Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles NOS 401 SL winchester brass

Well im posting this in a few places, I recently acquired a bunch of "NEW" winchester 401 self loading brass made by the Connecticut cartridge co. THis brass is new old stock from i dont know when. I know it has been just about impossable to find even before this craziness. I did some reserch and found the last time it was available at Graff and sons Bertram was $48.99 for 20 rds, Quality Cartridge had it for 33.99 for twenty. I would like to get $100 for 50 and i would ship for that price. As rare as this is i dont believe its out of line. Adds in the classifieds tend to get burried almost immediatly. Don

I'll take them

There is a way to run 35 rem through a 41 mag sizer and it's supose to work for 401 Winchester .Its very much worth a try at those prices .Grafs just had the bullets too .

On the 35 Rem you would also have to turn the extractor grove a bit in a lathe to make sure they function properly.Tater 74 sending you a PM.

Hey guys. I just purchaced a .401. Purchaced dies, 200gr bullets and tried to resize 35 brass, I have not been successful. Any tips

Wasn't a 401 Win, sort of a riot gun, or one used by prison guards in the early 20th century?

I had a father in law that had the 351 SL and the 401 Win. both were passed down from his dad who had been a guard at Sandstone Federal Prison in Minnesota, back before WW2.

Hmmm. Swaging .35 Remington brass in a .41 Magnum die sounds do-able, but I would bet the farm you won't do it in a reloading press. I envision a monster arbor press or a hydraulic press because of squeezing the .453" .35 Remington brass diameter down to .434" diameter of .41 Magnum.* (But it sounds a bit odd to me also because the .401 brass diameter I see is .429, per Wikipedia, not .434. I suppose the last little bit of sizing can be done in the .401 die after initial swaging.)

George Nonte, in his book "The Home Guide to Cartridge Conversions" said to make the brass out of .38-55 brass - "Turn rim to .455 diameter, trim to 1.50" length, expand mouth to take .406 bullets, fire form." I can see needing to turn an extractor groove too, but he doesn't mention that. He also fails to mention that the .38-55 case head is .421", .008" smaller diameter than .401's .429". Sounds a little off. Maybe with light loads it wouldn't matter too much.

* I'm in the middle of a project making .25-20 Single Shot brass (completely unavailable for any reasonable price anymore) out of .223 brass. The swaging process isn't as massive/radical as the above .35 Remington/.401 swaging operation yet it still simply can't be done in a reloading press, I'm here to tell you. Thank goodness for my mongo-big arbor press or I would be jerry-rigging a 10 ton bottle jack into service somehow.

Another thought on the subject: I would maybe get a .428" chucking reamer (McMaster-Carr, $40) and have a seriously big diameter piece of steel bored and reamed to that diameter, with a beveled and polished entry hole. No need to harden it, you'll likely not be doing a huge number of cases. Then use it as a swaging die for the .35 Remington brass in something that provides serious tonnage. That would leave you with a brass cylinder the correct diameter. Trim the bulge that'll remain at the base and address the extractor groove and rim diameter, in a lathe, and trim to length. May probably have to do some neck reaming too, I dunno.

If you do a swaging operation like that, one thing I've discovered is the primer pocket has to be addressed too. It'll likely collapse a bit under all that pressure. I countered that phenomenon by making the "pusher", that presses the case into the swaging die, with a steel nub that is the same diameter and length as the primer pocket that fits into the pocket to prevent it collapsing.

A helluva lot of work to go through, for sure. But what else ya gonna do? You better want to shoot the old gun really badly!