouble than it's really worth!

I don't know for a fact that the old Lee neck sizers are case hardened but suspect they are. If so, no chamber reamer or common drill will cut it, takes a carbide tool to do that.

[Junior1942]

John Lee told me a year or two ago that their Lee Classic Loaders were on the way out. Since then, I've bought one in almost every caliber for which I load. I prefer loading 45-70 on a whackit loader.

[flutedchamber]

I was talking abou the hammer loader. Just curious why you think it would be excessive in 35 whelen but not 35 Remington or 45-70? Am I missing something? Lee won't do any custom work for the loaders anymore. They used to, but are about to quit making them I believe, guess they don't want to fool with them anymore. Thanks, Billy

Billy,

I'm not very experienced on the Lee hammer style loader. My point on it not being strong enough is that Lee made this loader in limited calibers, ie ones that could successfully be resized in this manner. Since brass is much softer than regular steel, I would assume that there would be sufficient wall thickness left on the tool after reworking into a new caliber.

As far as why there is no problem with a 45-70 hammerloader..straight wall cases, no matter what caliber, resize relatively easily when compared to bottleneck cases. Take a 45-70 case and a 458 Winchester case and squeeze the end of each case as hard as you can between your thumb and forefinger with your strong hand. Take notice which one collapses.

[BCall]

Thanks guys, I am currently going to ask a friend with a lathe to take a look at it when he has time.

flutedchamber- the Lee classic loaders only neck size rifle brass, and mine are pretty easy to resize. just a few taps with a plastic mallet, and they are seated. I prime on a hand priming tool-not with a hammer. Lee used to make these loaders in a large number of calibers. I have an ad sheet here that lists them from 17 remington(would love to find that one) up to 460 Weatherby mag. Since they only neck size, I think they have plenty of strength. Although they did make some "unitized" loaders that did full length size at one time-those are hard to use-I have one in 243.

My whole thought was, kinda like reboring a barrel, that one would be able to rebore a 30-06 neck area to 35 caliber, and use it for 35 whelen. No need to do the whole chamber, as it only neck sizes. If the die is hardened, it's probably a moot point, because it would be more difficult than necessary. Do they case harden regular dies? Thanks, Billy

[flutedchamber]

Regular dies are hardened before being final ground and polished. After reading your post it is probably the unitized loader that I was thinking of..like I said, I wasn't that familiar with the Lee hammer loaders.

Even if the loader is hardened you just need a guy with a ID/OD grinder. He will be able to grind the size of the die to the correct dimension with ease and it will leave a very fine finish, probably better than the original finish.

[EDG]

A .270 or .30-06 Lee Loader can easily have the neck opened to work with the .35 Whelen.
A .35 seater stem would have to be made.
The Lee tool has a rather unique feature (tapered neck ID) to allow the same die to both size the neck and seat bullets. It is a slip shod design if you value precision. From the view of precision two dies, one for sizing and one for seating is a better solution.

Added edit
You could easily make a two die lee hand tool set. Just open a .30-06 die with a straight ID to size the neck. The second .30-06 tool would be opened a few thousandths larger than a neck with a seated bullet.A seating punch would have to be made.
The would result in a set of hand tools that function like the well known Wilson hand tools.

Unfortunately Wilson does not supply bushings to size a .35 cal neck.
However Wilson does make a .35 Whelen seater and it would be great for your use. Just modify a Lee
.30-06 sizer and buy the L E Wilson seater. You would have a precision set up.
You might find some one to modify a 30-06 Wilson sizer for a larger bushing and you would basically have a set of .35 Whelen bench rest loading tools.