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35 ARem
Sept 15, 2011 6:40:51 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 15, 2011 6:40:51 GMT -5
And now............the 35 ARem Another very easy conversion. This is a 35 Remington cut down to use 7.62x39 brass. Chamber was short reamed to fit a dummy round, then cases were fire formed. Case on left is a new x39 case run through the cut down 35 Remington sizing die in one pass. Center is a fire formed and resized case with the Hornady 180gr SSP, and right is the little brother the 300 Fire-out-sper I used Quick Design to modify the standard 35 Remington case then imported that data into Quick Load. Using a moderate pressure of 45,000 psi, 29 gr of Reloader 7, and a 16" barrel, QL calculated the ARem with the 180 Hornady would hit 2100 fps. Overall length is 2.120" with the 180 SSP's. When we bump the pressure up to 7.62x39 or 6.5 Grendal levels and seat the bullets out to 2.25" oal, performance exceeds the 35 Remington. I'm still testing and may bump the shoulder forward a bit, but with the long 358 cal bullets, I doubt there will be any net gain in case capacity or performance. For fire forming I used 2400 (because I had it in the powder measure) and some 9mm 124 cast bullets. I chose the .358 blank over the 9mm or 357 so we could really bump up the bullet weight selection. Plus the fact this thing will exceed the design performance of the available pistol bullets I'm running a mid length gas system right now and will see how it goes as we do more testing. Will put together a 10" version with a carbine system and see what some of the sub stuff will do, at some time. With deer season quickly approaching, field testing is going to be required. ;D
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35 ARem
Sept 15, 2011 23:23:52 GMT -5
Post by greywuuf on Sept 15, 2011 23:23:52 GMT -5
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35 ARem
Sept 16, 2011 12:19:19 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 16, 2011 12:19:19 GMT -5
I'm a budget shopper
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35 ARem
Sept 16, 2011 23:24:01 GMT -5
Post by greywuuf on Sept 16, 2011 23:24:01 GMT -5
hmph, I would say the same about myself but the Wife says what I really mean is "Cheap B***ard"
and what I meant to say about your version was "its been done called the 358 Gremlin, but yours is Better because there are no proprietary Dies and such required."
and now I have a question, did you create the chamber with a 35 rem reamer ? or a custom one or a custom one that you made ?
thanks Dan
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35 ARem
Sept 17, 2011 9:16:57 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 17, 2011 9:16:57 GMT -5
Yes, I simply short chambered with a stock 35 Remington reamer. My first thought was to cut down standard 35 Remington brass and cut the rim off because you could posibbly get another .100" or so. The stock 35 Rem has a pressure point of 35ksi. Using x39 brass lets us bump that up to 45ksi + depending on brass and your quest for power. Using the x39 case, while shorter than possible, keeps the dimensions of the base diameters within a few thousands, eliminates case prep, and forms in one pass of the modified dies. Most importantly, it keeps development cost down as I play around with this thing. My gut feeling was to bump the shoulder forward a bit more, theoretically gaining some capacity and shortening the neck a bit more from the long 35 Rem. However, lets see what happens when I load up the 300 gr Hardcast loads. And I can't believe our lovely brides would ever call us cheap!
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35 ARem
Sept 17, 2011 17:22:59 GMT -5
Post by greywuuf on Sept 17, 2011 17:22:59 GMT -5
For possible cast use? We like the long neck
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35 ARem
Sept 18, 2011 11:27:13 GMT -5
Post by greywuuf on Sept 18, 2011 11:27:13 GMT -5
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35 ARem
Sept 19, 2011 6:04:15 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 19, 2011 6:04:15 GMT -5
+1 for castboolits ;D Opened up the gas port to .09375" yesterday and got shells to eject with the fire forming load. Going to switch to RE-7 or Lil Gun and bump things up a bit as we sneak up on the gas port. Rifling start to hit at 2.170 with the 180 SSP bullets so cast loads are going to have to be seated pretty deep. Didn't get a chance to try the 300 hardcast yesterday, sun was shining and took a bike ride I don't mind a long neck my self once in a while...
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35 ARem
Sept 20, 2011 16:05:38 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 20, 2011 16:05:38 GMT -5
Just finished a 10" pistol barrel and will put a carbine gas system on it. Twists are 1:14 so don't know how any sub stuff will do. Will compare the twist on the old SSP and see how they compare. Going to switch from 2400 to RE-7, Lil'Gun, and some H110 and see what happens. Most of my brass is once fired Fed but did a few from some new Lapua. Nice stuff. We'll see if it makes a difference.
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35 ARem
Sept 23, 2011 2:12:44 GMT -5
Post by greywuuf on Sept 23, 2011 2:12:44 GMT -5
Hey how did you manage to set the shoulder back whle fire forming ? it looks like the formed case has a longer neck and shorter body than the formed brass? optical delusion or did I miss something ?
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35 ARem
Sept 23, 2011 7:07:57 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 23, 2011 7:07:57 GMT -5
It's an optical dillusion, 35 Rem necks are .336" Necks on the ARem are .295" Not having a set of gauges and being concerned the re-formed x39 brass would not hit the shoulder anyway, I took a calculated guess on how deep to do the first one. For fire forming I seated a cast 9mm into the rifling. What I didn't want to do was have the x39 brass seat on the case mouth ending up with an even longer neck. For the next barrel I used my original case for the first one and a newly fire formed case and they were within .002"
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35 ARem
Sept 26, 2011 6:50:10 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Sept 26, 2011 6:50:10 GMT -5
Tried some IMR 4227 and got to some pressure signs so going to look at my OAL. Right now it is at 2.150 where the Hornady 180 SSP's are into the rifling. Either going to push the chamber / neck fwd a bit or do some throat work.
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Post by HMC710 on Oct 3, 2011 5:49:53 GMT -5
Went over everything this weekend and decided to leave the chamber alone for the time being. Opened up the gas port a bit more and dropped the charge to 25 gr of IMR 4227. Got the bolt to lock back and no signs of pressure. 3 shot groups were about an inch at 50 yds so seated bullets down into cannalure at 2.100" OAL. Groups tightened right up so this looks like a good starting point. Did not get the chrono out, QL predicts just over 2000 fps. Have 5 reloads + the fire forming on some of the 1x fired RP brass.
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35 ARem
Oct 12, 2011 6:40:08 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Oct 12, 2011 6:40:08 GMT -5
;D I am liking this round. Current load is 25.2gr of 4227 with the Hornady 180gr SSP's at 2.105" Chrono readings avg 2103 fps with no signs of pressure. (see pressure notes below) I'm still breaking in the barrel so I load each round by hand and used a front bag for some target work at my 50yd range. Put a Weaver T-6 scope with fine cross hairs I picked up on it. Wow those are fine hairs . Shot 3 - 3 shot groups. Consistently 2 of the 3 rounds would be a 3/8 - 1/2" hole with the 3rd just touching or just outside the group. Pressure: This load is very sensitive to OAL. If I seated a 1/2 turn deeper I would get flattened primers. Too long >2.150" and I would get flattened primers and some bolt swipe. Hit the sweet spot and the cases run through the size die like butter. I just ran this load through Quick Load and it says its a 99.9% full case, 96% powder burn and Velocity should be 2034 fps.
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35 ARem
Oct 17, 2011 6:49:24 GMT -5
Post by HMC710 on Oct 17, 2011 6:49:24 GMT -5
Did some more testing with OAL and crimping to see how things change and get some more break in rounds on the barrel. 2.100" with no crimp seems to work out the best so far. Need to look at the gas key / tube as I am getting some drag on there. Also did some feed tests with stock 10 round 7.62 x 39 mags. Getting a little bit of scrape on the tip of the 180's so will look into that, but, they all fed. Have 10 reloads on some of the Fed cases and they are still holding up. Have one Lapua case and it would not fully chamber. Will take some measurements and see what's up with that.
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