.35-30-30 cartridge?

[marlinman93]

I'm still working on my Dar Rolling Block project, and Wed. ran into a snag when fire forming cases. It's supposed to be chambered in .35-40 Maynard, but appears it's either short chambered, or improperly chambered. The barrel has a .357" bore, and the Maynard cartridge states it was a .360" bullet. But after fire forming .32-40 cases I'd turned the web down on, and reduced rim diameter, the formed case necks are only .344" ID! Much too small to allow seating a .357" bullet and chamber in this rifle!
At first I considered setting the gun up to just breech seat bullets by adding a stud to the side of the barrel, and making a breech seating tool to seat bullets into the bore, and use my formed cases to fire the Roller. But I got to thinking it might be better to ream the chamber to the popular .30-30 opened up to .35 caliber that many guys are doing with old leverguns. The problem is I can't find dimensions for this cartridge anywhere that I can look at to confirm this will clean up the existing chamber and work?
Does anyone here have dimensions for the .35-.30-30, or know where to locate them?

[GunnyMack]

Cartridges of the World?
Wikipedia?
SAMMI ?No its not a SAMMI cartridge is it...
Reamer maker probably your best bet.

[Bill in Oregon]

Vall, I just peeked at COW on the .356-.30-30:
Neck diameter .378, shoulder diameter. 401, base diameter .422, rim .506 and .058 thick.

[marlinman93]

Vall, I just peeked at COW on the .356-.30-30:
Neck diameter .378, shoulder diameter. 401, base diameter .422, rim .506 and .058 thick.

Looks like it would clean up easily. My rim diameter is .500" and base diameter is .400", so this should work. My case length is supposed to be 2.06", but is shorter which made me believe it got short chambered reducing all the diameters.
I have options to rent the reamer and do this, or just drive down to JES reboring and have him use his reamer to do it. Either would be about the same cost, but renting would save gas and drive time.

[Mark in MO]

Try page 424 of the "The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions," by John J. Donnelly. If you can't find it let me know and I can at least send you a picture of that page.

[marlinman93]

Try page 424 of the "The Handloader's Manual of Cartridge Conversions," by John J. Donnelly. If you can't find it let me know and I can at least send you a picture of that page.

Have to check my library of gun books. I'm not sure if I have that one or not? So many books I rarely reference that it sometimes takes a long time to find one I don't use much.

[marlinman93]

Talked with my gunsmith friend and he has an account with 4D Reamer Rentals, so he's ordering the .35-30 reamer, and their gauge for the same. I'll get the barrel spun off and once the reamer and gauge arrive I'll take it to his place and we'll open up the chamber to .35-30, and finally get this thing usable!

[Griff]

Aw heck, and here I am searching for 32-40 brass! It seems to be unobtainuim! Easily made... but where's the joy in that!

[marlinman93]

Aw heck, and here I am searching for 32-40 brass! It seems to be unobtainuim! Easily made... but where's the joy in that!

I've found the easiest and one of the cheapest donor brass for .32-40 is .32 Win. Spl. It's plentiful and cheap, and easily sizes down in one pass through my .32-40 dies.
I'll use .32 Win. Spl. brass to fire form to fit the chamber on this Roller once it's reamed for the .35-30 cartridge.

[Griff]

All except the long .38-55 are a tad short to be a perfect fit for the .32-40. Plus, I'm probably a little too retentive when it comes to headstamps... It's frustrating that Winchester still lists it as a current cartridge, but responds to inquiries as "obsolete".

[Mike Armstrong]

It's a very good and versatile round. I had one that was a rebored Savage 219 single shot that had a REALLY wrecked .22 Hornet barrel originally but cleaned up perfectly to .35-30 and was very accurate with handloads using everything from 125 to 180 gr. bullets. In those days you could find a bucket of once-fired .30-30s on any range the week before deer season and I just reloaded them with a weak load of Bullseye and cornmeal with a wad and had new .3035s, lots of 'em.

[Scott Tschirhart]

It's a very good and versatile round. I had one that was a rebored Savage 219 single shot that had a REALLY wrecked .22 Hornet barrel originally but cleaned up perfectly to .35-30 and was very accurate with handloads using everything from 125 to 180 gr. bullets. In those days you could find a bucket of once-fired .30-30s on any range the week before deer season and I just reloaded them with a weak load of Bullseye and cornmeal with a wad and had new .3035s, lots of 'em.

I remember those days.

[marlinman93]

It's a very good and versatile round. I had one that was a rebored Savage 219 single shot that had a REALLY wrecked .22 Hornet barrel originally but cleaned up perfectly to .35-30 and was very accurate with handloads using everything from 125 to 180 gr. bullets. In those days you could find a bucket of once-fired .30-30s on any range the week before deer season and I just reloaded them with a weak load of Bullseye and cornmeal with a wad and had new .3035s, lots of 'em.

I have two BW Darr bullet molds for the .35 that came with this rifle, so I'm set for good molds. One is a very early Darr mold from before he became the mold designer for Saeco, and the 2nd is one built on Saeco blocks from his time there. The older is a stepped band design that is a 185 gr., and the newer is almost 200 grs.
I'd need to pull the forearm again to see what the twist is for sure, but seem to recall it's 1:14 twist rate? I'll have to wait to fire form cases after we rechamber the Roller. But I have probably 500 pcs. of .32 Win. Spl. brass and haven't owned a gun in this caliber in decades.

[marlinman93]

All except the long .38-55 are a tad short to be a perfect fit for the .32-40. Plus, I'm probably a little too retentive when it comes to headstamps... It's frustrating that Winchester still lists it as a current cartridge, but responds to inquiries as "obsolete".

I really can't be anal about headstamps since the vast majority of cartridges I have for most of my old guns can't be found, and require reforming cases from a donor. I have maybe 6 rifles that use correct headstamped available brass, and probably 50 rifles that don't. So incorrect headstamps is just a fact of life around here.
I do like full length brass, but that's not always an option. I'd prefer to cut 1/2" off a case and have the length perfect, but a few thousandths short is something I occasionally live with.