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Maineboy
01-28-2006, 08:57 AM
I had a Mauser rebarreled to 35 Whelen with an Adams and Bennet medium sporter barrel, drilled and tapped for scope mounts and a receiver sight, and fitted with a maple-walnut laminate stock. It looks and feels pretty nice, but I put more money into this project than I'd planned. Hopefully it will turn out to be a good shooter. I've got some boolits cast up from the David Moss 358009M mould that Sundog so graciously sent me and will reload them with 4 different powders this week-end. I think I can find time to head to the range next week for some accuracy testing, but it will be too cold for chronographing. I'm going to shoot this without a scope for awhile, as I'm going to have to buy one for this rifle and my shooting money is a bit tight right now. Anyone have any loads they want to suggest? I'm not looking to push this boolit over 2000 fps.

sundog
01-28-2006, 09:14 AM
Yeee-haw, Maineboy. Got it ready to go, huh? Sounds nice. I did not come up with this load, but apparently several on the board use it with that boolit - 40.0/IMR4895/1900fps. It's good enough when I first tried it that its all I use. MOA at 200 yds. Of course, that from a good bbl with a good glass on it. I see a Moose hunt in your future! sundog

Maineboy
01-28-2006, 10:10 AM
Yeee-haw, Maineboy. Got it ready to go, huh? Sounds nice. I did not come up with this load, but apparently several on the board use it with that boolit - 40.0/IMR4895/1900fps. It's good enough when I first tried it that its all I use. MOA at 200 yds. Of course, that from a good bbl with a good glass on it. I see a Moose hunt in your future! sundog

Thanks Sundog, I don't have any on 4895 on hand, but I see some in my future. I'll give it a try for sure.

KCSO
01-28-2006, 10:16 AM
For plinking I have used the Saeco 180 grain rnfp pistol bullet with some sucess.

Maineboy
01-28-2006, 12:31 PM
I put together some dummy rounds with the big flat point 358009 and they don't feed from the magazine unless you load it singly. It looks like that big boolit hangs up on the feed ramp, then if you "coax" it by, it will hang up on the back of the barrel. Anyone else shooting a converted military mauser in 35 Whelen that had the same problem? I don't have any pointy boolits to try, but the gun will feed 30-06 rounds without a hitch.

StarMetal
01-28-2006, 12:56 PM
Maineboy,

Without fooling around with the feed ramp or rails doing any grinding that you can't put back, perhaps pick up a spare magazine follower and modify it so it is a tad more elevated in the front portion nearer the breech. That ways you don't mess up anything on the action itself. Be kind of like having a separate follower for that fat flat nose bullet you're having problems with, then go back to the normal follower for the more normal bullets.

Joe

drinks
01-28-2006, 01:46 PM
Maineboy;
You do not give a weight for the bullet.
I have a H&R ultra in .35 Whelen, but most everything I load is over 2000fps.
I mostly use a 214gr, rn, gc from Lyman, IMR 4198, 35gr, = 2120fps.
H4895, 40gr, =2000fps.
Rel7, 39gr, =2160fps.
Only slow one is BLC-2, 45gr,1860fps.
The first 4 are my bottom loads, I am getting 2400 + fps with good accuracy and no leading.
With a 158gr, swc,gc, I have gotten over 2650 fps, but the accuracy past 50 yds is not very good.

Scrounger
01-28-2006, 02:07 PM
Maineboy,

Without fooling around with the feed ramp or rails doing any grinding that you can't put back, perhaps pick up a spare magazine follower and modify it so it is a tad more elevated in the front portion nearer the breech. That ways you don't mess up anything on the action itself. Be kind of like having a separate follower for that fat flat nose bullet you're having problems with, then go back to the normal follower for the more normal bullets.

Joe

A good thought from Joe but let's simplify that a bit. Build up the front of the follower with tape and felt or cardboard until you find out what is right, THEN modify one if you like.... Or make an adaptor from fiberglass or leather or whatever.

Bass Ackward
01-28-2006, 07:09 PM
David,

In addition to what Joe and Scrounger want you to try, I would like to see you place a loaded cartridge in the bolt face by hand and then see how much play you have and if the cartridge appears straight. Do this out of the gun. Play needs to be minimal with wider meplats and longer bullets.

If there is too much wobble, it is too lose for your application and it will need to be bent slightly. If the extractor is too tight it can push the case enough to one side to hang up. A light file may be necessary and you will see how when you study the problem.

sundog
01-28-2006, 07:22 PM
It's a nominal 280 grains and about 1.090 with GC. BIG boolit for caliber. YEA!!! Works okay in a long action 700 - one that started life as a 30-06. Why would anyone even want to use anything else?

David, do the single feeds chamber okay? You know, it only takes one shot.... sundog

waksupi
01-28-2006, 08:44 PM
I'd also suggest trying a different follower profile. Spring tension could also be a contributor. Modifying the feed rails is an absolute last resort.

Buckshot
01-29-2006, 04:04 AM
....................A full case of either WC860 or 872 works great and burns pretty clean. Maybe a couple grains left over. About 1675 fps from a buddies Turk M38 with a Midway barrel. Put 3.0grs of H4198 under a caseload of either of those 2 surplus powders and you're up a bit over 1800 fps.

Accuracy for my friend was very good at 100 yards going sub 2" for 5 rounds. Ammo wasn't tricked out for accuracy. The rifle was scoped with a 3-9 Leupold VxII.

.............Buckshot

Maineboy
01-29-2006, 01:35 PM
I don't see how this rifle will feed cartridges loaded with this boolit without modifying the feed rails and/or the feed ramp. Making changes to the follower doesn't seem to matter except for the last cartridge in the magazine, as the boolits take the "shape" of the bottom of the feed rails when pushed up by the magazine spring. As it is now, when the bolt pushes the cartridge forward, the neck and boolit encounter the front of the tapered feed rail, which "steers" the cartridge toward the opposite side of the action. It doesn't happen with "06" cartridges because they don't have the fat neck so they don't encounter the feed rail in the neck/boolit area. The last cartridge in the magazine (which would be the first one loaded) feeds because it is not resting on another cartridge and the magazine follower allows it to sit more toward the center of the magazine and a bit higher. This last cartridge will feed pretty reliably.

Bass Akward, the cartridge is held firmly and dead straight by the extractor and bolt.

stocker
01-29-2006, 03:30 PM
Maineboy:

I had the same problems with an FN commercial Mauser using any blunt nosed cast bullet including 358009. After a lot of tinkering I got it up and running.

I had to adjust extractor tension, feed ramp slope and width and the left rail and the shoulders in the rails. I also increaed the original chamber edge radius slightly to reduce nose grabbing.

I'm not sure it's perfect yet but it is working and I'm going to get a stronger spring for the follower as occasionally the follower wants to nose dive as the bullet is fed forward. Feeding and extraction of spitzer J-bullets is flawless and improved (smoother) with the mods I ended up with. The spitzer bullets enter the chamber and the bullet sliding along the chamber wall helps pop the cartridge fully under the extractor whereby it slips right in. The blunt cast bullets tend to catch the shoulder of chamber so can't get the benefit of the leverage the chamber wall applies to jacketed spitzers.

If there had been a gunsmith anywhere near who I thought knew how to make it feed I would gladly have let him do it rather than the fooling around I did, being quite fearful of screwing it up entirely.

Maineboy
02-03-2006, 06:16 PM
I took the Whelen to the range today with 3 different loadings. The gun has a peep sight and front bead but they are hard to use as the stock is designed for a scope. I just can't comfortably get down on it to use the the irons. I'm going to have to scope it next trip. I brought 3 different loadings with the 358009m, 29.5 grains of SR4759, 36.5 grains of CMR100, and 35 grains of IMR4198. I shot at both 50 and 100 yards. The pictured group is the 4198 load at 50 yds. The same loading at 100 yards was exactly double in size. The CMR100 loading was nearly as good and the SR4759 load was a distant third. I haven't made any mods to improve feeding. The gun is basically a single shot but I can load 2 rounds and coax the first on to chamber, so I guess it's a 2 shot repeater.