fireforming question

Yes

Normaly I wouldn't ask but is 35 Whelan brass hard to come by or do you have an over abundance of 30'06 brass? Use the standard FL die to form brass and use a starting load to form the case. When reforming the brass may be a tad short.

I have never made 35 Wheelen from 30-06. I have made 358 Win from 308 cases. All I used was a FL resizing die. Make sure you lube inside your necks well.

For sizing up that much I would suggest getting a long taper button for your die, use lots of a good quality lube, and if possible go up in steps. say from .308 to .323 to .338 to .35X if you can. Don't worry about too much lube inside the brass, if you are willing to do the sizing work, cleaning out the brass after is easy.

You can use dies that are shorter cases as long as you only push the brass in far enough to run over the sizing button.

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Would firing .30-06 rounds in a .35 Whelen in order to create brass for the later be:

1. Safe for the shooter and others possibily in the vicinity.

2. Safe for the rifle.

3. Effective.



That would not only be a ‘NO!’ it would be a Cajun ‘NO’ as in it ani’t only NO! IT HELL NO!

Drop a .308 bullet down a .35 barrel, bullets are not like shirts, a shirt can fit where it touches, the bullet must seal the barrel, with out sealing the barrel too much gas escapes, (HOT HIGH PRESSURE METAL CUTTING GAS) the case never seals the chamber, when the chamber is not sealed etc., etc.. Bad ideal, bad habit.

http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/2010_SpecialOrder.pdf

In the RCBS Special Order Catalog page 10 the instructions for forming 35 Whelen from 30/06 is a rule #3, rule 3 has to do with dies made before and or after a particular year like April of 83, after April 83? ‘keep on keeping on’ before April 83 a #09823 expander-decapping unit is required.

Effective? Practice does not make perfect.

I am not the fan of short cases, when forming 35 Whelen from 30/06 cases the case will shorten .030” +, I want my cases to cover the chamber. I form 30 Gibbs, when finish my 30 Gibbs cases shorten .045”, then I changed methods and or techniques, problem solved.

F. Guffey

Then there is the mindless pulling of the press handle to raise the ram without a clue. When forming and or necking up and or down I am always aware of the shoulder location, I know I can off set the length of the chamber with the length of the case, with the minimum of effort, I correlate the chamber length with the die length and the case length, others call it head space, that works? my chambers, my dies and my cases.

I bring this up because I assumed you are referring to fire forming, I form first, then fire, when I eject a fired case it is ejected as a once fired case. The 30 Gibbs? That is different, the 30 Gibbs shoulder is ahead of the 30/06 shoulder by .202”+/-.

Then there is Cylinder brass:

http://www.z-hat.com/Cylinder.htm

With cylinder brass, a press, forming die/FL sizer die, shell holder and the companion tool to the press, the feeler gage, the reloader/case former can not miss.

F. Guffey

I wouldn't waste the .308 bullet.

I used to fire form .375 Winchester from .30-30 with a few grains of pistol powder under a case full of cornmeal capped with a bit of bar soap.

If you have to fire form your '06 brass I suggest you do the same rather than trying to launch such an undersized bullet. You may not get enough pressure to fire form anyway.

I do not know enough about the cartridge you are trying to make to know if the '06 brass is appropriate.