Split neck on .35 Remington

Wild theory here but my first thoughts go to brass thickness, ductility, pressure and chamber dimensions contributing to finding a weak spot and cracking it. Personally I don't see that sort of thing often, but I did have some brand new R-P brass in full power .454 Casull loads using heavy jacketed bullets and H110 split full length on their first firing in my Ruger SRH (and not at load data recommended max either).

That's were 35rem like to split. All fine

As Foooorest Gump said, “It Happens!”
But it’s really a shame when it’s scarce brass like .35 Remington, 300 HH, and .38-40!!!!!! Breaks my heart when that happens to me!!!!!

Keep shootin it..... Peak

Catpop said:

As Foooorest Gump said, “It Happens!”
But it’s really a shame when it’s scarce brass like .35 Remington, 300 HH, and .38-40!!!!!! Breaks my heart when that happens to me!!!!!

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That scarce brass is just so much of a worry for me.....Right after I pull the trigger my eyes go looking for where that case went....no big deal in a bolt or lever gun, but automatics I just hate losing it.

35 Rem is not what I would call "scarce"....30, 32, 25 yup....and then some of the other stuff like 351, 401.....trying to think of other auto loading cartridges that are hard to find....it is early.

Probably just a piece of brass thathad a defect in manufacture. If they all start doing this then I would investigate further. Yep sad when it happens to rarer types of brass though. My 22 Hornet brass often splits the necks after five or so loadings. At least you can buy more of it without having to wait for a production run or buy ammo to get brass.

Peakbagger46 said:

Thanks guys, I’m going to keep shooting without worry!

I’m planning on leaving my ‘06 at home and carry the Marlin up the mountain for mule deer here in a couple weeks. I haven’t made any loads for it yet, but it’s shooting three shots of LEVERevolution ammo into about 2” at 100y.

More importantly, it’s nice and soft shooting and seems natural in field positions.

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I really like those boolits.....they work well in automatics as well. Hard to find a "pointy" bullet in that range.

By me here in New York, 35 brass is common. I just bought a 50 round package of new brass for $10.00 at a small gun show 2 weeks ago. Same seller also sold me a box of 100 Hornady 200 grain .358 RN for $10.00

Peakbagger46 said:

I just shot my 1959 Marlin 336 for the first time today. Shot really well, putting three rounds at about a 2” group at 100y with LEVERevolution ammo.

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Got a picture? I love vintage Marlins.

You mention this was an old box of ammo. As a seasoned consumer of military surplus ammo, I have noticed brass failures of older ammunition. There are a variety of causes and theories of causes. 1: Poor annealing/manufacturing defect. This is common in brass cased ammunition from communist block nations that tend to use a creative or aggressive crimping method, over working the brass in the neck area. Stab crimped pistol/smg cartridges are notorious for this failure. Results in high pressure longitudinal cracking evidenced by gas leakage through and around crack. 2. Chemical reaction of various components or storage materials. This is common with very old military ammo, and the cracks tend to be in more dangerous parts of the case around the base, web, rim or primer. Cordite loaded Commonwealth ammo and NAZI wartime ammo commonly has these failures. 3. Galvanic action of bullet jacket with brass. Common in many nation's surplus ammo. Often results in complete separation of the neck and extreme pressure/blown firearms or cases. A very dangerous failure not common with commercial bullet jacket materials. 4. Long term stress of case necks. May be a combination of 1. Results in longitudinal cracks at low pressure (no evidence of gas leakage through or around the crack) as shown in your case. Occurs during contraction of the fired case after firing. I've commonly encountered this in older lots (1960's-70's of LC30-06, Swiss GP-11 and other military surplus ammo), as well as old (unknown age) .300 Savage and commercial 30-06. No worries, other than your brass may need to be annealed or scrapped.

I have a Remington model 600 in .35 Rem it does the same thing with older ammo. I bought a box of new core locks the other day and the spent brass looks fine

I had similar case splitting in a Win 94 30-30. Cleaned the chamber and it went away.

Sounds like a nice gun you got there btw.

That’s a fine one alright! I’ve got a 64 straight stock 35.
Does yours have micro groove or Ballard rifling?

Very, very appealing rifle. I've seen a number of older Marlin 336 rifles with that larger fore end style at gun shows.

Catpop said:

. . . it’s really a shame when it’s scarce brass like .35 Remington. . .

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It's not that hard to make correctly-sized 35 Rem from common .308.

You need to size the head down to .458 (from nominal .473) and sometimes turn necks, but it's not unreasonable as brass forming goes. If you collect reloading tools the way most reloaders do, you probably already have the tooling.

Peakbagger46 said:

Thanks guys, I’m going to keep shooting without worry!

I’m planning on leaving my ‘06 at home and carry the Marlin up the mountain for mule deer here in a couple weeks. I haven’t made any loads for it yet, but it’s shooting three shots of LEVERevolution ammo into about 2” at 100y.

More importantly, it’s nice and soft shooting and seems natural in field positions.

Click to expand...

I recall reading a gun article from back in the day (1950s?) where a retired U.S. Army Colonel(?) wrote about his Marlin 336 in .35 Remington.
It was his belief that this rifle, equipped with a Lyman receiver sight and a brass inlaid square post front sight, was the best deer rifle that you could own for moderate ranges.

The 35 is a good cartridge.....its only downfall is that it will not fit in an AR.