[Kansas Volunteer]

I'm pondering the idea of putting a .358 barrel on a No. 4 Lee-Enfield, and chambering it for the .35 Remington rimmed. I'm wondering what gunsmsithing and reloading problems I might encounter.

I'm considering the conversion because the short case length of the .35 Rem and the longer length of a standard .303 Lee-Enfield magazine would allow me to load long, heavy cast bullets, without seating them into the powder space.

I'm assuming I can do my relaoding with a .303 or .30-40 shell holder and .35 Rem dies. Correct? Or, will the dies have to be modified?

Since either the Krag or .303 cases are so much longer thant he .35 Remington, would forming cases with a long neck be do-able? I suppose they'd have to be neck reamed anyway. Would the standard .35 Remington dies work, if I go with the longer length neck? Or, is would they have to be modified? I'm considering this as a heavy cast bullet rifle, and think a longer case neck might be a plus. It would at least keep all the grease grooves covered.

When it comes to chambering the rifle, will a standard .35 Rem reamer be sufficient? What if I decide to go with a longer case neck, will some other standard reamer lengthen the .35 chamber enough to handle one?

My goal is to get this done without the need to buy custom reamers or dies, if that's possible. If it's not, to get it done with only a minimum spent on non-standard items. If I can't, I'll consider going all the way, and trying a .35/303 Epps, or something like that.

What do y'all think?

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi, KV:
   Ever heard of Mike Bellm & his .358?
http://bellmtcs.tripod.com/id27.htm

  You're very close to .356 Winchester territory too.

Bye
Jack

 

[Kansas Volunteer]

I've been vaguely aware of who Bellm is, and what he does, but not being a Contneder guy, I've never tried to "get familiar" with him. Thanks for the link to his site. The .358 Bellm looks interesting. It might be an option, and would probably drive the heavy bullets better than the .35 Remington Rimmed.

It appears the Bellm round is essentially a .358 Winchester (or .356) built on a .444 Marlin case. I've seen a reference or two to it in the topics here, but have never pursued them. I'll have to do that. What can you tell me about chambering a rifle barrel for the Bellm round? Do you use .358 Winchester dies to reload?

What are the pros and cons of using the .35 Remington Rimmed vs. the .358 Bellm?

 

[Jack Monteith]

Hi, KV:
   You know as much about the .358 Bellm as I do now.  I believe he's a son-in-law or nephew of the late great P.O. Ackley.  Sorry, but I don't have any more info.

Bye
Jack

 

[William Iorg]

In the .35 Remington rimmed the cartridge you need to look at is the .35 Waller. This was written up in the Fouling Shot #133 by Ron Fortier.
If you go over to Yahoo Groups and join the Cast Bullet Group, CB-L you will find several people with like ideas.

The Contenders have ignition problems with some rimless cartridges and they are difficult to handle in really cold weather with rimless cartridges. Rimmed cases respond better to cold gloved fingers.

 

[oldpete]

I saw a writeup in one of my older "RIFLE" mag. where a Lee Enfield was rebarreled to 444 Marlin that worked out will, so a conversion to 444 necked to .358 should work as will.

Pete

 

[Contender]

The 35 Remington rimmed is really just used for a more user friendly cartridge case in the TC Contender. Head diameter of the Krag and 35 Rem case is virtually identical so just a rim counter-bore is cut in the 35 Rem chamber then fitted with a rimmed extractor. Simply neck up using a tapered expander and run it into a 35 Rem sizer. Trim to proper length. Use 35 Rem load data.

The 358 Bellm is a necked down 444 Marlin case. Simply run the case into a 358 Winchester sizing die to place the shoulder in the correct spot for proper headspace. Do not size all the way to shell holder. The die does not size all the way to the base area and at times you may need to run the case into a 444 Marlin sizer to size down this area. I have never had to with the pressures I run. The neck of the case is about .5" which is really good for the longer cast bullets. Performance is about 2200+ FPS out of a braked 14" TC Contender barrel with 200gr Rem Core-Lokts. This cartridge should do very nicely in a rifle especially with cast bullets and the longish neck. I use H322 powder which is about best followed by IMR4895. All in all a nice cartridge without the need for custom dies. Case length runs about 2.200" and an OAL with a 200 Core-Lokt seated to crimp groove of 2.840"

Pressures are kept moderate for use in the Contender but you may be able to tweak it a bit in a stronger action. Say to 45,000 CUP.

I've often thought of this round in a Handi-Rifle rechamber for a nice rimmed woods round.

I also should mention that the 35 Remington rimmed can be left with a longish neck. This was also done in Contenders to get rid of a poor throat with case length and cutting a new throat in fresh rifling.


Regards

 

[Alk8944]

Kansas Volunteer,

I might have just what you want!  See page 2 of this forum on the .35 Krag.  Basically it is exactly what you are looking for being on a standard .30-40 case with no other changes but to neck up to .35.

You can have a very expensive custom die set made or there are two other possibilities.  First is to use the .35 Rem. die set as-is (I'll have to double check shoulder diameter, but that is how I made the first dummy rounds when I built one), or a .30-40 die set can be modified with only three standard diameter chucking reamers, a lathe, torch, and some Kasenite.  Since I already have the listed items, I might be talked into modifying a die set for you if the project gets that far.

A third direction would be a .35 Winchester, except it has a neck about the same length of a .35-Rem.

My experience with the .35 Rem. is that it can be a very accurate cast bullet caliber.  I had one rifle with which I shot several sub-2" groups at 200 yds.  I don't recall the charge specifically but it was a full power load using the RCBS 200 gr. FPGC cast in 91-6-3 alloy with Javelina lube.  Believe it, or not if you desire, but the rifle was a Model 8 Remington which didn't even have a very good looking bore!  None of my three other .35's have even come close, don't even ask why I sold it.

You might want to re-consider the Lee-Enfield action since it is very stretchy and case life can be very short.  Obviously a P-'14 would be ideal if you can find one, or a Siamese Mauser.

Send me an E-mail if you are interested and I can fill you in on modifying dies, who to have do the barrel work, etc.  By then I will also be able to tell if the .35 Rem die option is a good one.  I believe it will work as long as you don't need to full-lenght size.

 

[William Iorg]

kansas,

According to Homers cardboard calculator this is "approximatly" what you will get.

250gr. blt from a 20" brl with 38.0 gr of IMR 3031 - about 2,000fps at 44,400 CUP.

300 gr blt from a 20" brl 35.0 gr of IMR 4895 - about 1835 fps at 43,500 cup.

Not bad performance from the "old" .35 Rem.
What about the .356 Win in the Lee Enfield?