Do any of you guys shoot the RCBS 200 gr. cast bullet in your 35's? I'm looking for a good "general purpose" load of 200 gr. of lead at about 2000 fps. for my two favorite rifles.

P.S.- Hey RANCHDOG, I got my molds the other day- they're great! THANKS. MIKE.

Yes I have. In the .35, you will have to crimp somewhere on the first band. If you don't have a Lee Factory Crimp die, you can use your regular crimp die to just turn the case mouth into the bullet a bit.

My loads were with Varget using the published Hodgdon data. It pretty well fills the case up and I don't believe there's much chance of overloading.

Should give about 2,000fps, as I recall.

Yes I have. In the .35, you will have to crimp somewhere on the first band. If you don't have a Lee Factory Crimp die, you can use your regular crimp die to just turn the case mouth into the bullet a bit.

My loads were with Varget using the published Hodgdon data. It pretty well fills the case up and I don't believe there's much chance of overloading.

Should give about 2,000fps, as I recall.


Yes the Varget load works great with the RCBS 200 gr. mould bullet . I use the Lyman M die after resizing then after use the Lee factory crimp die on the top band of the bullet just to clear the short throat of the Marlin 35.
My old 336 Rc sure loves this load which I primary use on metal plates @ 100 yards , but I would use them also on a deer. :D
Happy

P.S.- Hey RANCHDOG, I got my molds the other day- they're great! THANKS. MIKE.

Which molds would those be? Those I sold on eBay or one of the GBs on Cast Boolits?

If it was the group buy mold, I've got one you are going to like, the TLC359-180-RF. I settled on a 180-grain bullet because of the design limitations of the of the 35 Rem's case neck and the short throat of every Marlin I checked. To date, my experience with the 35 Rem is that it is about the most difficult of levers to shoot cast boolits from. The case capacity is extremely limited and the boolit designs out there take too much of the limited powder space. There is a lot of talk about boosting the cartridges performance from the SAAMI spec of 38.0K CUPs to something in the 41.0K to 42.0K CUPs range like the other 336 calibers but the bottom line is that you just can't get enough powder in that little case to do that especially when you shoot a big boolit.

The other thing I have run into (besides loads of work around the ranch that interferes with my casting/reloading/shooting/hunting activities) is that the Marlin's chambered in 35 Rem that I've worked with are simply awful. The throats are short and the barrels are full of restrictions. My 336D (the beautiful little Guide Gun that Marlin and Davidson marketed) has really taken some work to get concentric. The throat was out-of-round and created havoc on cast boolit accuracy.

Here is an image of the boolit drawing that Lee is making for me. It is not final. For instance, all the Marlins I've slugged would need a .359" boolit but I believe a .360" boolit might be better because every Marlin I've looked at will need to be lapped and that lapping will change the final bore diameter enough to require that extra .001". That is going to cause me to reconsider the nose of the bullet, etc.

http://home.awesomenet.net/~ranch-dog/Casting/TLC359180RF/TLC359-180-RF_Drawing.jpg

Here is what the boolit looks like in the mold...

http://home.awesomenet.net/~ranch-dog/Casting/TLC359180RF/TLC359_in_mold.jpg

In the above picture, the alloy used to cast those boolits wasn't quite hot enough. The Tumble Lube design requires about 775F for good fill. Also, the final design of this boolit will have the modified Micro-Bands I've been working with which will make it a TLC359-180-RFB. I've got a couple of other fellows across the country shooting this boolit.

I hope to have my little 336D up and running in the next week or so because I would like to use it for deer hunting this year. I have shot every possible Hodgdon powder with my "D" but my primary work has been with H4895 because of my past experience with this particular rifle. There is quite a performance loss with the 18.5" barrel of the "D" but I expect to see about 2100 FPS with 39.0 to 40.0 grains of H4895

The boolit was down right scary out of my 336ER, clocking in at 2475 FPS with super accuracy! I am casting with a 1 to 1 alloy of linotype/WW and the water quenched boolit has a BHN of 31. The load in the 356 Win was 37.0 to 41.0 of H4198 for 2280 to 2475 FPS. In that there are very few of these rifles out there, I turned my attention to the 35 Rem.

The bullut that I am using is the 200 gr RCBS mould which is suppied to me by TheBulletBarn in BC Canada. But crimp the bullet on the top band with the lee Crimp die.Do this and all your grief is over . Otherwise spend your pay check and find this all out later .
I had bought a micro groved thirty five before and also a 1895 guide gun in the past and tried to find a load for them. I spent a lot of money and in the end lost my shirt sellind the rifles for a fraction of what I spent on them .
My rifle now is the older cut rifling barreled 336/ 35 RC with the twenty inch barrel . It groups these like nothing else. I have loaded the 200 gr Remington bullets with every powder suggested and it groups about two to three inch/s At 50 yards along with the the 22o gr speers. But it goes like the 180 speer heavy loaded to BLC-2. Now I find the sights are the same for both loads , so now I have my cake and icing with this rifle . Before this I was ready to use it for a door post.
The new rifles with the micro grove barrels , seem to go over bore, and I think lead might meed to be sized .359 to even .362 depending on bore size.( Marlin seems comfortable putting out oversized bores and people have yet to figure this out.) Yeah! most folfs have experianced this with the 38/ 55 , but I played with a guide gun for a year trying to get it to group until it clicked in to check the bore size. I thought a new 45 /70 would be a 45/70 but I had a 460+/70.Best that rifle would shoot was three inch groups. Well I parted quickly with that gun.Now there seems to be something going with the 44 Rem mag chambering too . Well I have a 1894 with a good barrel , but head of oversized bores where you needed to have something to fill a .432 bore .
Then the bore size for a 44/40 was for .426sized bullets . Well now go with 430/432
Well I will never buy a new Marlin again, and will never part with my old 336/36 RC.Too bad Marlin came out with the new SAMMI Spec as they call it.
I call it passing off over bored guns to save costs, but where in North America can you find jacked bullets to fit your bore ?
Well in Canada we have problems getting .360/362 lead bullets for the 35 Remington .That could be the main reason not too many Marlins are in the bush these dAYS IN CENTRAL oNTARIO. THEY ARE KNOWN AS TO NOT BEING ABLE TO SHOOT SHINGLES!!
That really is too bad . Marlin goes have an otherwise good product. I would have loved to keep my 1895 had the barrel been a little closer to proper size and there been no speed bumps under the front and rear site. Who in **** really wants a rifle that you need to spend money on to lap the bore of these restictions, then have a bould made for oversized lead. I would like to be able to buy a box at the gun store and hit minute of deer with the rifle as bought. .

So if you could afford to send an reciever out and have an aftermarket barrel made in proper bore size , you sure would have a fine rifle.
Or as I have shop until you can buy a used rifle at least over fifty years old and hope you get lucky..
So slug the barrel of your gun and look also for restictions. Otherwise spend all kinds of moey on powders and bullets to prove the gun will not shoot as aimed . I even had a friend who is a good shot fire the 45/70 guide for me. It is not the powder , the bullet nor the shooter my friends ,it is -simple an over sized bore.
Maybe if we all stopped buying Marlins - some one would clue in that we are not going to put up with this habit any more .Give me a new Marlin that is not overbored and I would buy it . Otherwise I think Marlin levers are the best.


Happy

Before this I was ready to use it for a door post.

I've threatened my Marlin's in 35 Rem with the thought of becoming a fence post!

I think Marlin over-bore's their barrels to protect themselves from handloaders. With that large bore, the cartridge isn't producing it's potential pressure. I would love to have a new example of same model for each year of production. I bet the bore got big about the same time (year) that Marlin stopped promoting handloading in their catalogs.

RANCHDOG- I bought a couple of your 460-425 molds from the group buy. Your 35 bullet looks good- are you considering putting gaschecks on them? Sorry you're having so much trouble with your 35's. I finally found a decent 35 Rem. 336 R.C. to go with my 356 Win. (M94). Are you tired of your 336ER yet? Have you considered doing a 325 gr. micro-groove type bullet for the 444?

LVRFAN..
I've had so many molds cycle through my home that it's hard to keep track!!! The 35 stuff isn't any big trouble, just requires a little thought.

It is hard to see in the picture of the boolits in the mold but if you look at the drawing and you will see that it is gas checked.

I doubt that I will do any other boolits for the 444. I'm very happy with the TLC432-285-RF. It's taken a bunch of game for me and I think it would take anything on the continent.