Favorite 35 Remington Cast Boolit Loads

[Boomer Mikey]

Several 35 caliber group buy molds have recently arrived and more are due to arrive soon.

How about sharing your 35 Remington cast bullet loads with us?

The books and manuals are fine but I think the collective experience here at Cast Boolits can provide us with information about what really works.

Please list bullet, bullet weight, bullet diameter, case, primer, powder charge, COL, type of load (reduced power, normal, hot) , and firearm.

Please feel free to add any additional information you feel is appropriate.

Boomer :Fire:

[Buckshot]

.............I addition to what you get here you can also check Castpics. Go to member's articles and there is one for the 35 Rem.

http://www.fototime.com/89E2F2C1A9E4DC7/standard.jpg
http://www.fototime.com/AEC40C4BAA66E93/standard.jpg

The above is my 35 Rem. It's built on a M1894 Brazilain small ring Mauser action, with a 20" Montana Rifleman barrel with a 16" twist. The stock is plastic which I usually avoid, but Cheaper Then Dirt (I think it was) had them on sale for $39 each so I couldn't pass it by.

A freind and I both had one made and we picked the 16" twist so we could use the pleantiful pistol boolit moulds. Both rifles turned out to be very nice shooters.

There were 2 truly outstanding loads I ran across. One is with the Lee 358-148WC. While it can be a troublesome feeder from the magazine, accuracy is all anyone could hope for. So if you have to single load or play 'Fiddle Fingers' helping one feed from the mag, I don't really mind.

The boolits were all TL'd and had been cast from a mix of WW and lino to yield a 16 BHN slug. They weighed 142grs and were sized to .359". The barrel slugs .350"x.358" and at the .359" sizing the slugs were barely touched, so after a few I stopped sizing and shot them as cast. Simpler.

The load is 7.0grs of W231 in R-P cases with Winchester Std primers. The boolits weren't crimped, but had the flare turned back in straight. From my rifle this load will consistantly have all 5 in a group at 50 yards go less then an inch. That's with iron sights. Many times 4 will cut a hole and sometimes all 5. I suspect if it was scoped, that wouldn't be hard to accomplish. Velocity is 1325 fps.

The other favorite load is on the other end of things and is the Saeco #356 mould which drops a 200gr FNGC. The load resulted in being one of a few "Perfect" loads using surplus powder. By this I mean it all comes together just right. A full case with the slug sitting on the powder, superb accuracy and a velocity in the upper regions for the cartridge and this boolit weight.

I started working with WC846 using BLC-2 data at the low end. As I increased the charge the groups closed up more and more, and naturally the velocity increased. I finally reached a full caseload of 41.0grs. This allowed the slug to be seated atop the powder charge and could be crimped into the crimp groove. Final velocity with this load is 2250 fps and 5 shot groups at 50 yards with iron sights will hover at an inch with usually 3- 4 rounds cutting each other. This is with visualy inspected boolits and thrown charges.

Here are 4 other very good higher end loads I did as a comparison:

Powder/charge .............Velocity..............ES

AA2200/36.0 ................ 2227 ...............76
BLC-2/36.0 ................... 1965 .............. 37
WC846/36.0 .................. 2086 ............. 35
WC844/36.0 .................. 2076 ............. 60

None of these used a filler, and had their charges thrown. If I were to use a filler, in these instances I would use a ground poly like Grex for the purpose. All these loads produced 50 yard 5 shot groups of less then 1.5" and any would suffice for deer or black bear. Alloy was listed as WW + scrap boolits, showing a 14 BHN.

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

[Boomer Mikey]

Nice post Rick,

A rifle you make yourself always has a special place in the safe and in your soul. I've built a few myself and they will stay with me as long as I'm here to enjoy them.

Well done; the WW231 load is what you won't find in most books, WW231 can provide cast bullet reduced loads with single digit standard deviation in many large rifle cases.

Boomer :Fire:

[Glen]

Either the RCBS or Saeco 200 grain GC-FP bullet, cast to a BHN of about 13, sized .359" and lubed with homemade moly lube. I use R-P and W-W cases, pretty much interchangeably. CCI 200 primers underneath 38.0 grains of H335. I don't have the COL handy off the top of my head, but they are seated to crimp in the crimp groove, and roll-crimped. Velocity is right at 2100 fps from a 20" Marlin 336. Both Microgroove and cut-rifled barrels shoot this load very nicely.

Another favorite is the 200 grain Lyman 358315 HP (a mould that I converted to drop HP bullets), also sized .359", over 36.0 grains of H4895, CCI 200, crimped, for about 1950 fps and very good accuracy (again, from both MG and cut rifling).