Making 35 Rem Brass out of 30-06 and 308 Brass

[William73]

Hi Guys

Recently I fired and fell in love with the 35 Remington, I now have two, both with Ballard rifling for cast lead bullets. A 336 from the 50's and a 760 also from the 50's. I have been having a hard time finding brass in the stores, some CGN veterans helped me out so I have a bunch, thank you to all who helped. But I got to wondering hmmm what am I going to do we run out and they don't make it anymore? So here is what I did...

The 30-06 is a tapered casing that has a shoulder diameter smaller that the head diameter of the 35 rem, hmmm.

So I bought an old 30-06 full sizing die with a broken decaping pin and I cut the top off at the shoulder.

Steps

1 cut the 30-06 shorter to about 2 inches

2 make sure the case its well lubed!

3 used the press and a bottom punch, push the 30-06 case into the cut full sizing die until it measures the correct head diameter for 35 rem.

3.2 Lock the lock ring on the sizing die, so each case after is only pushed to a full stroke.

4 knock the reduced 30-06 case out from the top with a punch.

5 re size the primer flash hole

6 anneal the would be neck, lube, and then resize 30-06 cases.

7 swap the sizing die for 35 remington

8 full size the reduced 30-06 cases to 35 remington.

9 ream out the primer pocket.

10 trim it to length

step 11 will be to recut the extraction groove I hope to do this on a lathe. I still need to set up my lathe into the basement workshop.

Starting with 308 cases allows you to skip the pre cutting of step 1.2, they get cut to final length at the end.

Big thanks to Andy and Mac100!

 

[Andy]

Thanks for the effort you put into sharing. A good description and with pics.

I have one caution and it's related to your Point #1: "anneal the 30-06 brass case completely, from top to bottom."

It is important that at least the bottom 1" of the cartridge not be annealed. Even though the 35 Rem is a relatively low pressure round, the best that can happen if the casehead area is softened, is short brass life with loose primer pockets - worse than that would be blown primers and case separations. You'd be much better to not anneal the base and lathe turn it to size. No need for a "Forming Die" either.

I've heard of people using 303 Brit (less work than 30-06 or 308 - just reduce rim and cut extractor groove) or 220 Swift brass (same steps as 303 Brit). Its base is about 10 thou smaller than 35 Rem, but it fills out upon first firing with a small bulge at the base which is not a concern if it's small.

 

[mac100]

Im actually doing this today with 308 cases. I only anneal the top half and then I church each one up in the lathe and cut the last part of the base off and cut a extractor groove a bit more. I also trim the case head to same dimensions of 35 remington .460 from 308 .473. You may not need to do this for your rifle but I’m using these in a Remington Model8 semi auto and it doesn’t like that bigger head.
As the fellow above mentioned, don’t anneal the whole case. I learnt the hard way and primers just blow right out of the pockets. Too soft too hold them.I may post pics later if I get a chance and if you are ok with me posting them here.

 

[Wildey]

Great tip about the primer pockets, dudes!

 

[William73]

Thanks Andy and Mac100

I'm still trying to figure all this stuff out, I will change my post, somewhere else some other helpful folks pointed out the soft web problem. I changed my process and the results worked and would be safer. Cutting down the rim to .460 sure made it easier, without annealing the base, makes perfect sense that annealing the base would be dangerous.

Thanks again for stopping me from shooting my eye out

 

[burkeg]

try this, works for me
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?276255-308-to-35-Rem-done-my-way&highlight=

 

[burkeg]

use military 308 brass, i use a 44 mag carbide die for the initial body reduction....not all the way, just to the web, use the lathe as above to turn base and rim to .455 - .460. i do not deepen the extractor groove, have not needed to. stainless pin tumble after removes scratches and you cant tell they've been turned