I'm having a rifle rebarreled in 35 Whelen. I've done some preliminary searches for brass and all I can find is Remington brass that is available. Is this the only commmercially made brass for sale for this caliber? Second, although I am not new to reloading I've never 'necked up' any brass before and there are all sorts of 30-06 brass offerings. Is there a site or book where can I learn to perform the necking up operation properly?

RenegadeRN

I believe the Remington is all that is available with the headstamp. It is trash and requires much preparation for first firing.

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Second, although I am not new to reloading I've never 'necked up' any brass before and there are all sorts of 30-06 brass offerings.

You should be able to simply run 06 brass in your Whelen dies. I take 280 to 338 in one pass. If you have trouble simply get a tapered expander.

http://www.monstermarketplace.com/Sports/Landing4066a147.html

Did you see this one? $18/100 same headstamp. r in s.

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Originally posted by muygrande:
I believe the Remington is all that is available with the headstamp. It is trash and requires much preparation for first firing.

I don't have a 35whelen, so I'll just speak in general...

ALL factory brass requires SOME preparation.

much of my brass is remington and I find remington to be pretty durable.

I have issues with winchester brass in that it often suffers neck cracks after 5-6 firings, an issue I don't have with Remington brass.

Though even allowing for that there are still some loads that I only load in WIN cases... because it's thinner I can squeeze just a bit more RL22 into a neck sized 30-06 case...

FL size it, deburr the flash hole and trim new Remington cases and it holds up as well as anything else.
and if you use once fired cases for your hunting and accuracy loads you won'experience anything differnet than with any other brand of brass.

IF OTOH you do decide to neck up brass THE BEST tool for doing the job is hornady's tapered neck expander.

I originally bought mine to neck 300winchester cases out to 358 before running them through a 358Norma mag sizer die.

It makes the job go so much more smoothly...

Fire forming will still be required after initial forming for best results.

AD

RenegadeRn, i make my whelen brass from winchester 30-06 brass. One pass through redding size die with the tappered expander, just make sure the inside of the neck is lubed. Karry

This past week I received a box of 100 of Remington Whelen brass from Midway. The weight of the brass was +/- 2gr, which is ok in my opinion. There were no split necks and the primer pockets needed minimal uniforming. The necks were dented up from the tumbling process, but sized up with out a problem. The necks needed minimal trimming to make them all uniform.

I think the quality of the Remington brass is fine and there is some benefit to properly headstamped brass.

I have had no problems with Remington 35W cases. I use a spitzer bullet to stick in the neck to round the neck before sizing, that way you do not crush any cases when sizing.