rechamber 35 remington to 358 or 356 win
- Thread starter joey.45
- Start date
Cost wise you'd probably be better off selling it and buying another rifle. If you prefer the one you have, the 356 would probably work. I've personally done it, but the 336 is a pretty strong lever gun, and it was available in 356 for a while. Perhaps one of our lever gun experts can chime in. FWIW - dan
Marlin ?
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It might be a question of action strength. The Marlin 336 locks up at the rear, and as such, is considered a bit of a "springy" action. Also, the expense of gunsmithing (opening the bolt face, etc.), and length (is the lifter long enough). There is the tubular magazine to contend with, limiting the bullets to a flatter point, thus negating a bit of ballistic advantage.
The 336 was designed with lower pressure cartridges, like the 30-30 and 35 Remington. The .358 and .356 was designed for much higher pressures......Winchester beefed up the locking shoulders on the Model 94 action, and probably changed the specifications for the steel in the receiver. You might consider the gas escape if a primer blows.
If you feel undergunned with the .35 Remington, then why not simply buy a rifle designed for the .358 cartridge? The Browning BLR is one, it is a front locking action, modern design, a magazine that can use spitzer bullets, and is capable of being loaded to a higher pressure safely.
It is false economy to think about chambering the 336 to a higher pressure cartridge just because you have the rifle available. You would have to keep the cartridge pressures lower to stay within the design limits of the action, thus any advantage you think you might gain would be a lot less. With the .358, you have 50,000 pounds per square inch of pressure just 6 inches in front of your nose, while you have only about 40,000 with the .35 Remington. This is about a 25% increase in pressure. Personally, I would not care to fire such a rifle as I am not certain that Blue Cross will cover a rifle bolt imbedded between my eyes.
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It might be a question of action strength. The Marlin 336 locks up at the rear, and as such, is considered a bit of a "springy" action. Also, the expense of gunsmithing (opening the bolt face, etc.), and length (is the lifter long enough). There is the tubular magazine to contend with, limiting the bullets to a flatter point, thus negating a bit of ballistic advantage.
The 336 was designed with lower pressure cartridges, like the 30-30 and 35 Remington. The .358 and .356 was designed for much higher pressures......Winchester beefed up the locking shoulders on the Model 94 action, and probably changed the specifications for the steel in the receiver. You might consider the gas escape if a primer blows.
If you feel undergunned with the .35 Remington, then why not simply buy a rifle designed for the .358 cartridge? The Browning BLR is one, it is a front locking action, modern design, a magazine that can use spitzer bullets, and is capable of being loaded to a higher pressure safely.
It is false economy to think about chambering the 336 to a higher pressure cartridge just because you have the rifle available. You would have to keep the cartridge pressures lower to stay within the design limits of the action, thus any advantage you think you might gain would be a lot less. With the .358, you have 50,000 pounds per square inch of pressure just 6 inches in front of your nose, while you have only about 40,000 with the .35 Remington. This is about a 25% increase in pressure. Personally, I would not care to fire such a rifle as I am not certain that Blue Cross will cover a rifle bolt imbedded between my eyes.
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Lee Enfield
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Republic of Alberta
DO NOT do this with a 336 which is pre-1980.
The exact cut off is in the late 70s, but to be safe stick with 80's+ guns.
Having said that, what's the point? I was planning to build a .356 winchester on a .444 action, so I did some research.
The consensious seems to be that .35Rem is extremely underloaded by the factories, and .356 is not much of (or any) step above properly handloaded .35 Rem.
My take on the matter was that if you handload .35 Rem (@28,000psi factory) even just to factory .30-30 pressures (@35-38,000psi factory), you have removed any functional advantage from the .356.
The whole thing is that if you go .356 you are going to want to handload anyway, and if you go ".356 rimless" (.358), you will HAVE to handload.
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Thanks for all the valuable info guys. The amount of knowledge shared on this site is incredible. My marlin is pre 1980 . I can handload for the 35 if I get dies. So, I think I will leave it as is and do some carefull load developement for it. Thanks again.
