Planning on reloading .25-35 Winchester, any advice?

[RogueSniper]

I was at my Cousin-In-Law's house for a Holiday Party. We got to chatting about rifles and he show me the safe with a Savage 1899 in .25-35 Win from his late grandfather. Good God! That thing weighed a ton!

Well, it fires a .25-35 Winchester and I offered to check into reloading it for him. Dies are inexpensive and he had some old rounds which I'll separate into components - I just need the bullet. The casings, when he fired them, split around the the neck. I didn't like the look of the primers - they were rounded, not flat. WTH? I've never seen anything like that. So, I'm going to soak the old rounds in WD-40 to kill the primer and powder so I can safely pull the bullet.

Now, the questions begin:
I know the base is the same as a 30-30. And I could probably neck down and trim 30-30 cases, but I'm not advanced enough of a reloader to do that, of course I could learn. I checked Graf's and it's $20/50rds of brass; 30-30 is about half of that. I've got a couple of Loading Guides, but it didn't mentioned anything peculiar when reloading.

Who's got some experience that they would like to impart upon me? Powder recommendation? I've got 8lbs of Win748, has anyone used this powder for the .25-35?

[BKTJ]

I use 117gr bullets and either IMR3031 or IMR4320, but thats what powder I have on hand. I use those in my .308 & .223 also. Get a good reloading book and start on the low side. I have also had alot of fun loading lead bullets w/gc. The lead bullets I cast make for less expensive shooting and I use them for my 25-20 too. If you need brass Midway has it for cheap. I think it was around $40 for 100 pieces.
As to your old ammo it is best not to shoot. In addition to split necks you could also get case seperation and that will leave part of the case stuck in the chamber. The brass case tends to get brittle with age. Just to make sure its not the gun get some newer ammo and see if it splits too. If it does you could have an oversize chamber or other problems. I seriously doubt it as the Savage 99 is a very strong action and well made.
Finally the round primers were common in older ammo. In fact I have some pre-war Remington Peters that have a brass color rounded primer.


My 2 cents worth....TJ

[RogueSniper]

I have also had alot of fun loading lead bullets w/gc. The lead bullets I cast make for less expensive shooting and I use them for my 25-20 too. If you need brass Midway has it for cheap. I think it was around $40 for 100 pieces.

I've never thought about casting my own. What does "gc" mean?

I'll check Midway for brass. I wasn't too fond of the idea of case cutting and forming my own cases. A lot of work for brass that's already available.

As to your old ammo it is best not to shoot. In addition to split necks you could also get case seperation and that will leave part of the case stuck in the chamber. The brass case tends to get brittle with age. Just to make sure its not the gun get some newer ammo and see if it splits too. If it does you could have an oversize chamber or other problems. I seriously doubt it as the Savage 99 is a very strong action and well made.
Finally the round primers were common in older ammo. In fact I have some pre-war Remington Peters that have a brass color rounded primer.

That explains the brass issues and the round primers. I figured the brass was too old and some metal fatigue or deterioration was occurring. He's fired some new Winchester round from the Savage 99 and the expended cases were fine. The culprit was the old rounds. That Savage is a tough one.

Maybe I should deactivate the rounds and keep them around just for nostaglia or sell them to a collector? I know there are some people that collect old bullets.

Thanks, TJ!

[Fjold]

As far as forming 25-35 cases from 30-30 cases, that's a big step from .308 to .257 and you will probably lose a lot of cases. I would recommend necking the 30-30 cases down to .284 first using a 7mm Waters sizing die and then necking it down to .257.

[BKTJ]

GC is a gas check. When you lube and size you cast bullets. The mold I use is an old Lyman 4 cavity and has the relief for the gas check.

http://www.midwayusa.com/eproductpage.exe/showproduct?saleitemid=190759

TJ

[BKTJ]

Forgot to mention, if you buy new brass just neck size the brass. Load 1 round and see if it chambers easily. If it doesn't you will have to FL size you new brass. This will make it last longer. On the older calibers never buy used brass, its just too much of a crap shoot. As far as reusing the old bullets you pull, toss them. New bullets are not that expensive and you probably won't load or shoot it that much anyway.
We go out and shoot a couple of hundred at a time. I load lead in the 25-20, 44-40 38-55,25-35, 38-55, 45-70...The rounds cost me lead, primer and a little powder. Really cheap and with the lighter lead loads no too much recoil for the younger shooters.

TJ

[rayra]

So, I'm going to soak the old rounds in WD-40 to kill the primer and powder so I can safely pull the bullet.

Completely Unnecessary and likely a long-term and ineffective effort.
Just get a kinetic bullet puller form RCBS or Dillon -



Then pour the powder in the garden and deprime the live primers. soak them.

[ar15barrels]

As far as forming 25-35 cases from 30-30 cases, that's a big step from .308 to .257 and you will probably lose a lot of cases. I would recommend necking the 30-30 cases down to .284 first using a 7mm Waters sizing die and then necking it down to .257.

The 7-30 die won't push the neck all the way down, but it's still a good start.

[Mikeb]

I'm not familiar with 25-35 but a lot of old guns show some variation in bore size. I've been led to believe that bullet fit is very important when shooting lead bullets. So sluging the bore to find out what you have is a good idea.
take care
Mike

[CSACANNONEER]

Completely Unnecessary and likely a long-term and ineffective effort.
Just get a kinetic bullet puller form RCBS or Dillon -



Then pour the powder in the garden and deprime the live primers. soak them.

Yep, I know of a few people who have soaked primers in WD40 as well as other substances to find out the best way to "deactivate" them. Let's just say that they haven't found anything to be 100% effective short of firing them! Soaking is dangerous because, it will give you a false sense of security.

BTW, there's nothing wrong with rounded primers. My Hornady 50BMG press and kit even came with both a flat primmer seater and a concave one for rounded primers. Yes, I've seen rounded primers on small catridges too specially, old ones.

[RogueSniper]

We checked those old round he fired in that Savage 99 and found some splitting in the shoulders of the casing and some of the bases started to bulge. I was going to check the wall thickness of the brass.

Those rounds had headstamps of WRA. I did a little searching on the web and those things were made in the 1940s.

I have a kinetic bullet puller from Midway that's worked for the last 10+years. I'm just waiting for the shaft to break off then I'm going get a better one.

My Speer manual doesn't list .25-35. I have another book, Handloading from the NRA that list it but not a whole lot of data. I lost my Hornady manual , guess I'll stop by Tabors and pick up new one.

As soon as I figure out the ups and downs of reloading the .25-35, I'll present the cost break down to my Cousin-In-Law and if he wants, I'll reload some for him.

Now we need a chrono to check ballistics. What kind of accuracy are you finding? TJ mentioned using IMR. What is everyone else using? Anyone tried Win748?

[BKTJ]

Search the web, alot of the powder mfg list data online. Even for the 25-35...

TJ