Good point there Mike.
I have that problem when necking up .338 Lapua Magnum to .375 Tornado.
If I seat a boat tail bullet so as not to have full-diameter bullet intruding on the donut, no problem.
I then fire the case and inside neck ream it, and no problems after that.
Much easier to inside ream than outside turn the neck for my case.
Hopefully Epj3flyer has a short-enough bullet and/or long enough throat to fire-form without getting into the donut.
Simply necking up to .35-cal and using a reversed .35-cal bullet is best.
No need to mess with the soft, little, rounded shoulder created by necking up to .375 then down to .358,
which is ineffectual for fire-forming, and unnecessarily working the brass.
Headspace on the bullet, jammed into the rifling.
Anneal before fire-forming and use new brass for the first go, with either .30-06 or .35 Whelen brass.
Conrad's article mentioned the aberration in John J. Donnelly's book on cartridge conversions.
That is not the first time Donnelly has been found to be aberrant !
For the ".35 Brown/Whelen" as he labels it, Donnelly shows a neck length of only 0.235", and a brass length of 2.385", therefore a bolt face to Neck-1 of 2.150".
That does not jive with the JGS reamer (2.1764") or the cartridge drawing in Conrad's article (2.130") for bolt face to Neck-1.
Conrad's cartridge drawing shows brass length of 2.450".
The JGS reamer shows chamber length of 2.500", a generous 0.050" longer, more than needed for brass stretching on firing of a 2.450" case.
All I can say is the Redding dies I had worked with the JGS reamer.
I found 3 pieces of my fire-formed brass made from R-P .35 Whelen.
Case necks are right at 0.300" long, and case length is 2.430".
That is expected shortening from a 2.494" .35 Whelen when it blows out the shoulder to .35 Brown Whelen.
I have a second .400 Whelen chambered with the G&H reamer specs established by Michael Petrov,
done by re-barreling a Ruger Hawkeye factory .35 Whelen donor rifle.
I might have to have the .35 Brown Whelen barrel put back on the M70 .400 Whelen-B.
I never did much shooting with it 20 years ago.
It deserves some more.
If I do, I will need more brass.
I will use R-P .35 Whelen brass and headspace on the bullet rammed into the rifling.
Easy. No dramas. Perfect, sharp shoulder ready for full loads after that first firing.
No inside neck reaming nor outside neck turning (ugh!) needed.
Now I am going to have to dig through my boxes of potential rebar for the patio project.
I may have gotten mixed up on the barrel contour of that .35 Brown Whelen Douglas barrel,
called it No. 3 in one place above, No. 4 in another.
No. 3 on the stainless Douglas M70 .35 Brown Whelen
No. 4 on the chromoly Douglas M70 .35 Whelen
No. 4 on the stainless Shilen M70 .400 Whelen-B
No. 5 on the chromoly Shilen Hawkeye .400 Whelen
That is the story I am sticking to until I rescue the .35 BW barrel from the rebar box to verify.
I will also keep my brass trimmed to 2.430" to play it safe in my .35 BW, neck length 0.300".
