New NOE 360-310 FN "The 35 Thumper"

[5Shot]

Hey guys, that's some good shooting! I'm going to have to step it up!

5Shot, is your WC852 (F) considered to be the faster lot, like H380?

EDIT: Ha, just found about a half pound of WC852 (marked H380 with a sharpie) from 1997, out on my powder shelf.

Yes, this is the lot that is supposed to be H380 burn rate. I have the slower lot as well.

[35 shooter]

Man, you guys are trouble makers.

YEP! It's all yodog's fault though, he designed a good boolit and now i've got to get another 35 cal. mould!

[Yodogsandman]

Man, you guys are trouble makers.

I welcome their posts! Not much info out there on heavy cast boolits for the 35 Whelen... except for a few good Paco articles.

35shooter, just remember, I had a lot of help with the design from the best boolit minds ever.

Thanks 5Shot, I'll have to try some WC852 (F) too, I think it's the fast lot#.

[35 shooter]

I welcome their posts! Not much info out there on heavy cast boolits for the 35 Whelen... except for a few good Paco articles.

35shooter, just remember, I had a lot of help with the design from the best boolit minds ever.

Thanks 5Shot, I'll have to try some WC852 (F) too, I think it's the fast lot#.

Guys, yodog is being very modest here as usual. He came up with the original design for this boolit(which was a very good one imho), then sought out a bit of input on it for any possible improvement to it.

He added a bit of the input to the design, got with AL to draw it up, finalize the design and make it and now we have the 310 Thumper!

Good job yodogsandman!

[Yodogsandman]

[QUOTE=5Shot;3536326
55.0 - although this isn't the best group, it certainly is sufficient...and a real thumper. This one hurts on the back end too. I won't be trying anything beyond this - I don't think it is necessary.

The uppermost holes are from the 53.0 group above.

[/QUOTE]

Be aware and beware, Castpics shows 50.0gr as max load using a 278gr Lyman 358009 for a normal 35 Whelen. I know yours is a AI version.

http://castpics.net/dpl/index.php/re.../358-35-whelen

[5Shot]

Be aware and beware, Castpics shows 50.0gr as max load using a 278gr Lyman 358009 for a normal 35 Whelen. I know yours is a AI version.

http://castpics.net/dpl/index.php/re.../358-35-whelen

I was using data from Hodgdon #26, and they list 56.0 as the max with a jacketed 300 grain bullet (H380). That being said, there were ZERO signs of pressure and no noticeable change in bolt lift. I don't think the AI gains much of anything in terms of payload over the standard Whelen.

[Yodogsandman]

I didn't check the Hodgdon #26. I don't have their manual. 35ahooter sent a PM and says the Lee manual shows a similar max H380 load. Thanks for letting me know that my concerns were unfounded. From your results, it looks like I should try some WC852 or H380 for myself.

[5Shot]

No problem. I am sure that water dropping them makes a big difference too.

[5Shot]

Made another trip to the range to test out the two best loads from my last outing (53.0 and 55.0 WC852f). The bullets were the same WW + 2%, water dropped, aged for several weeks and this time lubed with 50/50 and a single coat of BLL. I was careful to weight sort the bullets to insure I didn't have any fliers due to my carelessness (again). The first group with 53.0 was nowhere near where I thought it should be, so I did not pull the targets or take pics. 55.0, on the other hand, was spectacular. I had 4 shots that measured 0.804, center to center. The 5th shot (4th of the string) went way high, and I believe it was all me. It was raining a bit, and the tupperware stock got a bit slippery...when I touched off the round, the recoil ripped the forearm right out of my hand and I believe this caused the round to strike high. The last shot went right in the middle of the group, due to me hanging on this time. I think I have found my load - I plan on testing the lubes, head to head, one last time and will pick a winner for my hunting load.

[35 shooter]

Nice 5shot. That is looking good.
I shot my 53 gr. imr4350 load again today, but made a rookie mistake.
I seated to 3.200" before, but didn't write it down.

The last thing i wrote down when getting my seating depth was 3.220" and 1/16" engagement with rifling.
I went with what i had written down(3.220") and got two 5 shot 6" groups before i realized what i had done.

Got to retry @ 3.200 and 53 gr. again....and yes, this old rifle can be just that touchy on seating depth, which is why i call it "ol contrary" lol.

Also got a real nice scope cut shooting with one hand on the rifle and the other controlling the rear rest. I believe this may be a two handed load.
Took the chrono, but didn't set it up, since it was shooting so wild...grrrrr!

[ton45]

I just picked up that mold from NOE! I can't wait to develop an awesome load for my Ruger number 1 in 35 Whelen and that magical 1-12 twist for this projectile.

[Yodogsandman]

ton45, Welcome to the site! You've made a great mold choice! Please, post your observations and results.

[Yodogsandman]

I experienced sticky extraction with bright scrapes on the case body and case head using 56.0 gr of commercial H-380. The primers were very flattened, too! I had to break down the rest of the cases. I will not shoot loads over 54.0 gr H-380 with this boolit in my rifle again.

[sthwestvictoria]

Great thread on the heavier .358 cast projectiles.
this is another thread around using the .360 300grain from Australia's CBE:
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...en-loads/page3

[brasshog]

I have a long throated Rem CDl in 35 Whelen with a 1 in 16 twist. This looks like a solution to my problem as the RCBS 35-200-FN will only be seated deep enough for the gas check to hide in the brass when set .030 off of the lands. I was considering the NOE 360-245-RN (FN) because it was about 1/8" longer but the loaded round pics on this thread looks dead sexy. Has anyone tried this in a 1in16 twist as of yet ?

[5Shot]

I can measure one and check it for stability on the Berger Bullets program.

[brasshog]

Thank you 5shot. I checked it via the berger twist rate calculator using the NOE diagram measurements and it say's that it should work fine. I had forgotten about that calculator. I like the wide meplate of the 245gr and the size of the optional HP for it but I don't think that it is really long enough for a full caliber depth of seating. The rcbs 3-200-fn is almost a 1/4" too short. The 245 is about 1/8" longer on a caliper & not considering ogive differences for actual seating depth. The 310gr is almost too much for any southern hunting but it might be a "Do it all" type of boolit if I ever get to hunt elsewhere.

[5Shot]

According to the Berger Program and NOE Drawing, it is extremely stable, even down to sub sonic velocity with a 1:16.

[5Shot]

Just wanted to do a quick update. I just took delivery on a second 35 Whelen AI - this time on a M70 Featherweight. Pac-Nor Barrel, 1:14 Twist, 22" length. I had it contoured to match the factory barrel, so it dropped right into the factory stock with no work at all. Instead of a 3X-9X like my Remington, the Fwt has a 1.5x-5x Leupold VX3i.

This time Thumper (water dropped) was lubed with 2500+ and I did not fill the top lube groove. The leade on this rifle is a bit different, as the reamer came from Manson instead of JGS, so the OAL of the loaded rounds was a bit longer. I just wanted to get a feel for how this slug would do in this rifle, as the throat is also a tad bigger than my other rifle and I wasn't sure if the already sized Thumpers would have too much clearance and cause leading. I loaded up 10 with 52.0 grains of WC852f and lit them with Fed 215 primers. Brass was formed from Winchester once fired 30-06, and this was its first firing in the Improved chamber.

I scrubbed the barrel as clean as I could in the 10 or so minutes that I had available, but I know there was still a bit of copper left from my earlier shooting. The first 3 rounds would not be considered a group, but then it settled right down and made a pretty decent group. I did have one unexpected flier, which impacted close to one of the first 3, but that means nothing really, and I am not sure what cause it. The group ended up with 6 rounds in it, minus the 7th round flier which was about 1.5" wide, and the group measured 1.35" C-C. Velocity from the PACT Chrono averaged 2070 FPS (and this load is below max by at least 4 grains, and is 3 grains below the best group from my Remington). A full charge should put this round at over 2300 FPS. The round in the upper lefthand corner was from testing some Speer Hot Cors.

There is more work to do, but it is a promising start.

[lucifers]

Interesting post !

I have an NEI thumper boolit with a front driving band.

It shoots MOA in a 35W as well.