Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 35 Whelen, heard a rumor on misfires and marginal shoulder???

I've had a few 223's fail to fire in short specc'd new brass with a generous but spec chamber. A Wilson gauge confirmed....

Neck up and re-size from a psuedo shoulder.

Actually, the proper chamber, proper dies and the neck-up makes the 400 Whelen always headspace.

I have one of the Ruger Special run 35Whelans with the boat paddle stock. The issue with them was rumor then and nothing more. I have hunted with this rifle throughout the US, Canada and Europe and have never had any issues except that it is a "dammed fine hunting tool". A speer 250SP over 58 gr of RL15 shoots 1" or less with Nikon 2-7x40 scope in Leupold mounts. It' goes "BANG" every time and I have confidence in this rifle that it is going to RSA with me next May 2011.

That situation is clearly your fault for incorrect reloading techniques. New brass first fires should be with light loads and with bullet seated into the rifling. You should be measuring the headspace.

It must be true; it's on the internet. So, I must conclude that all the critters killed by the 35 Whelen were just unlucky and all the hunters who were fortunate enough to not be killed by a blown-up rifle were just lucky.

Really- I had one and it did misfire and personally know others that had this same issue with their SEs. My SE misfired with Remington, Federal and Nosler factory ammunition, and Ruger tried to fix it, but did not get it done. However, I did get the job done by having a new ss Lilja barrel installed. It is now a good reliable all weather elk rifle. CP.

He prolly ran his new cases in his FL die and set the only part of the shoulder to set headspace too far back.

All factory loads come with new brass, so seating the bullet out is not an option. Agreed,most of these issues are from handloading practices, for the most part.

Good stuff guys, thanks.

In my .358, the small shoulder has only given me one problem, and that is that it does crush/deform easily when seating pistol bullets if things get at all wonky when seating them.

That's not a function of the size of the shoulder. I've had the same problem (I call it "turtle-necking"} with steep shoulders on a number of different cases. Now I don't make the shoulder steeper than 25� on any cartridge that I design.

It's often a function of your bullet-seating. Crimping the mouth of any case while you're seating the bullet too deep will always deform or even collapse the shoulder.

Thanks Ken. I didn't/don't know why, just that I had seen that shoulder crush and it sure seemed to happen "too easy".

But then I have not seated pistola bullets in anything else, either, and they can be hard to seat straight.

Sure is nice to have you back among the quick, sir!

Once you start playing with wildcats ... its amazing how rational the shoulder angles and case tapers that you despise on factory (ie mass produced) ammunition suddenly becomes.
Cheers...
Con

I've used 35 Whelen rifles since 1987 and have never had any such issues. Most of my cases are reformed 30-'06 brass.

Con +1

Wonder how many wildcatters ultimately 'circle back' to standard rounds to K.I.S.S. ??

wildhobbybobby,
That is a long chamber syndrome for lack of a better explanation, I have seen it in many of the old European calibers, particularly the 10.75x68 wherein I am of the opine that those the old smiths just ran a chamber reamer of sorts in until it looked good enough!

The firing pin hits the primer and drives the case foreward causing a misfire for lack of an indention as the shoulder was not braced, once fireformed the problem is solved..point the gun "up" to fire, and it will "usually" fire and fireform your case. It's a mild sort of problem, but easily delt with.