I've been reloading for a few years, and think I am up to this challenge, with a bunch of help from you guys that know. I just picked up a neat combo gun someone had chambered in 35/30-30 imp. All I know is that it is supposedly a 30-30 win with the ackley shoulder, and necked up to 35. I think I have found a place that will make the dies ( expensive stuff!).I also have a chrony, so I can get an idea of what vel. I am working up to. But I have no idea as to what will be a safe pressure with what load,what powder, and where to begin to get this info. I am not looking to load super hot, just figured if I'm gonna get into it, might as well get the 35 rem capabiliy out of it that it supposedly can provide. ANY and all help and advice would be appreciated.
thanks in advance
Rick

Fox

COTW #8 has loads for the 35-30 and I believe Ackley has loads for the Imp version, and Steve's Pages has one load for it.

Safe pressure will depend on the rifle. That's where you need to be careful.

Ray

If money is no major obstacle, then having a set of dies made is a nice way to go.

If money is tight, you can make do for a while on the cheap.

1. Find the cheaspest expander die you can (does Lee make one?), perhaps used, or at a gun show. You can use that with the proper tapered expander ball ($8-$12 or so for a new one) to open .30-30 brass to accept . 35 bullets.

2. Then, using some bevel base bullets (either jacketed or plain cast lead, pick your powder charge (someone's listed minimum load, reduced by two grains) and prime and charge the brass. It does not have to look pretty at this stage, you are just going to fire-form the brass with this load.

3. Go to some convenient, legal, place to shoot these loads, and fire them from the rifle. Be sure to wear both hearing protection AND more importantly, eye protection. You will now have brass with the shoulder in the right place at the right angle for your rifle. It may not have sharp edges at the shoulder, but it will work fine, and the shoulder edges will sharpen as you shoot the brass more.

4. Next, Buy the cheapest .35-anything rifle die set you can find used, probably again at a gun show. Cut off the die body about 1.5 inches below the top of the die and chamfer the bottom edge of the die where you have cut it off. You now have a "stubby" neck-sizing die for your rifle.

5. Screw the "neck" die just barely into your press and run the case into it a bit. The neck will be shiny where it has been sized, and you will see a ring around the neck at the bottom of the sized area. You can watch that ring to see how far down the neck your die is sizing, as you screw the die a bit more into the press.

6. Adjust the die deeper into the press until you have sized the top part of the neck enough to reliably hold a bullet. Do NOT size all the way down to the bottom of the neck, or you will most likely size away your nice, fire-formed Ackley shoulder. Now you are ready to pour in a recommended starting load of powder and seat bullets again.

Voila! Loaded rounds practical for woods-loafing use, though probably not as nice as you would load with proper dies.

By now, I know you are asking "So how am I supposed to seat those bullets in the neck-sized cases? Well, that depends on how tight the neck-sizer sized the case necks.

If not very tight, you an sometimes push them in with your fingers. If tighter, you may have to put the powder in, set the bullet on top, then holding everything together with one hand put the point of the bullet against the wooden edge of your work bench and push the base of the case toward the bench with your other hand and maybe some of your body weight.

If the case necks are even tighter, and you are using pointy jacketed bullets, one trick which has worked for me is to take another seating die, from a much smaller round, such as the .22 Hornet, and screw it about three or four turns into your press. Then put your 30-30 shell holder in the press, put the powder charged case in the shell holder, hold a bullet in place on top the case, and slowly and carefully raise that combo until the bullet is starting into the smaller seating die.

At some point, the seating die bottom will contact the .35 bullet all the way around, and by continuing to raise the press ram, will force the bullet into the neck-sized case.

I know this sounds pretty "buckshee", and it IS crude, but I have won BR matches and set a BR record seating bullets with just my hand and no tool of any kind. I don't even own a set of dies for that rifle, and used it in matches for 7 years!

Reloading wildcats is a thinking man's game, and using your mind and a little ingenuity, you can load darned near anything for very little money in tools...at least well enough to play with until the proper tools come along.

Good luck with your new rifle.

On the money as always, AC. roger

Being a combo gun, there is another simple trick one can use. Seat the bullet into a fired and un-sized case neck using paper hand towel to hold the bullet in place.

For a 30-35 seating die, a guy could likely use a carefully adjusted .35 Rem seating die, too. He could probably buy one of those, used, at a gun show for $10 or less.

With careful adjustment, he could get part of the neck of the case up into the guiding area of the die and still have plenty of adjustment of the seating stem to be able to raise the case clear to the top of the ram stroke. That way it would be a no-brainer for getting the same seating depth with each stroke and a guy wouldn't have to watch carefully during the process, once the die and stem were set and the lock-rings tightened.

Even though the Ackley case is somewhat fatter at the shoulder than the standard .30-30 case, I suspect it should still go into a .35 Rem seating die without having the die touching (messing with) the shoulder area of the case.

If the .35 Rem. die wouldn't allow that (which I can't immediately imagine), some other old seating die, like a .350 Rem Mag would assuredly work. Just might be a lot harder to find a used Mag one cheaply.

The real stunt might just be to buy a used .35 Remington die set (sizer and seater dies) at a gun show for less than $20 for the whole set. Then a guy could cut off the sizer die to make a stubby neck sizer that worked perfectly, and adjust the seater die to where it worked perfectly too. That would save him well over $100 from having a .35-30 set specially made.

I appreciate the input fellas! I think I have located a set of dies that won't cost a fortune; now the quest continues for loading info. I have to expose my ignorance now:
Ray, could you please expand upon what COTW #8, and Steve's pages are? Thanks again

Rick

Not trying to butt in, but, COTW is Cartridges of the World. There's info and data on the .35-30/.35-30/30.

Here's some:

200 jacketed, 25gr 4198, 1925 fps.
208 cast gc, 25gr 4198, 1893 fps.
245 cast gc, 30gr H335, 1770 fps.
282 cast gc, 28gr H335, 1700 fps.
292 cast gc, 33.5 748, 1618 fps.

Have a good time.

Alberta Canuck ... man I love your style!

Lee makes a 30/30Ackley die set on the cheap. Have an engineering shop open the FL size die to 35cal ... use a fired case to get your dimensions so you can get the neck opened to minimum dimensions if you like.

In Australia, Simplex makes 5/8" die sets in a variety of calibres. The dies are universal in that they neck size and seat only. I buy them when I find them as they're cheap and with an adaptor in my press ... the die allows me to reload anything in that size.

Odd how it seems that the only die that is unique to anything is the FL size die ... the rest we can get around with a bit of ingenuity.
Cheers...
Con