Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 286 NPT in 35 whelen

Years ago I seem to recall guys swagging down 9.3 286's to shoot in 35's..I think it was on this site that I read about it?

Anywho, I have a 1-16" whelen and recently purchased 400 9.3 286's, price was right..I didnt turn up much on my search for the old thread, hence the reason for the post.

Kinda wondering if the fella that was swagging them down for his whelen is still around??

I've never done it, but supposedly Corbin sells dies and presses for swaging.

Let me be the first to say though that if you decide you want to part with any of those 9.3's pm me.

I have to laugh because I bought what was sold to me as a 9,3x57. The owner had been shooting Norma 9,3x57's through the rifle, even gave me some ammo and brass. I bought it with the intention of rechambering to 9,3x62. Imagine my amazement when I slugged the bore only to find it measured .356" not .366". A 9,3x57 cartridge chambered just fine. I guess the old 9x57 chamber had enough slop in the neck to accommodate the larger bullet seated. That or some enterprising German smith simply ran a 9,3x57 reamer into a 9x57 before selling it to a Swede.

I've heard of folks using the Lee push through sizer to do what you want.

I did the only sensible thing and rechambered it to .35 Whelen.

I assume by NPT you mean Nosler Partitions. I've drawn bullets down from 416 to 411 but only standard cup and core. I don't know if you'll have any trouble with trying to draw a partition. The solid web may introduce some issues that a cup and core would not. I don't know enough about it to say for sure. Seems like I remember someone commenting that the solid web cracked when they tried to resize a Partition to a smaller diameter. Swift offers a 280 grain A frame in their line up of 35 caliber bullets if it turns out you cannot resize these bullets.

Mart

I've done it with Lee sizer dies and they shot fine - but they were not partitions. Got the idea and basic procedure from a Layne Simpson article. He was taking a 358Norma to Sweden I think and really wanted to use 286grs bullets. He couldn't find any factory ammo in that weight so sized down 286gr .366" for .358 use. Got a moose with it too.

I have only shot targets with my resized 9.3s and I doubt that partions or mono metal designs would resize easily enough. A lead bonded core design might be perfect. Read my experiences doing this with further details linked here - at bottom of this page under heading "RESIZING HEAVYWEIGHT .366" BULLETS TO .358" - http://35cal.com/bullets.html

I bought the Lee sizer after reading about it on Whelen B's site and also reading the same Layne Simpson article he mentions above. I haven't tried it yet but would really like to hear about the 286 gr PT since that's the one I wanted to try. Bought some Woodleigh 358 275 gr PP's recently to experiment with but haven't tried them, they seem like very well made bullets for anyone who wants to try a heavy 358 bullet.

The Woodleigh should be fine in a 1:16" barrel. I was surprised though when the release was a PP and not a RN design.

I have a 9.3mm 270gr Speer stuck in a Lee 0.358" sizing die at the moment. Its not quite as easy as made out, then again my lube may have been totally wrong.

A gunsmith I know does it using a hydraulic press with swage dies made from barrel stubs.
Cheers...
Con

I swaged 286gr Hornadys down to 35 cal,1 pass in a Lee sizer.

They are plenty accurate enough in my Norma mag but I have yet to kill anything with them yet!

Mine's a custom 1 in 12 so can shoot any 358 bullet made, do have an NEF 1 in 16 too that I should try them in just to see if they will stabilize.

Not sure what the best lube will be, hope you can get that bullet out of your die

WHY,would anyone WANT to do something that is so relatively difficult and time-consuming? SAFs are, as noted above, available in 280 gr., even here in Canada, where obtaining components can be a bit dicey and, IIRC, the North Forks, in .358" come in 270 grs?

I do not own and have never owned a .358" bored rifle of any type, have done some minor experimenting with the Whelen, years ago, and decided that my initial choice of the .338WM was better, for me than the Whelen.

I also started with the 9.3x74R in about 1998 and the fine, old 9.3x62 in early 2006, now having my superb 1937 Type B and three customs with "plastic handles" on Brno ZG-47 and CZ-550 rifles.

So, IF, I just HAD to have a 286 NP, I would just get a 9.3x62 to shoot them in and save myself all the hassle. YMMV, of course.

Exactly. The only reason I can think of to swage bullets is when some nifty old rifle comes along and correct-diameter can't easily be had any other way. As an example, a friend has a drilling in 8x57JR, with .318" grooves. While there are a couple .318 bullets available, they're often hard to come by, expensive and not the best ballistically. So he swages down 180-grain Nosler Ballistic Tips, one of the heavy-jacket models. They've worked great both in North America and Africa.

But why bother simulating a 9.3x62 when you can easily own one? Plus, I've seen the results of swaged-down "premium" bullets in the field, and sometimes they don't do all that well, probably because the swaging stressed the bullet somehow.

Because it would be neat to try :)that said there are a couple of heavyweight 358 bullets that will work nicely if the need arises.

That's good to know John. I also agree with Kutenay. I think the OP needs to sell us some of those 286's for cheap and then buy a decent bullet that was made for the cartridge. Just a thought

My thoughts exactly.
1. Rebarrel to 9.3x62
2. Sell 9.3 bullets and buy 358 bullets. If you want a 35, this is the best option,
3. Sell 35 and buy 9.3x62 rifle

Much easier to do it right, vs trying to make it work.

What would concern me with this is not so much the time/energy issue as I am long-retired and am a rather "experienced" handloader of some 46 years involvement, it is the distortion of the bullets from the design parameters set out by Nosler.

When, I first encountered home-sizing/modding of bullets so one could shoot fine old rifles/combos chambered in obsolete/rare cartridges, it was the management gang at "Guns&Ammo" some 25+ years ago. The late Tom Siatos, had this fine little German DR, in the "J" or .318" bore and wanted to shoot NPs in it.

He had some machinist use a "centerless grinder" to thin the 8mm-200 NPs to the desired .318", AND, serendipitiously, (WOW, big word, eh! ) found that the bullets so treated now weighed 196 grs., the exact weight of the original "J" bullets for that cartridge.....

But, all of these guys were RICH and could afford to play with things/guns that are only fantasies for most hunters. So, after some checking with local machine shops, I decided not to pursue this approach to thinner bullets.

If, I had bought the lovely pre-war "Cape Rifle" in 16-8x57JR, that I was considering at that time, I would have gone with the Zeglin dies and probably Hornady ILs and/or Speer HCs.

No better than about 3" groups at 100 yards using the .358 caliber 310 gr Woodleigh RN SN bullets at 2300 fps muzzle velocity in my 35 Whelen Remington 700 CDL (24" barrel) which has a 1-in-16" twist rate - likely too slow to properly stabilize these bullets. And the longer 310 gr FMJ bullets are all over the target at 100 yards. Note the 0.458 ballistic coefficient - quite high for a round nose bullet.

From my 35 Whelen Remington 750 autoloading carbine, which has an 18.5" barrel and 1-in-16" twist rate, I get a muzzle velocity of around 2100 fps and these bullets are all over the target at 100 yards. I suppose at this lower muzzle velocity the rotational speed is well below the stability threshold.

Better accuracy - about 1" groups at 100 yards - at 2000 fps MV in my .358 Winchester which has the faster 1-in-12" twist rate barrel to properly stabilize this heavy bullet.