Since I have to take a 2nd mortgage on the house to cover the magazines I've bought for it that don't work, any downsides to rechambering to 358 Win?

I know short action mags are said to 'work' with the 35 Rem, but so far, no go and I ain't buying any more.


It's an early model, before they drilled/tapped them, I think it's 1954 or 55.


And if a rechamber, who?

Thanks

Since the rim diameter is smaller on the 35 Rem, the bolt face might not work. Then again Remington might have used an oversize face for the 35. Something to check.

People like to quote that as a problem, but it's not. Remington used the same bolt face for 35 Rem and all the .473" case heads.

Not sure what to suggest here. All of my short action magazines work for 35 Rem in my 1955 action. If they don't work in yours, I wouldn't count on them working for a 358 either; I'd want to figure out why they don't work and what's wrong before rechambering in hopes that fixed it.

My lone 35 Remington magazine works fine.

What do the others do differently; how do they fail? Mag lips do get bent sometimes, you might measure the gap between lips on the 35 Rem mag and compare to the others.

I know the 35 Rem mags have the little spring spacers front and rear, but the lack of those in other mags has never affected mine. Assuming we're talking about factory 760 magazines of course; aftermarket magazines for these are junk, and the newer 7600 magazines don't always work right either in these old guns.

I only have a couple 35 Rem magazines as well, the rest are other short actions like 308 and 6mm Rem; all of mine function and feed the same way. Only difference I've seen is some lock into the gun differently than others and can benefit from a little tweaking of the magazine catch (that's just variation in mags and nothing to do with 35 Rem vs the others).

My magazines all work even with wide flat nose bullets.

I think yours is a magazine problem or the catch. But for a rebore I have guns by JES. Be Well, Rustyzipper.

Regan Nonneman in MO, does that conversion on a regular basis... or at least used to.

Beyond the re-chambering I’m pretty sure he has to change out the extractor (35 rem is rimmed, 358 is not).

No, that is not correct. The 35 Rem is not rimmed. There are no other modifications needed other than the chamber to convert one of these guns to 358 Win, and with long action mags it can be made into a 35 Whelen as well.

The downside is there are not as many 35 Remington rifles around any more.

yep... I was thinking about a 356... my bad

Probably easier to convert a 760/7600 in 308 to 358 than mess with a 35 REM

Easier? No definitely not. Converting a 35 Remington is a simple rechamber, nothing else to it.

I had one rechambered to 358Win years ago. I sold off the 35Rem mag and used a 308 magazine w/o any issues at all. It was a good conversion but I would not do it to a nice condition 35Rem 760. Mine was a beater.

I've always heard that the ROT of the 760s in 35 REM, 1-16"(?), was too slow to work well with bullets heavier than 200 grains, so rechambers to 358 WIN or 35 Whelen were generally unsatisfactory 'cause the heavier bullets that you'd probably want to shoot wouldn't work well.

IIRC, Paco Kelly recommended heavy 35 REM loads for strong rifles like the 760, but not applicable for the Remington 8/81 and 14/141, Standard, or Stevens 425.

As long as you stay with 225 grain or less you should be fine..

Faster would be better but I had no trouble with Speer 250s in mine as well as in 3 different 7600s in 35Whelen.

I traded into this exact set up years ago and had the rifle for awhile. Don't know who did the work except that it was described as a simple rechamber. The rifle shot 225 Noslers well, Speer 250s not so much. Interestingly, at the same time I had a rechambered 600 with the same ROT that bug holed the Speer bullet. I had no issues using the regular .308 magazines.

With my 358’s I ran into problems with COAL of anything over 225 grains anyway - so the bigger lead issues may not be as bad as they look.

I have two 358’s, one a BLR, and the second a Winchester 70 custom shop.

Remington used the same 1:16 twist for all of their 35 Whelen rifles as well. It's plenty adequate for 250gr and more depending on bullet design. I have used up to 280gr bullets in both 35 Rem and 35 Whelen Remington rifles with the 1:16 factory twist with good results. A faster twist is needed for 300gr stuff, but that's not normally used in 35 Remington anyway.

There sure is a lot of bad information being shared in this thread.

Please note that I clearly stated that I had heard that the ROT on the 760s in 35 REM was too slow for bullets heavier than 200 grains, not that I knew that it was from personal experience.

I've had a couple of 1-16" ROT Marlin 336s rechambered from 35 REM to 356 WIN and they handled the 220 grain Speer FP bullet just fine.

My intention was to alert the OP to a possible problem that I'd heard about, so that he could investigate further, that's all. Just trying to help a fellow out, but as they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Typical Fire fashion 'I don't have any FIRSTHAND experience, but I can't help but to interject BS into the conversation'

Thanks to most of you.

I guess that I'm on the road to hell.

Just verify the info you're saying is correct before sharing it.

And how/where would I verify this information from sources that would be something other than anecdotal experiences?

One of the best old-time 'smith that I've ever known told me the information that I shared over 30 years ago and I would trust his information 10 times out of 10. He never steered me wrong, but he is long dead, so I can't ask him why he told me what he told me. The conversation came up when I was looking at a Remington 760 in his shop that had been rechambered from 35 REM to 358 WIN. I took it over to the counter and he told me not to buy it because he said that the ROT was too slow for the longer/heavier component bullets available back in the last 1980's,

I'm not trying to be a dick here at all, but here are 2 ways that come to mind:

1 - ask "is the 35 Remington twist rate fast enough for heavier bullets? Will it be a problem?" instead of proposing that there is a problem based on bad information. Plenty of people here know this stuff and could answer that question.
or
2 - do a quick google search for 35 Whelen and 358 Win twist rates in Remington rifles. Maybe take another minute to read if that works for heavy bullets like the common 250gr 35 Whelen load. You'd have found that Remington uses the same 1:16 twist rate for the Whelen.

It's too bad your old-time gunsmith gave you that bad information to start with; that would have been a great rifle to have and could have served you well. Just because someone knows how to work on guns doesn't mean they are correct about all things gun related.

I've owned a couple dozen rifles chambered in 358, mostly Savage 99s, a BLR, and a couple of Ruger 77s.. The only ones that still have are a Savage 99DL and one of the Blue Mountain 77 RSIs. If Bill was wrong of this one, it would be a first time that I'm aware of.

I had an early Rem 760 in 35 Rem converted to 35 Whelen, 1 in 16 works fine with 250 Gr bullets. You need to find a smith who can rechamber the 760 and knows how to set the RIGHT HEADSPACE!
You cant set the barrel back if you go to far with lugs in the breach of the barrel.

You will end up with a mess if not done right. Find a smith that specializes in 760 work!

First heard of this late 70,s Oregon Smith in Bend OR did one for an Elk rifle 35 Rem to 35 Whelen on a Rem 760. Need to find a early 270, 30-06 mag as later 760 mag latch is different. With longer bullets you
may have to chamfer outside edge of barrel to unload a loaded round.

358 Win probably a better option for your rechamber, but a 35 Whelen will work with the right mods.
All said and done I sold my converted 35 Whelen and bought a factory 7600 in 35 Whelen a lot less fussy
and its chambered right.

TFF. Do you work for CNN?

That makes the most sense, thank you. I'll either sell and get a 7600 or forget the pumps all together. I've had zero luck to date with 141 and 760.

What problems have you had with 141s and 760s?

I've owned a bunch of them and only had one that required work to resolve a problem, a 14 in 32 REM that wouldn't feed reliably until some of the worn parts were replaced.

I don't recall ever having a 760 that wasn't as reliable as a hammer.

Actually, I don't really work, mostly retired in my mid-40's. I felt that it was wrong for me to fill a job when someone needed that job to pay their bills and I no longer did.