.350 Rem Mag Cast Bullet Loads

[Clay M]

I have one of the Rem 700 classics in .350 mag. I am looking at developing some loads. The standard production molds are limited. RCBS makes a nice 200 gr flat nose. Just wanted to see if anyone here has done any cast bullet load development with this round.Al Miller wrote an article in the older Handloader Manuel "The Art of Casting Bullets". He sings the praises of the .350 mag for cast bullets.My rifle is a short action so I am thinking a custom mold of around 225 grains.

[rockrat]

Check out the closed group buy mould 360-230 thor mould and see if HM2 has any available.

[helice]

I have the 350 RM in the old M-600 action and have great appreciation for the cartridge and the rifle. It is a wonderful cartridge with all one needs to harvest practically anything in North Amerika. I have a couple LBT moulds that I have attempted to use: a 180 LFN GC, a 225 WFN GC and a 240 LWN PB. I have used the standard cast boolit powders (Red Dot, Unique, 2400) and have found Re-Loder 7 to be quite good. Magazine length and throat are the limiting factors for boolit construction. Edd Badgley (Fine Gentleman) sent me some of his modified 358315s which were an exceptionally accurate bore riding nose boolit with a wide meplat for devastating hunting performance. I was not too interested in great speed - 2000 foot seconds is "way" fast for this combination and all that I would ever need. I wanted more weight than speed. If the group buy mentioned above by rockrat is similar to Edd's design it would be a good investment. If you need more info pm me.

[altheating]

I use the RCBS 200 boolit in my Rem model 7 350 mag. Shoots great, it also shoots the same in the 35 rem and my 358 win. My buddy also tried it in his 35 rem last fall. It shoots real good for him as well. All four of the rifles that we shot it in gave the same results, 1" to 1.25" 100 yard groups all day if I do my part.

[Clay M]

I was surprised to see that Al Miller pushed the RCBS 200 gr bullet with 59 gr of 4064 for a vel of 2600fps.He didn't mention leading but said the groups were 1.5-2" at 100yds.

[cabezaverde]

What are you guys doing for brass?

[Clay M]

What are you guys doing for brass?

At the current time the Nosler brass would probably be the only option.

[cabezaverde]

I have been playing with forming some from 7mm Rem mag. Just have to investigate whether I need to turn the necks.

[bobthenailer]

I have been playing with forming some from 7mm Rem mag. Just have to investigate whether I need to turn the necks.

Factory remington brass should still be avaliable i bought 100 pieces a few years ago from a new run of brass , before that i made my own brass, i tried 7 mag, 300 mag brass and found that 338 win mag brass worked out the best to reform to 350 mag brass ! i ran the 338 cases through a trim die first and trimmed to length then i sized in a regular FL die set .
It is possible to do the reforming in the seater die with the seater rod removed but overall length is critical and my have to be partially sized then trimmed some and the sized all the way and then go through the regular sizer die

[Clay M]

What alloy would be best for pushing bullets over 2000 fps?

[chickenstripe]

40.0gr of H4895 pushed the RCBS-200-FN to 1800 fps out of my Remington 673.

1.75" groups at 100yds consistently.

ACWW sized 0.359, 206.4gr lubed and checked, with no leading

[Clay M]

40.0gr of H4895 pushed the RCBS-200-FN to 1800 fps out of my Remington 673.

1.75" groups at 100yds consistently.

ACWW sized 0.359, 206.4gr lubed and checked, with no leading

Do you use a filler or anything to hold the powder in place?

[Clay M]

I am thinking of using 3031,4895,Rel 7,and 4320.The velocity I want to achieve is between 2200-2500 fps with the 200 gr RCBS bullet.I am thinking Rel 7 will be a good place to start.I have both linotype and Lyman #2.

[chickenstripe]

No filler used.

Once I started getting to and above 2000fps with ACWW the groups went to 5"+ in a hurry.

50/50 ACWW/lino settled them back down to 3", but I'd prefer the extra accuracy over the 2-300fps gain in velocity. Besides, a 200gr boolit at 1800fps makes deer into meat.

I've tried several powders and have settled on H4895 for all of my cast load work in rifles. I've started with others, but always end up back at H4895.

[Clay M]

No filler used.

Once I started getting to and above 2000fps with ACWW the groups went to 5"+ in a hurry.

50/50 ACWW/lino settled them back down to 3", but I'd prefer the extra accuracy over the 2-300fps gain in velocity. Besides, a 200gr boolit at 1800fps makes deer into meat.

I've tried several powders and have settled on H4895 for all of my cast load work in rifles. I've started with others, but always end up back at H4895.

Thanks for the information .I have the RCBS Bullet mold on the way and plenty of H4895 so that is where I will start.I agree 1800-2000 is plenty for deer.

[Clay M]

I talked with the tech at Hodgdon and he said H4895 is one of the few medium burning rifle powder they recommend reducing. He said you can take the max load of H4895 for a round and bullet weight and multiply it by.60 and that is how low you can go with it.He also said don't do it with IMR4895

[35 shooter]

Clay i don't have the 350 but do shoot the 35 whelen, so close on case capacity i suppose.
No problems running fast with h4895 up to 2500 fps plus, but i did have to heat treat my boolits to get accurracy much past 1800 fps. Then everything came together. I heat treat @ 465* for 1 hour, then dump in cold water, works great! Gives a bhn of about 27 with straight wheel weight boolits.

[Clay M]

Clay i don't have the 350 but do shoot the 35 whelen, so close on case capacity i suppose.
No problems running fast with h4895 up to 2500 fps plus, but i did have to heat treat my boolits to get accurracy much past 1800 fps. Then everything came together. I heat treat @ 465* for 1 hour, then dump in cold water, works great! Gives a bhn of about 27 with straight wheel weight boolits.

What type of heat unit did you us, a small oven?

[MarkP]

I have (4) 350 Rem Mags I just love the cartridge and the light handy rifles & XP-100R all are 1:16" bbl's; Tom at Accurate molds made me a (3) cavity brass mold; 1 cavity drops a 247 gr and another a 273 gr and the third is a tip cavity which can be casted out of a softer alloy and re-inserted into one of the other cavities and filled with a harder alloy. It think they are labled 360-250 B & 360-270 B in his catalog. PM me and I will send you my drawings if you like.

A fun load I have found is using the NOE 360-180 HP over a full case of Trailboss it is about 1,850 fps out of my 20" bbl's. It is deadly on water filled pop bottles. Also have used SR-7625 with good results I like how Trailboss fills the case and perfer it.

I have had good results with the RCBS 35 - 200 gr FN with RL-7. I pushed it to 2,500 + with decent accuracy out to 170 yds with the two rifles I tested.

AA2015 for jacketed (225 Sierra); IMR 4320 with the 247 & 273 up to about 2,250 ish. Really the 350 Rem Mag is like a 308 it is not a picky cartridge to load I have used several powders over the years.

I have made cartridges from 7 mm Rem Mag; I remove the expander ball from die, form case, cut with fine blade hack saw while case is in file type trim die, file smooth, chamfer and de-burr, ream out ID of neck, run thru FL die with expander ball in place, check length and load. I do anneal the necks after I fired form them.

[35 shooter]

Clay.. yes a small toaster or convection type oven. Got mine for 24.00 @ a fred's store and they had some for 12.00. Best to pick up an oven thermometer tho, cause they tend to run a bit hotter than what the dials say. The type i have has burners top and bottom for even heat. If you've never done it before just be sure not to go past about 480* or the boolits will slump on you. 465* has been plenty of heat for me.