Re: Custom 35 Whelen Ackley rifle will not fire factory 35 Whelen ammo
- From: stans4@xxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:27:08 +0000 (UTC)
jquadeus@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
# I had bought a used, custom built rifle. The original owner said he
# has had no problems with the rifle. The caliber is 35 Whelen Ackley
# Improved. Properly built, this rifle to fire 35 Whelen ammo, which
# would fire form the brass.
#
# I can fire the fire formed brass without any issues. The factor ammo
# hits the primers, but does not fire. Primed cased do not fire. From
# my limited knowledge and talking to people, this sounds like a head
# space issue? I guess I am asking for a diagnosis.
#
# Second, if I cannot return this rifle, reworking the barrel with be a
# costly investment. I was contemplating putting on a nicer barrel, in a
# beefier 35 caliber round. I thought the Ackley was one of the top
# dogs, but the Norma and the Shooting Times Alaskan are way ahead.
#
# Can I use the standard length FN Mauser action for the Norma or STA? I
# believe the Norma would work, but the STA would be too large for this
# action.
#
# Regards,
#
# Jason
#
First, it's been only fairly recently that .35 Whelan has been a
factory round. Before that, it was a wildcat, it was up to the
gunsmith to make or locate a reamer for it and up to the shooter to get
dies and fireform brass. So one rifle's chamber may not be exactly the
same as anyone else's. Current factory ammo may bear no resemblance to
what a wildcat's chamber actually is, even though they both are labeled
".35 Whelan". You've got an additional problem, you've got a
wildcatted-wildcat. If it shoots well with your fireformed brass,
you'll just have to go back to basic wildcat case forming techniques.
..30-06 brass would be a lot cheaper as a starting point, but if you've
got a supply of factory .35 Whelan, you might want to try seating the
bullets farther out to position the case properly in the chamber so the
primers will go off.
Next, I'm kind of puzzled. If you've got a Mauser action, the
extractor claw should hold the round close enough to the bolt face so
it could at least get set off. Or are you just dropping a round in the
chamber and slamming the bolt shut? If it's the latter, you might be
shortening the case. 98 Mausers are designed to feed from the
magazine, commercial ones have the extractor clearanced so it can snap
over the case's base when you slam the bolt shut on a chambered round,
military ones aren't and you can break the extractor claw doing that.
It takes a fair amount of force to pop the extractor over the case
base, it might be enough ram the case further into that wildcat chamber
to the point where the firing pin can't reach it. I suppose you could
have an extractor claw that's worn or damaged to the point where it
won't hold the case close enough or the firing pin protrusion may be on
the short side.
Finally, Ackley was messing around with these wildcats back in the days
before cheap chronographs. If you read his books, a lot of the
velocities are "estimated" and there's no pressures listed for most of
his loads. Load 'em up until the case blows a primer or the rifle
blows up and back off a tad was the method. Take ANYTHING about
velocities written before the mid-60's with a huge grain of salt unless
they've got proof that they were using a chronograph. So it's not
surprising you've not gotten your expected results if you've been
reading the old books and mags.
A lot depends on what you want to do with the gun. If it shoots well
and your only beef is that it doesn't shoot factory ammo, either learn
to make cases or set the barrel back and rechamber for the commercial
..35 Whelan round. Anything you make up in .35 you're going to have a
problem with finding off-the-shelf ammo back of beyond. The caliber
isn't exactly a hot seller, anywhere.
Stan
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