Having Problems with my 25-35?

[hammerman]

I seem to have a problem with my 25-35. If I shoot a round, it is very hard to open the lever. The cases appear fine and the primers are normal. If I load a loaded round and eject it, it works fine. But if I put an empty shell in, the lever is hard to open again. These are reloaded rounds. One load is hornady 60gr., 29gr. H335 and the other is hornady 117gr, and 26gr BL(C)-2. Both loads make the lever hard to open. It's been so long since I've shot factory loads that I don't know if they do the same. The gun is a late forties flat band carbine. The bolt and and lockup is tight. Does anyone have any ideas what could be causing this???

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Clayton

[arjunky]

Is the chamber rough?. Sounds like it may be dirty or some corrosion. Should be able to see some smear marks on the brass from scraping when ejecting.

Byron

[Hobie]

That second load seems excessive. 27 gr. BLC2 is or is nearly the recommended max for 75 gr. bullets. #2, clean the chamber including into the throat. #3 check the brass to see if the neck has grown, i.e. check the case length and see if it is impinging into the throat. The extreme taper of the 25-35 makes it relatively sensitive to such things as pressures rise. If the gun is clean that would be my first suspicion.

[hammerman]

I'll check the chamber. I just cleaned the gun yesterday thinking that could be the problem. The hodgdon manual list 27 gr. max for bl(c)-2 with the 117 gr. bullets, but they also used to list 27 grs. max for h335, but now the max is 22.5 gr. I'll check the case lengths and get back to you guys.

Thanks.

[cowboykell]

I had a Marlin 1893 with a bulged chamber, took a cleaning rod to knock out the empty.

[hammerman]

Ok, I did some checking. I bought some factory shells and checked them in the chamber. They fit in perfectly by hand. So I grabbed a reload and tried to put it in by hand and it wouldn't go in all the way. I haven't shot the factory loads yet, but I bet they work perfect. The reloads are not over length according to specs, but I measured the factory loads and the case length is 2.020 to 2.018. The specs say 2.043 is max length and to trim to 2.033. It seems 2.033 is still too long because that's what the reloads are. I just did some searching on the net and accurate powder says to trim to 2.018 and the max length is 2.043. What the heck?? I guess I'll try the factory shells and if they work, I'll trim all my cases to 2.018.

And the chamber seems to be good.

The reloading data people need to do some major revamping on the 25-35 because there is some major differences . First Hodgdon changes the min on h335 power from 24grs. to a max of 22.5 grs and now I'm finding trim to length differences between the different books. I hope people aren't using anything much older than a year (maybe 2) for reloading data, because the old stuff was wrong or something.

Thanks for your help,

Clayton

[arjunky]

Ok, I did some checking. I bought some factory shells and checked them in the chamber. They fit in perfectly by hand. So I grabbed a reload and tried to put it in by hand and it wouldn't go in all the way. I haven't shot the factory loads yet, but I bet they work perfect. The reloads are not over length according to specs, but I measured the factory loads and the case length is 2.020 to 2.018. The specs say 2.043 is max length and to trim to 2.033. It seems 2.033 is still too long because that's what the reloads are. I just did some searching on the net and accurate powder says to trim to 2.018 and the max length is 2.043. What the heck?? I guess I'll try the factory shells and if they work, I'll trim all my cases to 2.018.

And the chamber seems to be good.

The reloading data people need to do some major revamping on the 25-35 because there is some major differences . First Hodgdon changes the min on h335 power from 24grs. to a max of 22.5 grs and now I'm finding trim to length differences between the different books. I hope people aren't using anything much older than a year (maybe 2) for reloading data, because the old stuff was wrong or something.

Thanks for your help,

Clayton

Are the reloaded cases sized enough? Will they fall out of the chamber just from gravity?

Byron

[arjunky]

Just measured some once fired and unfired cases. Once fired 2.03, unfired 2.027.

Byron

[Slick13]

That second load seems excessive. 27 gr. BLC2 is or is nearly the recommended max

27 gr is the max Hodgdon lists for BL-C(2) with 117 gr bullets. This is one of the best loads in my .25-35 94AE, and is not a max load in my rifle, but I don't load beyond 27 gr.

Hodgdon's info on the .25-35 should aways be approached carefully. Old max with H4895 (and the 117 gr bullet) was 27 gr a couple years ago. It's 22.5 now.

~Michael

[flatnose]

Take one of your fired cases without resizing, and smoke the case using a candle. Insert it into the chamber as far as it will go. Push the case out from the muzzle end wih a rod. Look carefully for any removal of the smoke. Do this several times. This will tell you where the case is binding in the chamber. Repeat the with a dummy cartridge, and check again.
Generally if you can get a live round in the chamber with the lever, then after firing, the empty case should extract.
You can also check a fired cae with calipers at various point around the case over its complete length. This will show you if you have a ringed or bulged chamber.
If all fails, try the factory ammo. If you can not extract the fired case, I would suspect there is something wrong with the chamber.
Good luck.

[Hobie]

That second load seems excessive. 27 gr. BLC2 is or is nearly the recommended max

27 gr is the max Hodgdon lists for BL-C(2) with 117 gr bullets. This is one of the best loads in my .25-35 94AE, and is not a max load in my rifle, but I don't load beyond 27 gr.

Hodgdon's info on the .25-35 should aways be approached carefully. Old max with H4895 (and the 117 gr bullet) was 27 gr a couple years ago. It's 22.5 now.

~Michael

Memory is never perfect, that's why one should use a manual... On the other hand, what is max in one rifle might be too much for another.

Seems to me, and I don't have my references to hand, that we've got more problems than simply the powder charge. A fully resized case should not have difficulty entering the chamber.

[marlinman93]

Get a empty case and full length resize it, then drop it in the chamber without a seated bullet. Believe it or not dies do wear out, and I found a couple sizing dies that would not truly full length resize any longer. Both were RCBS sets and when I called RCBS about them they simply said to set my dies so they come down hard against the shellholder. I tried that and found the cases would then drop into the chamber fine.
Once I figured out what the problem was, I chucked them in my lathe and turned a couple thousandths off the bottom of the sizing die. All is well now.

[mescalero1]

Marlinman,
That steel is hard, how do you accomplish this?
May need to do this on my lathe.

[Gene Dip]

Are you by any chance necking down 30-30 cases for your 25-35? If so this is a typical problem. You state that your reloads won't load fully into the chamber. DO NOT FORCE CLOSURE OF THE BOLT WITH EXCESSIVE FORCE OF THE LEVER. You'll gall the lever mechanism with a permanent hangup notch during stroking of the lever. I found the reloads will not fully chamber by 0.03 inches. Full length resizing with heavy straining of the Rockchucker still won't reduce 0.03 dimension either. I remedied the problem, and will not go into further detail until you indicate the same problems as I experienced.

Gene Dip

P.S. I just noticed Marlinman's post. Yes, I bought a new FL die(all RCBS stuff) and ground off the bottom by 0.03. I used my simple bench grinder, bought a bolt, cut off the hex head and fitted it into a large hand drill. The bolt thread fits into the top of the bare die thread. Use a nut as a jam nut to hold it tite. This is plenty accurate for a shade tree individual. Holding the rotating hand drill square by eye-ball feed the die bottom into the running grinder. Measure frequently to not over do it. Also resize the cases in stages(2 or more) for the first time. Or you will still excessively strain your loading press.

[marlinman93]

Marlinman,
That steel is hard, how do you accomplish this?
May need to do this on my lathe.

Yes, it's extremely hard and I used a cutter I got from one of my customers (a machine shop). He said something about these inserts being rated around 70 hardness? Not sure what that means, but my tungsten carbide cutter wouldn't hardly touch the die when I tried it.

[mescalero1]

70 Rockwell C scale is probably as hard as you can go before crossing the threshold into " brittle "
I have seen a dremel tool set up for the cross slide, I was thinking of doing that.

[hammerman]

I think it's fiqured out. I trimmed some cases dow to 2.018 and they go in fine and come out fine. I also fired 8 rounds of factory ammo and the lever opens easy.

I'm going to trim all my cases to 2.018.

Thanks for all the help.

Clayton