First Cast Boolit in a Marlin .35 Rem.

[F 15 War Eagle]

My first question on this site, and in this forum. I have just loaded my first Cast Boolits for my Marlin .35 Rem. I loaded a Lyman #358513 206 gn. that actually weighed 210 gn. With a BHN of 13. The Boolit Dia. is .358. My rifle slugs out at .358 . My loading data gives a suggested start of 9.5 gn's. of Unique powder, I chose 10 gn's to start with. The cartridge data shows tested OAL to be 2.500". My case was full length resized and checked dimensionally using a Wilson Case gage, no problems were noted. The case was carefully belled out to accept the Boolit with out shaving lead. I seated the Boolit to the upper edge of the crimp groove using a Lee factory crimp die. My cartridge OAL read 2.460". I found it hard to chamber the round, after chambering I noted the round was in full battery. I easily extracted the round and found light rifling marks. My question is this a common problem loading cast Boolits in a .35 Rem., or just this particular Boolit? My concern is exceeding maximum pressure 35,000 CUP's, since I am engaging the rifling. I look forward to comments and or creative suggestions on these rounds, and are they safe to shoot? Thanks in advance for the expert knowledge and experience that many of you have...

[dondiego]

Welcome to Cast Boolits! You may safely seat that bullet deeper with that load in the 35 Rem. It has a large capacity and does not spike in pressure with the Unique load. 35's are one of my favorites!

[RickinTN]

Don't worry about too much pressure, you're probably not even close. Engraving the nose is a good thing, enhances accuracy most of the time. If it's not "de-bulleting" on extraction you are good. Don't worry too much about a particular length as long as you don't exceed 2.550" if I remember correctly. Let the throat of your rifle tell you what it likes, as I think it has.
Good Luck,
Rick

[Wayne Smith]

You have the ideal situation, a boolit that fits! If the barrel is not new clean out the copper good and then go ahead and shoot your load and see what kind of accuracy you have.

[wmitty]

F 15;

Welcome to the forum! Your attention to detail in your description speaks volumes regarding how you will fare in your use of cast boolits. I don’t own a .35 REM ,but as has already been mentioned the fit of the bullet as you described is desirable for accuracy. The bullet diameter may be fine; sometimes the microgroove rifling needs slightly larger than groove diameter for best accuracy. The use of Unique is fine for light loads. Higher velocity calls for slower burning powder to keep the pressure from distorting your boolit. Regarding the difficulty chambering the round; if your case is sized correctly, the resistance you felt should be the engraving of the ogive and is quite normal. I believe you have assembled safe ammunition and should be confident in using it.

[SoonerEd]

You don't say it you are PC'ing or lubing. I use the Lee C358-200 FN. When I PC'd mine the nose was to fat and would have the issues you described. When I lube, most just slightly engraved with no extraction or chambering problems. If you're PC maybe try a dummy round without PC and see how it chambers.

The engraving is not a problem if it doesn't cause problems like difficult chambering or unseating the bullet if the round is extracted.