Expander die question
 

I'd like to try shooting some cast bullets in my .35 Remington Marlin 336; however, I'm put off a bit by the fact that I've heard conflicting stories about the 'microgroove' rifling not shooting cast bullets well. I really don't want to invest the time & money in buying molds, handles, ect. and then finding it was all for naught.
I did find a company that supplies cast bullets, and one of them is the 200 grain RCBS flat nose 200 grain GC bullet for the .35 Rem. I'm thinking about buying a box of these and trying them before I put out an investment in the molds.
I reload cast bullets for my .30/30, and found that in order to get any accuracy, I had to get a die that flares the case mouth a bit.....no big deal. Before I buy such a thing for the .35, I'm wondering if I can use the expander die from my .357 magnum dies to expand the mouth on the .35 Remington cases enough to load the cast bullets......what do you all think?

Mr. 16 gauge,

It will work. Just go slow and judicious and "Bell" the mouths just enough to permit cast bullet base entry into the mouths of the .35 case. I do this all the time for cast bullets in my .35 Whelen using .357 expander plug.

Adam

Thanks, Adam....guess I'll go ahead and order a box of bullets!:)

Adam is right..and if you have a Lyman expander die..you can just order the right size expander for it. I have 6 different expanders for mine.

Only problem with cast in marlin microgrooves is that you need to bump the bullet up slightly over a jacketed bullet.

GoodOlBoy