35 Remington Loading Problem

[Pirate69]

I bought a TLC359-190-RF mold from Ranch Dog. Casts a great bullet. Now the problem. I made-up dummy rounds to determine the seating depth so it just engraved the lands. When I chambered the rounds, the boolits are pushed deep enough that the ogive is in the neck and the boolit drops in the case. Boolits are sized to 0.359". At this point I am not applying a crimp. I have been loading a 158 grain pistol boolit without any problems but the 190 grainer is longer. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[35remington]

I am presuming this is in a levergun, which often have short throats, and the most common levergun is the 336 Marlin. You did not specify.

First, move this post to the levergun section where more who are familiar with your issues can help you.

Second, rather than a slip fit, try it with a bullet in a sized case neck to see if the short throat will push a firmly held but uncrimped bullet as far in the case. Now try it crimped and see what happens. If it still shoves the bullet back with a crimp, and/or it makes it difficult to chamber and eject the round, you have two choices:

1) Throat the rifle
2) Try another bullet. Before monkeying with anything, I'd try another design like the RCBS 200 FN.

If your rifle tolerates absolutely no full caliber section past the case mouth with a cast bullet, think about what this means to you, then make the correct decision after you're absolutely sure what you want. If your rifle does not like either the Ranch Dog crimped in the top groove, nor the RCBS, then your rifle is a bit shorter throated than even the typical short throat Marlin.

My rifles will engrave and have slight lever closing effort, but nothing I cannot live with.

[Pirate69]

Thanks for the input. How do I move the post?

Yes, it is a 336 Marlin. I was using a resized case. I will check the crimp tomorrow.

[Ben]

You'll need the help of a moderator.

[uscra112]

Drill the primer pocket out of the case you are using for testing. About 1/4 inch. Then you can use a pin or a cut-off drill shank or even a nail to push the boolit back up. I don't know much about the Ranch Dog shapes but it sure sounds like you've got a boolit that is way too large in the nose area. I shot a Marlin in .35 Rem quite a lot, 10-12 years ago, using Lyman 358315 gas checked and plain semi wadcutters of 158 and 175 grain weight. I love that gun, love that cartridge, but I'm now in Ohio where I can't use it legally. Marlins can be made to shoot very well without messing with the throat, so I'd look for another boolit. Do some meaurement before you go off buying helter-skelter, though.

Using the drilled case, try tapping your Ranch Dog boolit into the lands until it sits correctly in the case. That will tell you a lot. (You will doubtless have to bump it back out with a rod down the muzzle.) From that boolit you may be able to determine your exact bore diameter, which is key.

Is yer Marlin a Microgroove or a Ballard groove? The Microgroove typically wants a bit bigger nose than the Ballard groove. Mine did, and my 358315 mold got lapped to make the nose fit properly.

A boolit that fits the Microgroove may be too big in the nose for the Ballard groove version.

[Carolina Cast Bullets]

Easy fix is to simply trim the case mouth back about .005"

The shorter neck will not hurt anything and will allow the round to be chambered easily when
crimped in the normal crimp groove. Case capacity is diminshed only a minimal amount and
and unless loading to max + wont hurt.

Mike at Ranch Dog and I both use this method in 336"s

Jerry
Carolina Cast Bullets

[Pirate69]

It is a 336 Marlin Microgroove.

I had thought about shorting the case neck but I did not know if that was appropiate to do. That will be one of my options to try. I will first try to see if a solid crimp in the first lube groove will hold it as it engraves the lands.

I should have recognized the problem with a longer bullet since I had noted that the 158 grainer had to be seated deep in order to make it work. I must have a short chamber.

Late Afternoon Update: Well it looks like I was doing something stupid. I make my own 30 cal checks from aluminum. I have been able to get away with just sticking the Al checks on the boolits and seating them without any issues. I am using Gator copper checks for the 35 Remington and it appears that the unsized Cu check is flaring the neck so the boolit drops through when the check clears the neck. DA. I ran a boolit through the 0.359" sizer with the check installed and it seats properly with no movement while just touching the lands. As a dummy round it feeds good. Now to load a few and see if it shoots.

[Fat-beeman]

I load lot for 35 with 150 gr up to 250 gr. if your using lead gc you need the lee expander die you can just flare the necks so lead fits in just above the gc then it wont shave the lead. I always trim to length each time . I have just finished loading some XTP's in my 35rem there a pistol 180gr use 35 gr of 3031work fine. there is 2 canalures on the bullet I use the upper one.
Don

[garandsrus]

Moved for you :)

John