Home Forums Reloading Bullet Casting What diameter lead for 35Remington?

The bore is meant to be 0.358". It'll shoot 0.357" jacketed pistol bullets just fine. Lee wesbite says that their 35Rem mold is 0.358". I know lead works best if oversized but will 0.358" lead pistol bullets work?

I could buy some projectiles to find out but wanted to see if someone has already tried this.

yes

"Bore is meant to be .358." ?? If you haven't actually measured your groove diameter (or better yet, throat diameter) then now's the time to do so. Knowing those simple dimensions and acting accordingly can spell the difference between "this is great" to "this works ok" to "OMG whyinhell did I ever do this". Tolerance stacking, taking manufacturers at their word (especially Lee's), and blind assumptions can as easily lead to failure as lead to success.

Thanks. I went out and bought some Berry's in 158gn - they are quoted as 0.3575". I'll load up with TrailBoss but expect they'll just go over the 1250fps max recommended.

I'll have to wait till after Easter before I get a chance to make them go bang.

Thsnks. Yes good advice for doing it properly but I'm after a quick and easy way to do it. I'm not keen on casting, sizing etc in this case but more so in off-the-shelf solutions. I do cast for my 500NE and that works out with minimal effort, but there's no ready made lead options for this caliber, at least down here anyway.

.360 is better if it will fit your throat

What he said. My Marlins shoot 360” well. Any smaller is a gamble in my opinion.
Good luck,
Rick

Well the Berry's shot as well as the jacketed pistol bullets did at 50yds with TrailBoss - around 2.5MOA. Results at 100yds were a bit disappointing - around 4MOA, maybe the projectiles just lose interest on the way out there?

Good news is that there was NO leading of the bore and NONE went sideways through the targets.

I've got a couple more loads to try out (increase in powder load) so I'll see what happens. Based on chrono'ed velocities of the jacketed I'm aleady over the Berry's recommended maximum velocity of 1,250fps, probably close to 1,400fps so far.

If I can get it to maintain 2.5MOA to 100yds I'll be happy, otherwise I'll probably just use them as 50yards "shits and giggles" loads.

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The Berry's have a near identical shape to the Hornady XTPs. Left to right: Berry's 158gn, Hornady 158gn XTP, Hornady 180gn XTP:




Top view down the hole: bottom left: Berry's; top right: Hornady XTP:





A good group at 50yds (1 MOA):





A disappointing group at 100yds (3.5 MOA):





Dirty but lead-free: