Reading a few threads on Indiana's (?) first upcoming rifle season, and their ctg restrictions got me to thinking - Dangerous for me, in itself. I hit on the idea of necking up the 7.62X39 to 35 cal.
A week or so later, a bud supplied a Guns & Ammo article from September, 1993. The author had made up a "Mini 35" on a rebored mini 30. He claimed 35 Remington ballistics with 180 & 200gr bullets (2200 fps with 180s & 2400). I guess there isn't anything really new!
The idea still appealed to me. I used a set of 357 Mag dies to make up a dummy round. It looks kinda neat - almost a rimless 357 Max, with a slight bottleneck.
I'v edcided to go ahead with the project. I have a 93 Mauser that should fit well. Instead of expensive custom reamers and dies, I'm going to use a .35 Remington reamer run part-way in. It will slightly "improve" the case. That way I can cut-off a set of 35 Rem dies to load for it. If this thing falls on its face, I can still ream to 35 Rem, and only loose a $15 set of dies. I think it should make for a dandy deer and hog gun for under 200yds.
Has anyone done one of these? Any thoughts or suggestions? Lastly, just how short do you think I can go on the barrel? Thanks,,, Bug.

sounds like a well thought out and creative reason to build a new rifle. Budget does not mean cheap.
I met a gentleman at our indoor range in Boise that called his 358PPC. He was shooting it in a select-fire M-16. 'Bout like mouse farts in a 16" barrel with the can on it. I would suggest a 20" barrel,
Git 'er done and report back to us. Pictures of the deer would be nice.

Rich
DRSS

Soviet subsonic military cartridge


9x39

The left 2 cartridges in this photo from:
http://world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm

The 30PPC, same-same 7.62x39Improved, is about in a dead heat with the 30BR as THE cartridge for cast bullet benchrest. This 9mm version might be a real kick-butt with the 200gr 35 Remington bullet.

Rich
DRSS

quote:

Originally posted by bcp:
Soviet subsonic military cartridge


9x39

The left 2 cartridges in this photo from:
http://world.guns.ru/ammo/sp-e.htm

rusiian 9mm = .362 or .363, rather than .356-.358...

spetnatz entry weapon, Sof did an article in the 80s
http://world.guns.ru/assault/as10-e.htm

WOW what is the SD of a 204gr 4.5mm bullet?

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
WOW what is the SD of a 204gr 4.5mm bullet?

Around .985!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Talk about a drill bit!!

Bug,

We built one just as you describe for a customer just recently. His was on a CZ 527 Carbine originally chambered for the 7.62x39mm. We rebored the barrel to 35 caliber and rechambered by running a 35 Remington reamer in short. Since we did not set back the barrel we had to run the reamer in deep enough to clean up the old chamber. This resulted in a chamber approximately .015†longer (to the mouth of the chamber neck) than the original chamber. It works fine this way but the brass gets a little shorter when fire formed and ends up about .045†shorter than the chamber. If I was building one from scratch and using an unchambered barrel I would cut the chamber a little shorter than we had to. We also had to shorten the barrel one inch because the sight mounting hole in the barrel was too deep to allow a safe rebore to 35 caliber. This left the barrel at 17.5 inches. The customer has done limited testing of this rifle but has reached 1950 FPS with the Remington 200 Core Lokt RN bullet meant for the 35 Remington with excellent accuracy. The cut-off 35 Remington dies are working well. It’s a nice little package, nice enough that I want to make one for myself! Good luck and let us know of your great success. Here it is between a 7.62x39mm and a 35 Remington.

neck up the bench rest magnum...

This is being submitted as comparative info. It is not intended to be a mine is better than yours thing.

My 9X41 (.358) does give .35 Rem. factory performance. MF .308 or 06 cases with a one cal neck length and a 26.5 Degree shoulder.Body at shoulder dia. is .457". It has adequately handled gas checked 300gr. bullets at over 2000ft./sec.( approaching 30-06 energy levels )and 250 grain jacketed bullets at 2100 ft./sec. plus.

With gas checked bullets from 200gr, to 300gr. It is accurate.

Another wildcat of mine is the .375X41 made by just necking up the 9x41.It's performanc is quite similar of course.

The max. design Overall case length for both is 1.625".

The original design was in the late fifties but lack of finance prevented the projects completion till 1982. There is also a 7.62x41 and a 7mmx41. All have 16 1/2" long x 1" dia. barrels. Fun guns.

Reamers and gages are available if there is an interest. All are long throated to handle heavey for caliber bullets. All four rifles had a twist to accomodate long bullets. RCBS may still have the tooling package to make more dies at a reasonable costroger

Roger,
Quote:"This is being submitted as comparative info. It is not intended to be a mine is better than yours thing."
No worries on that account. This is intended to be a budget build-up. I just want to use existing dies & reamer to keep costs down, & not go custom. Other info is always appreciated. Another reason for going with the 7.62X39 case is that, if it doesn't work out in the end, I can always ream to .35 Rem or .358 Win.

Dedseven,
Thanks for the pics & info. Is the "35X39" case shown fireformed? Or, has it just been resized & loaded. Reason I ask, I had mentally pictured just a bit more/ sharper shoulder.
This project is moving along. I have the dies to cut down. I received the reamer today. Now just have to order up a barrel.
Has anyone had any difficulty with recontouring an A&B barrel? I know it's probably not the best solution, but the F44 blank will probably be way heavy for this project. I'll likely try it before & after recontouring, just to see the results.
Thanks to all for the input. Any other thoughts ocurr, please post. Hopefully before I get the reamer started!

Bug,

Sorry for the delay in my answer, I was away for the weekend. The case in the picture has been fire formed and then fired twice more and neck sized only. That’s about all the shoulder you get with the 35 Remington. One thing you will need to watch for with this wildcat is case neck clearance. The 35 Remington has thinner case necks than many other 35 caliber cartridges and, correspondingly; the neck area of the chamber is also smaller in diameter than most. A Remington 7.62x39mm case when fire formed and loaded with a .3580†diameter bullet had .002†total neck clearance in the chamber cut with our reamer. While this is adequate, it is minimal for a rifle to be used in the field and one will need to keep an eye on his case necks and watch for the dreaded “doughnutsâ€and turn or ream case necks as needed. It was necessary to create a false shoulder or load bullets long and hard into the lands while fire forming to achieve good case support/headspace.

I have never used an A&B barrel. That said, if they are properly stress relieved and you use sharp tools to re-contour you should have no problems. Let us know how it works out. You can e-mail me here allen@deltagunshop.com if you want more info.

Cool project.

I'm gathering the parts to make a straight 35 caliber cartridge based on 223 brass for an AR-15. I should be able to load it using 357 Maximum carbide dies and chamber it with a re-ground 9x23 reamer.

What about building a 9X41 on an SKS frame??Does the barrel have enough meat to be bored to .358?? Who can do the work??
Mike

As a 35 nut, I've long wanted either a 35X39 or a 35 br. Perfect case capacity for cast bullet shooting.