reloading 35 Remington for a T/C Contender

[willymc]

I've accumulated a fair amount of brass shooting my T/C Contender, chambered for 35 Remington. I'm now considering reloading it. All of it is from Remington factory loads. All of it was fired in my gun. All of my reloads will be fired in the same gun. I am planning to neck size only with the Lee collet die. Anyone see any problem with neck sizing only for a single shot T/C contender?

 

[osprey176]

As long as the gun will close,and fire,neck sizing will work fine.I shoot .30 and .357 Herretts in mine,and it works for me.If you start to get failure to fires,you may need to adjust you sizing die down just a bit.

 

[243winxb]

35 Remington -Thompson/Center Contender

I am planning to neck size only with the Lee collet die. Anyone see any problem with neck sizing only for a single shot T/C contender?

Problem, yes. It can be hard to close the action. Best to FL size and control how much you push the shoulder back.

 

[mbopp]

I neck size for my 357 Herrett in the Contender. The Contender should close with a bit of a "snap" to indicate you're headspacing on the shoulder and not on the case head. YMMV.

 

[snuffy]

I neck size for my 357 Herrett in the Contender. The Contender should close with a bit of a "snap" to indicate you're headspacing on the shoulder and not on the case head. YMMV.

+++1! Neck sizing MAY allow the action on the contender to close "with a snap", but not close with a gentle closure.

My 7 X 30 Waters contender is set-up this way. If closed gently, it will NOT lock up. But closed with a snap, it locks up fine. Now here's the problem. If you don't get that snap, you WILL be having case head separation problems. If you set the shoulder back too much, you'll be stretching the case webb too much, separations will result.

My advice is to use a FL die that is backed out one full turn from contact with the shell holder. Then try the sized-but empty case in the barrel, try to close the action. It won't go, then gradually turn the die down, closer to the shell holder, then try it again. You'll find a spot shortly before the die contacts the shell holder where the action can be closed by rapidly closing the barrel to the receiver, the "snap".

The rest of the loading is pretty straight forward, the only difference is you don't have to worry about pointy bullets in the single shot. Not many 35 cal bullets are pointy, so it's a minor concern.

 

[mbopp]

Hornady makes a .35 caliber 180gr bullet made for single shot handguns (#3505.) I've been shooting them in my Herrett but don't have any experience on how they do hunting. Hornady's 158gr XTP soft point shot well also.
For cheap practice I use a Lyman "M" die to bell the case mouth and load cast lead pistol bullets over a reduced powder charge. Lyman's Cast Bullet Handbook has loads for the 35 Remington. I don't know if it's necessary or not but I keep the cases segregated between the light and full power loads.

 

[willymc]

Thanks for the input. I just took my T/C and checked the "snap" at lockup. Closing the gun slowly I get the same definite "snap" closing on an empty chamber, closing with a loaded round, and closing on an empty case. If I can get that same "snap", slowly closing on a neck sized case, I should be ok right? Not having reloaded bottle necked cases before, (thousands of rounds of straight walled pistol, yes), I was hoping to just neck size and not worry about shoulder bumping.