Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Making .356 Win. brass ?

Besides finding a good deal on unfired brass, what is the best way to make my own .356 Win. brass? Is .307 Win. or .444 Marlin the way to go? What are the pros and cons of either one for resizing?

I'm told you can just use 358 Winchester brass. I'm told the extractor still gets enough purchase to eject the shell even without a rim. But just don't load to 358 velocities.

The 358 brass may work in Marlins, but Winchester’s may not feed. I would think the best options are plentiful 307 or looking for loaded 356 ammo.

It's easy to make 356 WIN brass from 444 Marlin. Get a Redding 358 WIN trim die and run the 444 brass into it. Trim the excess sticking out the top of the die with a 32 tpi hacksaw blade. File or rotary trim and chamfer to clean up. I do it all the time for my 356.

It is easy to make .307 or .356 Winchester brass from the .444 Marlin case.
The only step after forming to keep firmly in mind is to keep the shell holders separate. If you forget and use a .30-30 shell holder on the formed .444 Marlin case you will pull through the rim and stick a case in the size die.
.356 Winchester cases formed from the .444 Marlin case will accept all maximum loads you use in the Winchester .356 cases except they will shoot to a different point of impact. They are not far off, but they are different.
Case life is good but I anneal the case mouth after forming.

The mid 1960’s American Reloaders Association Bulletin (ARAB) had some short articles and discussion by P.O. Ackley, Robert Hutton, Dean Grennell and a few others on making the wildcat .30- and .35/.444 wildcats.
The first mainstream magazine article I am aware of was by Wm. Schumaker in the December 1966 issue of Guns Magazine. This article was about the .30/.444 wildcat in the Model 94.
Myron Rockett had his .308/.444 article in the 1979 issue of Gun Digest.
As far as I know Ackley, Hutton and the members of ARAB were the one tslking about the .35 and .375/.444 wildcats.
Some of the Gun Writers may have met our hero Herman Bockstruck who is generally credited with the Big Bore Winchester cartridges, The Model 94 big Bore rifle and the Angle Eject feature. I’ll leave the rebounding hammer and the long take-up trigger out of the discussion.
Our Winchesters do not like the rimless cases. One in the chamber and one in the magazine is as good as it gets. Two in the magazine and a cartridge will jump the cartridge stop and tie up the action. If you tie it up don’t waste your time trying to fish it back out from under the lifter. Just pull the magazine plug, spring and follower. Then dump the cartridge out.

Here are a couple of pictures.
Redding form dies make the steps simple. I have never lost a case using the Redding form die.

A form line

i've done it also with 444 brass one pass with a rcbs full length die trim and shoot. it did take a different shell holder as i remember. but fed fine in my winchester.

Ed

358 WIN brass works fine in my rechambered Marlin 336 SC as long as I load to 356 COAL and pressures. In fact, 356 ammo loaded in 356 and 358 brass will cycle interchangeably in my rifle.

Thanks for all the good info gents. I was fortunate and now have close to 300 pieces of unfired WW brass for my .356 Win.

You will not loose many. The .307 and .356 seem to last forever.