Got talking to a buddy yesterday. He has a .35 Whelen custom built on a pre-64 Mod. 70 action.

He says he's been having trouble with case separation on the second reload of new R-P brass. Says it's a problem with the shoulder angle. So, to overcome it, he's had to take his brass and neck it up to .375 then back down to .358. Says that this changes the shoulder angle so that he doesn't have the case separation problem.

I have a .35 Whelen Mod. 700 Rem that I bought for my son. We've only fired a few shots through it, so I haven't reloaded any of the brass more than once, yet. I haven't had any case separations.

Is this a problem that any of you are aware of? Should I be looking at this extra step myself? Will I eliminate the problem if I go to a different brand of brass?

The problem is with the shoulder of the 35 W not in the brass. There is so little shoulder on this cart. Really only one way to find out but neck sizing or partial resizing may help. This is one of the reasons I went with the 338-06.

I've had problems with R-P Whelen brass , a few pieces out of each lot would stick in the sizing die and pull thru the rims rather easily . It seemed to be inconsistant and those stciky cases soft as butter. I had never stuck cases like that in 30 years of reloading.

I now use W-W 06 cases necked up . They seem harder , more consistant , and have a grain or two more capacity . Plus , the necking up action seems to push the shoulder ahead slightly . Keep your sizing die backed off a bit and you will get a little "feel" when you chamber a round for the first shot. Then you have headspace perfect for your chamber .

From the description, his headspace might just be a little long. I bet if he headspaces off the bullet on the first shot, and adjusts his die to set the shoulder back no more than .01, there would be no more trouble.

In my Whelen, I have had no trouble whatsoever with RP brass. FWIW, Dutch.