35 cal making meat

[rking22]

Opening day morning I was watching a doe feeding. She got kinda twitchie and slipped away. This guy came thru moments later on the trail. I watched him for a while before deciding to invite him for supper :)

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll40/rkingk75/openingday35x2_zpsuboakqlv.jpg

Thats the first for my Rem 760 project gun. Pretty much a cast boolits gun as the stock set and scope came from SS here. It's chambered to a 2 inch variant of the 35 Whelen. I like long necks and 308 brass. Shooting a 200 gr Lee clone of the RCBS at about 1850 on RL7, this time. Shot was 165 yards and no trailing necessary. I misjudged the range by 25 yards and clipped his spine along with the lungs. My longest deer in a long time, I usually hunt in tight quarters but wanted to see how this worked out at some distance. Ate right up to the hole!

[Smoke4320]

Looking good.. Congrads

[Wolfer]

Congratulations
I would like to know more about the cartridge and how you cut the chamber. How you make your brass etc.

[petroid]

Very nice. Looks like he must have tangled with a bruiser early in the season for his antlers to grow in all wonky like that. Great Job!

[smoked turkey]

very nice buck. congratulations on a job well done. I like those 35s as well and looks like your project turned out good. I would also like to see a little more about your "35 Whelen Jr."

[richhodg66]

That basic design of .35 bullet is a winner. Very nice deer, congratulations.

[white eagle]

congratulations nice buck
That 35 is a keeper for sure
nice looking rifle
I used a 35 this year as well
love em [smilie=w:

[ChristopherO]

Excellent for you.
I have a regular 35 Whelen that hasn't seen the hunting fields since killing a wild hog in Alabama 15 years ago. Casing boolits for it is about next on the list.

[tdoyka]

congrats!!!

[35Whelen]

Isn't the 2 " variant of the 35 Whelen known as the 358 Win ?

[rking22]

Well not exactly, I wanted a longer neck but still using 308 brass. 358Win would have been fine ,but this was different and interesting to experiment with. I used the 2 inch to be sure I had cleanup room on the 308 brass after sizing up the neck, and I have the long Whelen neck for cast (I know, not really necessay, but I like long necks:). It was also a fact the a friend had a 35 Whelen reamer and I had lots of 308 brass, and 35Rem performance windom was my goal.

Now as to forming, bought a Lee 35 Whelen die set and a spare 35 Rem decap rod. Cut .495 from the lee die bases with a carbide facinf tool and ease the corners. Screw into a RCBS rock chucker press , lube and form cases in the shortened die with the 25 Rem neck expander. Trim to 2.0, then I used a 38 special seating die to suport the neck as I reamed the case necks with a 9mm chucking reamer. I had hoped to avoid that last step , but the shoulder was too thick, and 06 brass was no better. Up side is the reamer was free, only about 10$ if you have to buy one. This is a hunting rifle and I formed enough brass last winter to last a lifetime.
The barrel is a green mountain 14 twist (IIRC) that cost me less than 100$ fitted to a 125$ 1957 vintage 760 that I picked up for parts as the barrel was a mite short for the shops comfort. It had plastic stocks( yuck, I hate plastic, no mater what the call it) so 40$ got me a nice set of walnut from swappin and sellin, and I also found a Burris something to 5 variable there too. This was just an excercize to see how running a standard reamer in rather short would work in making a dedicated cast rifle. Successful,, had to ease the mouth of the chamber with a split rod and polishing paper to avoid base sizing the brass, and neck reaming was necessary but I have a nice scoped (I usually use open sights) hunting pumpgun for about 350$ including mold! Not much load development yet (got involved with a 375Win, I'm fickle) but almost anything I shot was 1 inchish at 50 as long as it had a GC(all loads between 1800 and 2100). Was seeing 4 inches at 200yards (with a shakey rest) and it printed an top of the thick post with my 100yard zero at the cross hairs. I Have a NOE360230 but it will not feed reliably in the push feed 760 (at this time) so the Lee 200 RCBS clone became the hunting boolit!(for now). Sorry for ramblin ,,,

oops, I think the extra browtines may be genetic, 3 deer killed on my farm this year have them!

[35Whelen]

Very cool...thanks King.

[Wolfer]

So you were able to put another barrel on that rifle? Was there any problem with Alighnment where the lugs meet the barrel inside the chamber?

I had a 270 that I bored to 338-06 because I was told you couldn't re barrel those guns. Even though I knew a gunsmith years earlier that had rebarreled one to 7x57

[rking22]

Wolfer, there are several variations of the Rem 760 series as far as barrel attachment goes. The 7600 has a detachable lug that incorporates the mounting lug and locking lugs as 1 piece, can be purchsed on the web. The 760 up to at least 57 has a threaded ring (righty tighty) that clamps the mounting lug between a barrel shoulder and the "locking lug ring" itself. The ring is the bolt locking lugs and the od is slip fit to the reciever. Sometime after 57 the ring became left hand threaded, it is on there tight enough that you want to know which you have before attempting dissasembly. You have to have a tool to snuggly fit the OD of the "locking lug ring" to keep from cracking it when you take it apart. I think I posted a pic of mine, I'll see if I can find it.
Actually was pretty easy setup, but then I was forming brass to the chamber rather than cuting a standard chamber, but aside from the assb/dissp cycles to set/check headspace would be no big deal.
I admit , they can be a pain to make feed cast with a BIG meplat! I have not been successful geting that worked out with the big NOE ,YET :)

Additionally, if I decide to sell it, I can just have the chamber reamed to 358Win or 35 Whelen, it will clean up for either.

[SSGOldfart]

Congratulations [smilie=w:

[rking22]

Thanks for all the good words! I finished off the backstrip this morning, got a bean soup going with teh remnents of neck roast! I am probably going to bleach the skull on this one and put him in the mad cave. He just has an interesting look, one side perfect, the other not so much. Reminds me there is good and bad in all of us :)
Now to spend some quality time with the BIg Bore 94 and Al's 275 gr HP. The only HP I have shot deer with was the Gould 340 gr, worked well, maybe a little too well!

[onefunzr2]

If you feel proud of that accomplishment, you should be! The deer and the gun. I have no gunsmithing skill whatsoever but I liked a 35 caliber pump gun so bought a used 1989 model 7600 in 35 whelen. I never tried a cast boolit at 165 yards. Most times 50 yards in the deer woods is a long shot where I live.

[C. Latch]

Nice deer.

The most likely explanation for the weird antler is that he broke off a previous antler down in the pedicle, and the pedicle doesn't heal back in its normal round shape, and the next year the antler is deformed.

I'm assuming you have a good deer population and the sex ratio is good enough to produce a situation where most bucks end up in a few fights. I have a little place on the other side of the county from you and while we have a fair number of deer, if you're near where you mentioned living the other day, you have better deer numbers and MUCH better soils than I do.

[rking22]

onefunzr2, (I bet it is :), used to say they didn't make them like they used 2 , till I drove a Z06 in 2007!!!! WOW. Any way,I appriciate your comment, I am just a hobbyist and a bit ADD, i like to sink my teeth into something , build it, test it and move along. Will probably never do another 760, but now I know "how they work". That is the longest shot at a deer for me in a long time. I like hunting close, most are at 60 yards in to longbow range! This time I sat a friends ground blind to see how the 35 would hold up at some distance. I had also just been shooting it at 200 yards on friday, so was very comfortable with the shot. I had a better rest in his "tent" than I did friday shooting groups! (may have to get me one of those, tamed the wind too). I knew from reading here, the 35-200 would give me a good blood trail if needed.
C.Latch, interesting info, and yes we have a good deer population. Maybe too good, I got one with my work car 3 days before muzzleloader season :(
And yes, I was only 3- 400 yards from the front porch. We had 200 acres of soybeans, Not much for the doves but the deer are really fat!

[Wolfer]

Good to know about the 760. Mine is first year of production. 53 if I recall correctly. It's in 30-06 and was my favorite rifle until I built my 7x57

Since its a dedicated cast gun now I can't see me ever rebarreling it. I've put a lot of deer on the ground with it in the last 40 years.

[rking22]

Wolfer, I have a very early one like yours in 300 Savage. Still haven't worked up a good cast hunting load or it(YET). I really like pump guns and the 760 is just about the last of the breed! I have a 141 I actually prefer to hunt with , it's 30Rem and has accounted for several deer over the last few years. This would probably not come about if not for the dirt cheap 760 I felt needed a home :)
I think it would be reakky nice if someone worked up a goup buy for some Round-u-its....

[Wolfer]

I could use a dozen of those!

[TXGunNut]

Great hunt, great project. Very nicely done. All those various bits and pieces came together into a very nice package. IMHO the 35 Whelen has too much case capacity to be a good CB hunting rifle so your cartridge sounds very good to me.
I like the Lyman 375449 in my 375, BTW.

[rking22]

TXGunNut, thanks, I saw you had a good weekend as well! I thought the same, I wanted a Whelen neck on a 35Rem case :) Case forming was a bit more than intended but still better than making 35Rem.
I got the 375449 HP, they shoot really well in my 375. That little levergun shoots very well for me offhand. Planning to introduce a doe or 2 too them in the next few weeks. I was talking to our Hunters for the hungry program director and he said thy were down about 25%. I figure I need to do my part :)

[Beerd]

rking, if you want a long neck 35, run a piece of 30-40 Krag brass into a .35 Rem size die.
..

[rking22]

Beerd, that was what actually got me started thinking about this. I was going to do a Handi Rifle and wanted the rimmed case! Great minds think alike :)