making 35 whelen cases for encore

[hoss-noogy]

hello all,

I was cleaning up the loading room today and decided to try to make some whelen cases from some 30-06 cases. It went very well and I made 50 of them. My questions are
1. Is the case neck thickness ok when you do it like this?
2. Would it help to anneal these cases to help case life ? I used federal brass because I have heard it is the softest.


Thanks- Hoss

[The Double D]

After firing and before resizing see if a bullet will enter the neck. If it won't and this is hunting ammo you need to inside ream the neck.

If this brass is target ammo going into a tight neck chamber you need to outside turn the brass over a mandral. After turning or reaming, anneal and resize.

[EDG]

Neck thickness should be ok but there is a way to check it.
1. Take an extra case and anneal the neck.
2. Bell the case mouth with a center punch shank or a .375 jacketed bullet until it is just larger than the chamber neck.
3. Push or tap the expanded case into your chamber so the chamber neck sizes the belled case. 4. Push the case out of your barrel with a cleaning rod
5. Measure the now sized case neck.
As long as your loaded ammo is about .003 smaller you have nothing to be concerned with.
Believe me as large as they make chambers you will have no problem.



hello all,

I was cleaning up the loading room today and decided to try to make some whelen cases from some 30-06 cases. It went very well and I made 50 of them. My questions are
1. Is the case neck thickness ok when you do it like this?
2. Would it help to anneal these cases to help case life ? I used federal brass because I have heard it is the softest.


Thanks- Hoss

[bearcove]

More important is headspace. You are worried about the wrong end. When you resize for an encore you need to check the gap between the barrel and breech, add this distance to the depth of the chamber. Size your brass to fit your headspace, they are all different.

[nicholst55]

Not to hijack the thread, but I prefer to use .270 Win brass when forming .35 Whelen. The end product is significantly closer to the desired length than necked-up .30-06 brass is. I've found that necked-up .30-06 is typically around .030" shorter than trim-to length, while necked-up .270 brass frequently needs to be trimmed just a bit.

Still, I would use what I had on hand. I generally anneal it after forming, regardless of what the headstamp is.

[Wayne Smith]

Annealing helps, especially before the necking up! At least it does necking up to 8mm. Typically you have neck problems only when you shorten the brass and get into the thicker part of the brass.

[bearcove]

For my 338-06 I just size.

[Throwback]

Likewise for me with the Whelen. I just size (and trim if necessary) and shoot. This pretty simple on the scale of cartidge conversion. Anealing is not needed in this case.