Crimping 35 Rem, cast loads?

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nexgen

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Hi all,
I reload 30/06 and 223 and haven't really bothered with the neck crimp, but have started reloading for the 35 Rem in a Marlin Lever and not sure what the problem is but with a 204 gr cast with gas check over 4198 after i neck crimp I can still twist the bullet in the neck easily by hand.

I tried pushing lightly on the bullet against the bench and it popped right into the case.

Not sure what I'm doing wrong here. Any help would be appreciated.
 
Thats what I'm using looky, seems like the case isn't high enough into the die or the die won't adjust far enough to crimp properly
 
what are you using to size the brass in the first place? I get enough tension with my rcbs dies to hold the bullet securely, enough so that I always hum and haw about crimping them after the fact
 
Are the collet sections in the factory crimp die totally closing? If not, then screw in down more. If they are, then the bullet must be undersized, or the die defective.
 
Chuch the decapper in an electric drill and use sandpaper to polish a thou or two off the expander button, to give you more neck tension.

In the meantime, use the decapper rod out of your 308 to decap the brass. This will give you a lot more neck tension.

if you don't have a smaller expander on hand, size and decap the brass as per normal, then take the decapper out and size again. This will give you lots of neck tension.
 
Have you shot any of your cast load yet? I seriously doubt you'll get good results in a marlin with .358" cast bullets. I'm assuming it's a microgroove barrel? I size mine to .359" as it slugs .358" and I got pretty serious leading when I tried .358". You may even need to go up to .360".
 
You obviously have other problems, but to answer your question........I crimp loads for all my leverguns just as a matter of habit. It doesn't hurt and can make ignition more uniform, it also prevents the bullet from moving in or out from recoil. The only downside is that you must trim all your cases initially to EXACTLY the same length to get a nice consistent crimp. I just use my RCBS standard die sets to crimp, when properly set up and the cases are all the same length, they do a great job.
 
Sawzall, it's a 1952 model, supposedly pre-microgroove. I have a few loaded, heading to the range this afternoon, I'll single load and try them.

c-fbmi, the trimming to the precise length may be the issue, I haven't been able to find a pilot for the 35 for trimming the brass
 
nexgen

Normally the expander is approximately .001 smaller than bullet diameter for jacketed bullets. And the Lyman type (M) expander die designed for lead bullets is .002 to .003 smaller than bullet diameter.

Before you even think about crimping you need to get your expander diameter problem solved. So follow the advice Ganderite gave in his posting above, many competitive shooters are now saying that .002 to .003 neck tension improves accuracy.

I use a .223 Lyman type (M) expander die on jacketed bullets target loads for my AR15 A2 HBAR so I do not have to crimp. This expander is .221 and the second step is .226 to allow the bullets to start into the case and not tilt reducing neck runout.

Bottom line, cast bullets are at least .001 larger than bore diameter and the expander .001 to .003 smaller than bullet diameter.

Below is a photo of a Lyman type (M) expander for a .223, and as you can see the expander is .003 smaller than bullet diameter. The jacketed bullet are expanded and just bumped on to the larger .226 step to very slightly flare the case mouth aid bullet seating. The tighter bullet grip negates the need to crimp the bullets.

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Ok thanks for the tips folks, obviously need to spend some time playing around in the shop.

I had 5 rounds loaded at the minimum load for the combo I have and took them to the range today and they shot fairly well, I had some others from an aquaintance and was hitting oat 100 yards with 204gr cast and lever evolution.
 
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