I have a T/C in .35 Remington. It has a 16" barrel. I had never shot the gun until this weekend when I bought a box of Remington 200 grain ammo. The gun proved very, very accurate, but misfired about 1/3 of the time. I asked a local friend who has several Contenders (I have .357, .30 Herrett, 7/30 Waters, .45/70, .44 mag, etc., but have never had this problem.) My friend says it is a well know problem with the particular caliber. The shoulder is small and headspace is critical. The firing pin, in his opinion is "knocking" the cartridge forward, instead of the shoulder holding it tight whereby the pin ignites the primer. His solution is to reload, first expanding the case in a .375 die, then necking down, making a sharper shoulder than that in factory ammo, which is fairly sloppy.
Any suggestion?

Go here>>>
http://www.bellmtcs.com/FAQ/contender_misfires.htm

Judge the link listed is good for alot of info,my 35 which is the 14" did the same thing with Remington ammo, it was beening pushed foreward.I noticed that the fire round was just alittle bit longer than factory,I used an inerta hammer and bump the slugs out just a tad,work great and took thre deer that year,all with in 100 yards

Good idea Dave.

Depending on where the bullet is after "bumping" it out some, you can crimp it again with a Lee factory crimp die and that will surely hold it in place. Even if you are past the crimp groove cannelure.

Regards

[ 12-24-2002, 07:44: Message edited by: Headstamp ]

judgeg,
I don't shoot factory loads in mt T/C but I have found when reloading the 35 Rem that if I shim my sizing die .03 to .04 I don't have any misfires. I can run the same reloads in my Marlin 336 with-out any problems. Keeps from setting the shoulder back and you have to snap the barrel closed on the T/C. Orygun

I am a lucky boy,using winchester factories, and both full length and neck sized only hand loads
my 35 rem has never misfired and is one of the most accurate bbls I have.

Wes