35 whelen misfire problems

[farmerboy78]

I liked h4350 well but varget is the go to powder for the Whelen in my opinion. I think it was like 58-59 gr under a 225 sierra game king with Winchester primers was my hunting load at the time. It would put a whitetail down hard. I still miss that rifle. Mine was a Mauser 98 with a shilen barrel.

 

[Zoer]

just a follow up on the 35 whelen that was having misfires: I necked sized my brass and used federal primers and have had zero problems , thanks for everyone 's advice

 

[Rickt300]

I have a custom 35 Whelen that has never had a full length sized case in it as I load with 358 Winchester dies. I even used them to make Whelen brass out of 30-06 cases! Never once have I had a missfire. If the small shoulder was an issue then why would a 35 Remington round ever go off?

 

[judgedelta]

If I missed it, what kind of impression on the firing pin are you getting with the misfires? Light or normal? If the primer isn't going off, it shouldn't matter what kind of powder you are using. When you use the term "misfire", I presumed that the primer wasn't detonating. A misfire is not the same as a hangfire... If you're lighting the primer but not the powder, you've got different issues. Try loading some new brass without sizing, if they work, you will narrow down your issues. I've never loaded a .35 Whelen with a crimp.

 

[Bart B.]

Two things together can cause this problem:

* case shoulders set back too far when full length sized.

* firing pin does not stick out past the bolt face at least .050 inch when fully forward.

Did you set your full length sizing die in the press so the shell holder stops hard against the die bottom when full length resizing fired cases?

 

[fguffey]

Pre64, If it was my Pre64 the first thing I would do is chamber a round and then extract it. If I was having trouble firing primers I would make sure the rim of the case was behind the extractor claw. Before that and if I had built the Winchester with a 35 Whelen chamber I would have determined the length of the chamber from the shoulder of the chamber to the bolt face. I know the bolt on a 35 Whelen chamber will not close on a 280 Remington case. I know the bolt will lack .051" closing -.005" (in the perfect world).

For me it is a matter of adjusting the die off of the shell holder .005" when necking up 280 Remington cases to 35 Whelen. The benefit of using 280 Remington cases for 35 Whelen is the additional length of the 280 Remington case. The Remington case is .041" longer than a 30/06 case. When 30/06 cases are used the 30/06 case shortens .035" when necked up.

And then there is the fired primer; what does it look like? Does it have a dent? Is the dent shallow? Is the dent in the failed to fire primers larger than the dents in the fired cases?

F. Guffey

 

[judgedelta]

You could always get some Cerrosafe and do a chamber casting and find out exactly what's going on. Maybe your chamber is cut a little long.

 

[Bart B.]

Chamber casts don't show what chamber headspace is to learn how long it is for headspace. Headspace in his chamber is from bolt face to chamber shoulder.

It's probably a thousandth inch less than a fired case headspace.

 

[fguffey]

Maybe your chamber is cut a little long.

And I wonder how can that be if the OP can chamber new over the counter ammo, close the bolt and fire the new ammo without failure to fire. And then there is the fired case, after firing it becomes a once fired case; also know as fire formed. If his cases are once fired he should be able to back his sizing die off the shell holder and neck size only. And then there is the problem with not knowing what is happening when sizing the case. I have dies and shell holders; the one thing I do not have is a die that oversized the case shorter than minimum length and my shell holders have a deck height of .125". When and if I find a shell holder that has a deck height outside of .125" I put it in a special place because manufacturers charge more for special shell holders than they do for common ordinary old shell holders.

And then there is the feeler gage, I can size a case for short chambers by decreasing the deck height of the shell holder, shortening the deck height also increases the presses ability to overcome the cases ability to resist sizing.

And then there is chamber casting,

F. Guffey