The general principles of necking up 30-06 to 35 Whelen brass has has been discussed before and some of these questions are pertinent to just necking brass from one caliber to another.

I went ahead and got some 30-06 brass and have succeeded in initially necking up 10 pieces of brass from 30-06 to 35 Whelen. Problem is that in most of cases the neck is now not concentric. I tried 5 with the stem/tapered button tight in the die and 5 with the stem loosened so the button would self-align with the neck mouth. While not perfect it did seem to align better with the button loose. The case mouth/neck is not concentric. I generously lubed the neck with a mica lube and the case with Imperial Sizing Wax. After following some suggestions on this forum the brass -was- much easier to form. However the brass is much shorter than Trim to Length for 35 Whelen....especially after I trimmed the case mouth flat and used my deburring tool.

So what gives? What did I do wrong or what can I do better to help with the neck concentricity? Will the off center neck change and be more concentric after I fire the round the first time? Will the case better fit the chamber to this rifle? Should I shoot these cases as is or fire form them like with a non-premium 200grain round nose bullet? Will the brass eventually flow enuff to be close to Trim to Length? Should I pay attention to pressure signs more so now the case is shorter? Does all of this really matter as long as head space is OK and the case fits the chamber?

I read on another post on this forum (not sure where) that stated the 270 Win brass would be formed closer to trim to length than 30-06 brass when necked up. I shoot 270 Win. So...could I first neck up to 30-06 and then to 35 Whelen...coz that is an awfully small neck to be changed to .358. And wouldn't this negate the Trim to Length or would it? I guess only way to tell is to try it out....only thing is I don't own a rifle in the venerable 30-06, so I will have to borrow some dies. OK..shame on me for that. LOL! If you have any suggestions I am all ears....coz 30-06 brass is somewhat less expensive than 35 Whelen brass. And I am all about less expensive....

The brass will straighten out with the first firing. You an use the Imperial on the inside of the case neck (lightly) and/or expander button to ease things. Also, adding an intermediate sizing step, either with a die or expander mandrel, may make things better. Same with 270 brass.

Brass length is inconsequential unless it is too long for the chamber or too short to hold the bullet.

Alternatly you can go outside with a box of primed 30-06 cases, a set of Lee powder scoops, a can of Bullseye
and a box of Cream of Wheat.

Keep the rifle pointed at the sky and BLOW them into shape
by loading 6grains of bullseye followed by filling the case with CoW...

They will then be (more or less) fireformed into shape
and can be run into a 35Whelen FL sizer.

They will not be perfectly to shape like once fired brass with a full power load, but they'll be a lot closer than any other home forming method.

I originally bought my Hornady tapered neck-up die to expand 300WinMag brass to .358 before running them
into a 358Norma FL sizer, after which they could be trimmed to length, this tended to work the neck a bit more than I liked (and some cases would crack on the third firing)

Later I simply ran the virgin 300win cases into the 358Norma die (with the decapper expander removed) to set the shoulder back and blew them into shape with the Bullseye & CoW method before FL sizing them.



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