I acquired a 35 Whelen AI about a year ago and am just now thinking about getting it out of the safe to play with.

I have some 30-06 brass that I plan on necking up to 35 caliber. I purchased some 220 grain Speer HotCor bullets that I was thinking of using to fireform the brass to AI. I was planning to seat the bullets into the lands and use a starting load of the fastest burning powder for the appropriate bullet to fireform.

Question is, should I worry about fireforming, or just load up some rounds and put them through some critters?

quote:

just load up some rounds and put them through some critters

06 brass necked up to 35 cal should still be a crush fit in a proper AI chamber. I would simply go shooting (hunting) why waste a perfectly good bullet.

What he said; further, make damn sure that you do have a crush fit in the chamber. If not, the best way is to seat bullets out so long that the brass is held back against the bolt face by the bullet being jammed into the rifling.
Yes, this is the approved method.
The other way is a lot more work (creating a new shoulder).
If you don't do that, you will get stretched brass. Use a min to medium load for that.
Damn, I see you already know how to do it. I never read posts before answering; it is faster. Yes, do anything you want with the loads, like hunt, etc.

I do have a formed piece of brass that was shot in the rifle along with the dies.

Having thought about it now, I could set up the 35 dies to give me the crush fit off the shoulder since the '06 brass is slightly longer than the whelen. The already fired brass will help me get in the proper length ballpark.

Thanks for stimulating a little thought process of my own, guys!!!

quote:

make damn sure that you do have a crush fit in the chamber

Thanks dpcd I should have added that very thought to my first post.

you can do either. The sized brass will be very close to the dimensions of the factory made brass. It will be almost as accurate as fireformed brass.
If you really what to test the accuracy of your rifle then fireforming the brass to your rifles chamber is the way to go.
You can use a charge of 8 grains of Unique a tissue wad of paper and fill the case with Cream-of-Wheat. This will form the case and you save the cost of a bullet/powder.
This load is dangerous at five feet. It will blow a hole in the bottom of a trash can.

quote:

Question is, should I worry about fireforming, or just load up some rounds and put them through some critters?

Forming 35 Whelen from 30/06: When the neck is necked-up, the neck shortens, I know. there is another school that says the neck gets thinner.

By design, the 35 Whelen case when chambered in the 35 Whelen Ackely Improved chamber head spaces on the shoulder/neck juncture, because the neck on the 35 Whelen AI is longer. When chambering the 35 Whelen case in the Ackely Improved chamber part of the neck is sized to form part of the shoulder. When fired the rest of the shoulder and case body is formed. When time as a factor is added to fire forming pressure is reduced because of the delay in time caused by the case filling the chamber.

When the shoulder and case body is formed the neck is pulled back.

F. Guffey

It has been my experience that cases being fireformed will shoot to a different point of impact than the loaded cases after fireforming.
I always fire the cases and then work up the load for accuracy - in my hunting rifles, which are all I own.

One nice thing about the 358 cal's is that you can use some inexpensive pistol bullets for plinking. Try to find some 180 gn jacketed pistol bullets and just use them for fireforming.. Feel free to let a coyote or jack rabbit get in the way. Then you can use the Hot cores to develop a good load with your fireformed AI brass.

Not sure about the AI version, but Rlr 15 is excellent in a standard Whelen.

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:
I do have a formed piece of brass that was shot in the rifle along with the dies.

Having thought about it now, I could set up the 35 dies to give me the crush fit off the shoulder since the '06 brass is slightly longer than the whelen. The already fired brass will help me get in the proper length ballpark.

Thanks for stimulating a little thought process of my own, guys!!!

Best way to do it take expander out of die then form the case. After case is formed lube inside of neck then put expander back in then expand neck. Your not going to get the AI shoulders till case is fireform what you have is 35 Whelen case. Not sure can get headspace since shoulders have been blown forward.

After you get the shoulders formed and didn't want to neck up you could form using COW method.

I've got the Redding 35 WhelenAI FL sizer with taper expander. I have Rem 35 Whelen brass but had some Lapua 30-06 brass and was going to form some of that.

Well good luck

Since your in Falcon, Co are you member of Frontier.

quote:

Originally posted by tom holland:

Since your in Falcon, Co are you member of Frontier.

I am a member. Are you, or have you been in the past?

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

The 35 Whelen can be troublesome at the beginning but once the brass is fitted to the rifle everything is OK.
I owned two Whelens in the past and experienced misfires with both using new Remington brass. Then I decided to seat the bullets out long and fire formed the brass and resized the cases only enough so the bolt would close easily. After this all was well.

Frontier? Heck, I been trying to join for almost 11 months. Even made some phone calls to staff members listed on there web page asking if they received my application and they wouldn't even go through the stack to confirm they got it.

If anyone has any suggestions I am all ears.

quote:

Originally posted by graybird:

quote:

Originally posted by tom holland:

Since your in Falcon, Co are you member of Frontier.

I am a member. Are you, or have you been in the past?

Thanks for the suggestions guys!

You have PM