25, 30, 32, & 35 Remington Brass Preservation / Model 14/141

[nambujim]

Its late and I haven't been able to annoy anybody for a good long time so I thought it might be worth passing on a tip on how to conserve & preserve your dwindling supply of usable brass for the Model 14/141. It's pretty obvious so if I have insulted you, sorry about that but there are a lot of new guys out there just starting to collect and shoot these remarkable rifles.

This is going to be short but first off let me re-state these rifles are brutal to brass because of the load, feed, fire, and eject method will ding the dickens out of any make of brass in any of the calibers (including the pistol calibers).

I have found after many years of making up dummies for testing rifles I've repaired you "might" get five (5) loadings out of your brass if you're lucky. Yes, you can clean up the burrs on the rim (I suggest a fine wire wheel) but in many cases the nicks are pretty severe and after a few cleanings you will lose enough brass from the rim to the point it will load poorly and in many or most cases will eject sluggishly or not at all, the latter being the norm.

So here we go, if you take your rifle to the range ONLY load it single shot since this will eliminate the brass being beat up going through the system and shuck it gently or at least make the effort to do so when ejecting. This will lessen the rim from being beat up thus prolonging the life of the brass because finding new stuff is really hard and in a few years may well be impossible.

Buffalo Arms is attempting with some degree of success, forming .30 Cal. Brass from "something" and probably will have to do the same with .35 Cal. but in the meantime anything you can do to prolong the life of the stuff you have on hand will help. I'm not a hunter so this you might consider a Royal pain-in-the-ass but I would go as far to suggest that when possible you unload by removing the magazine plug instead of cycling all the rounds through the rifle. Hey, just a thought, and maybe God willing Remington will make another run of .30 and .35 brass to help us out. In the meantime I pass on the above for your consideration.

Remember, these rifles were designed to use ROUND NOSE bullets only AND truly love new pristine brass because they function best with it. Lastly, all these Model rifles are very particular about OACL (shorter the better) and always use a factory crimp die with your reloads. I will end this by telling you that 80-85% of the feed problems people come to me with are because of their reloads...........too long, spire point, flat point, or ballistic tip bullets, neck sizing only..............and the list goes on. OK, Enuff!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, NC

[The Gamemaster]

You can still buy 35 Remington 150 / 200 gr shells if you know where to find them! I don't think there is going to be any scarcity of those shells anytime soon.

A small General Store recently closed in my area, and they must have had 10 boxes of 35 Remington on their shelf.

20 years ago, I bought them for $15.00 a box!
I know there was more than 10 boxes of reloads when I traded the rifle for a 30-06 BDL Deluxe..

[Gamemaster32]

I've been satisfied with the .30 & .32 Rem brass I've received from Quality Cartridge. Now if I could only locate round-nosed .32 bullets.

http://www.qual-cart.com/

[nambujim]

I have excellent luck using .323 diameter 8MM RN bullets and they seem to be more readily available. They group really well, better than the .321 stuff.

Good luck!

Jim Peterson
Charlotte, ,NC

[Gamemaster32]

nambujim:

Should I be concerned with any pressure issues if using the .323" 8mm projectile?

Also, although pricey, I'm wondering if anyone has any experience with these Hawk bullets which are advertised as being made specifically for .32 Remington? http://www.ammo-reloading.com/321-Hawk- ... 1RT170.htm

Thanks again for sharing your invaluable information!