I very much appreciate the information so far. I would like to digress for a moment, when I bought the rifle it was pictured with a set of RCBS dies Marked 350 Brown. The dies never made it for whatever reason. The rifle is Marked 35 Brown-Whelen on the barrel so that's the dies I ordered from CH4D.
Good to see you are endeavoring to persevere, Ep3jflyer. I am inspired to resurrect my old .35 Brown Whelen.
Now I am wondering if your rifle was chambered for short neck and short overall brass length like Donnelly showed in his aberration ?
Could CH4D have used Donnelly as a guide for dies, or did they use the C. Norman Brown reamer by JGS ?
So far I have done the following, sorry if this is long. 1. Did the expanding to 375 then the 35 BW die it does chamber on the doughnut verified by using black sharpie to color the doughnut and it has a ring all the way around. 2. Just sized 2 brass in the 35 BW die only and tried the backwards 38 cal bullet will only close the bolt with bullet seated barely below the case mouth. Tried one with a 200 gr Remington Soft point Corelockt bullet and the bolt will close with the bullet seated 1/32 below the cannulure. Considering doing a chamber cast to check for sure. I have another Wildcat I have to cast anyway. Thoughts ?
Maybe you need to do a chamber cast, looking for short chamber length,
but first you might try this:
Simply neck up some .30-06 brass to only .35-caliber.
2.490"-length brass will shorten to 2.460".
Do 10 cases like that.
Trim each case sequentially shorter by 0.010": 2.460", 2.450", 2.440", etc.
Seat a flat-based cast or jacketed bullet in reverse so full-diameter base of bullet is flush with the case mouth, for sequentially shorter COLs same as brass length.
If there is any radius or bevel on the base of the bullet, that short length of subcaliber portion of bullet base may be allowed to project forward of the case mouth.
See if such a "throat-gauge dummy" chambers easily at shorter length brass.
Without a bullet in the neck, the brass may flex inward and be misleading.
It will be more sensitive as a gauge with bullet seated flush and brass trimmed, squared and uniformed, do not chamfer, just de-burr.
Or do the chamber cast.
