Found - .35 Winchester Case

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Picher

New member
I was deer hunting today, and walking through our blueberry field in a bare patch of ground, saw an old empty .35 Winchester shell that was pretty well corroded. I'd never heard about the .35 Winchester, a rimmed cartridge, but am very familiar with the .35 Rem.

Wickipedia said that it was introduced in 1903 and was manufactured until 1936, I believe. I don't know how long the case had been lying there, but the neck was squashed, apparently run-over by tractors.

Is anyone here familiar with the cartridge?
 
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30-30remchester

New member
I have a working knowledge of this cartridge. What you found I would assume was a hunting cartidge. I dont litter but if I shoot a head of game, even if I miss, I leave the brass on the ground. Here in big game country it is neat to find an old case like you found. When I find one I stop and try to figure where and what the game was that was taken with this round. Sometime in the past there was an old hunter that used an 8mm Lebel. I find his brass every once in a while. He must have been a good shot as I have never found more than one brass at any one location. I once harvested a buffalo in a high park here in Colorado. I used an original Sharps carbine in 50-70. I used an original cartridge loaded in the 1870's. I left the empty where it fell. Someday maybe it will be found and the person that found it may wonder if it shot a buffalo. Yes it did just 130 years after the evidence would lead you to believe.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
I've fired a .35 (Model 1895) a number of times in years past.

Performance wise it falls in between the .35 Remington and the .358 Winchester.

It had a decent reputation and medium and large game in the United States, but it wasn't popular enough to switch platforms when the 1895 was discontinued just before World War II.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
"Kind of like the related .405, there wasn't a platform to switch it TO when the 1895 was dropped."

Both could have easily been dropped into a bolt-action rifle like the Model 70 had there been demand for it.
 
T

TXGunNut

New member
Wish ya'll would quit talking about the .405. ;)
.35 Winchester is a round I wish had made it but I'll settle for the .35 Remington. Good find, Picher.
 
J

Jim Watson

New member
The mere thought of a bolt action .35 or .405 just kind of makes my head swim. I guess they could have developed it from the .30-30 Model 54.
 
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TXGunNut

New member
The mere thought of a bolt action .35 or .405 just kind of makes my head swim. -Jim Watson

Yes, indeed. But to quote the highway safety slogans "speed kills". It (or more accurately, lack of it) killed many fine cartridges that simply weren't fast enough to be stylish.
 
3

30-30remchester

New member
I went to the Winchesters collectors show in Cody Wyoming @8 years ago and actually saw a standard grade pre 64 model 70 in 405 Win. From my inspection I could not detect it as anything but original. According to the owner he has an actual invoice from Winchester stating it was built by them. IIRC he was asking $22,000 for it.
 
S

Scorch

New member
The 35 Winchester was one of those cartridges that did a lot of things well, but did not make the transition to bolt actions when they became popular after WW1. Winchester did load several rimmed cartridges in the Model 54 and Model 70 (22 Hornet, 220 Swift, 30-30, 30-40), but the factory 35-caliber option for those rifles was 9X57. Standard bolt face, rimless cartridge, no problems or special setups needed, and the 9X57 is a stone cold killer.

I have never seen a Model 70 in 405 Winchester, but Winchester would build you pretty much anything you wanted up until 1963.
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
Winchester also dropped the .225 Winchester into the Model 70, which has a far more pronounced rim than the .220 Swift, and it fed and functioned just fine.

A Model 70 in .405 Winchester. I've never heard of one existing.

That would have been the schnizzle.
 
P

Picher

New member
30-30remchester: Funny you should mention the 8mm Lebel. I had a very French uncle who brought a military rifle back from France at the end of WWII. It was very short and light for a military rifle.

He was a short man and the rifle fit him pretty well. I was pretty young when the rifle and ammo made it to our house, to be kept away from the mean-drunk uncle. I think my brother ended up selling it, but I still have the old box of ammo with about 5 rounds in it. It's a strange-shaped case with a very large head and lots of body taper.

JP
 
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Mike Irwin

Staff
The double-body taper configuring on the the 8mm Lebel case, along with the large rim, was adopted because the original 1886 Lebel rifle had a tube magazine. The rim and the body taper were designed to keep the pointed bullet away from the primer in the cartridge in front of it.

The case also had a deep ring around the primer, designed to catch the nose of the bullet behind it, and also had a very stout primer cup.

Must have been fairly successful, as I've never heard of an 1886 going boom.

But, it also made the round something of a nightmare for use in automatic weapons. It's why the original Chauchat machine rifle in 8mm Lebel had the semi-circular magazine.
 
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