35 Whelen new loads

[JD338]

Beautiful rifle.

JD338

 

[gerry]

This is the Whelen my father built for me 40 plus years ago. FN 98 action, Douglas premium barrel, Timeny trigger and a Fagen stock. After all the hunts it has been on I am surprised at how well it has held up.

Nice looking rifle. It sure does look good for 40+ years of being out in the field.

 

[FNWhelen]

One thing I have always done when hunting around salt water is to hose it down with fresh water at the end of every day. Does not help to clean and oil them if you don't get all the salt off of them first.

 

[salmonchaser]

Alaska eats guns. That one of yours is a beauty. I just recently rebuilt my Grandfathers mdl 12, gave it to my son last Christmas. Alaska was hard on it, that’s for sure.

 

[SJB358]

A handsome presentation of a rifle chambered in a grand cartridge.

Agreed, now that is a cool hunting rifle!

I have used RL15, H4895, PP2000, 8208, Varget and some others as well like 4064 and 3031 along with some I probably forgotten about. All have done pretty well for me.

As a note, and caution since were loading our ammo, I have found Hodgdon's Leverevolution to be about grain for grain the same as CFE223. Don't shoot the messenger and do some research on your own, but I use alot of it, and it seems to work well, started trying it in a 223 and have used it in enough cartridges now, but I will start low and haven't been bitten yet.

Love the Whelen. In my 7600's I use H4895 and 225 Sierra's. In the Ruger bolt gun I use 8208 and 200 TTSX's. It is still near the top of my favorites.

 

[jason1290]

Resurrecting an old thread, has any had the chance to experiment with hodgdons leverevolution in the 35 whelen? Curious that SJB358 mentioned that.

 

[SJB358]

Resurrecting an old thread, has any had the chance to experiment with hodgdons leverevolution in the 35 whelen? Curious that SJB358 mentioned that.

I haven’t as of yet but if CFE223 is used I’d be okay with using that data. It’s worked the same in 223, 308, and a few others. I’d love to know the real difference in them but I buy LVR quite a lot for the 223, 22 and 6 ARC, 308, 35 REM and maybe some others I’m forgetting. I’d bet a buck it’ll work in the Whelen as well.

 

[jason1290]

Very interesting thank you. I’ll try it in my 358 Winchester first and work up.

250 hornday RN over 53 grains of leverevolution gives me about 2450 out of my 22” Hawkeye with no pressure whatsoever and MOA accuracy at 100 yards. Would be cool to see if CFE223 would be another good option.

 

[Blkram]

I tried 54.2 gr of CFE 223 with the 225gr SGK in my LH Rem 700 358 Win's 22" 1:12 McGowan barrel, and got a chronied 2528 fps and a 3 shot group of 0.720" at 100 yards. (ES of 28 and SD of 11.5) Win cases and WLR primers.
That will retain 2117 fps and 2239 ft lbs of energy at 200 yards. It will be down to 1927 fps and 1855 ft lbs of energy at 300 yards, where it has dropped 10.3" from that 200 yard zero.
Looking forward to using it on moose, elk and bear!
(I haven't planned for using a 250 gr in my 358 Win as I am using the 250 gr AccuBond in my 9.3x62!)

 

[jason1290]

That’ll get the job done on a moose! Good to know there’s another option for decent velocity and accuracy with the 225s. That’s a good load. My 225 SGK load in my Hawkeye consists of 51 grains of Ramshot Tac and holds consistent MOA or less and runs 2575. Did a good number on the Black bear I killed this last spring.

 

[Blkram]

That’ll get the job done on a moose! Good to know there’s another option for decent velocity and accuracy with the 225s. That’s a good load. My 225 SGK load in my Hawkeye consists of 51 grains of Ramshot Tac and holds consistent MOA or less and runs 2575. Did a good number on the Black bear I killed this last spring.

I haven't tried TAC yet; QuickLoad shows up to 51.4 gr for 2536 fps in the 22" barrel. (Next time at the bench, along with IMR 4320 and Varget.)
Your barrel must be a little faster. (I know I have a couple of rifles where I get more velocity than advertised.)
Congrats on the bear!
Was the shot on the bear a complete pass through, or did you recover the bullet? (If so, expansion and weight retention?)

Apologies to FNWhelen for hijacking the revived 35 Whelen thread; we'll be returning to your regularly scheduled programming shortly! )

 

[jason1290]

Interesting. Perhaps it’s because I’m using a magnum primer? The same exact load using a 225 Nosler Partition gets me right at 2600 fps. The bear was a full pass through. Perfect broadside at about 80 yards or so. I did end up using the same load on a small blacktail this fall that was quartering to at about 100 yards. Bullet went in the front shoulder and traveled the length of the deer. I recovered it under the hide of the hind quarter.

 

[jason1290]

Sorry FNwhelen lol technically we’re still on track because it’s the 35 whelens little brother! But to get back on track. I am in the process of building my first whelen on a Mauser action and should be finished with it next month. Very excited to start working up loads for the big brother!

 

[Chuck R]

Not a 35W, but I've been playing with CFE223 in my 350RM with Nosler 250PTs.

20" barrel, Rem 350 brass, FED 215s and 2599 FPS at 45F, just over 1MOA at 100yds with an 8X scope. I can go slightly higher, but right now ina sub 7lb carbine it's all the fun I can stand.

 

[Blkram]

While I have only shot a 350 Rem Mag once, it definitely had more felt recoil than the three 35 Whelens that I have shot over the years.
I know there were a number of guys building lightweight rifles in this caliber in the late 80s and early 90s, and you quickly saw them in the used racks afterwards.
Haven't seen one in quite some time now, so someone must have been buying them and installing LimbSaver pads, adding mercury recoil reducers, and/or braking them to reduce felt recoil. Definitely would make a handy brush rifle for backup work and trailing wounded bears.

Glad to hear that you are getting minute of bear accuracy with CFE223 and 250 gr Partitions.
Look forward to your on-game performance reports!

 

[Chuck R]

While I have only shot a 350 Rem Mag once, it definitely had more felt recoil than the three 35 Whelens that I have shot over the years.
I know there were a number of guys building lightweight rifles in this caliber in the late 80s and early 90s, and you quickly saw them in the used racks afterwards.
Haven't seen one in quite some time now, so someone must have been buying them and installing LimbSaver pads, adding mercury recoil reducers, and/or braking them to reduce felt recoil. Definitely would make a handy brush rifle for backup work and trailing wounded bears.

Glad to hear that you are getting minute of bear accuracy with CFE223 and 250 gr Partitions.
Look forward to your on-game performance reports!

It's definitely a "carry more than shoot" rig. Not something that's fun off a bench, but from field positions it's really not that bad.

I put it together while stationed at Ft. Lewis for elk. With 225s and 200s, it's not bad at all, the 250s at 2599 are definitely an eye opener. This load is for a JAN26 bison hunt, then I'm back to the 225s at 2730 and 200s at 2850. For this terrain, it excels though:

 

[Blkram]

Nice!
Best of luck on your bison hunt!
It will be a memorable experience!
Keep your shots to 1/3 up the body behind the front leg; the vitals are lower than one would think on such a large animal.

 

[jason1290]

It's definitely a "carry more than shoot" rig. Not something that's fun off a bench, but from field positions it's really not that bad.

I put it together while stationed at Ft. Lewis for elk. With 225s and 200s, it's not bad at all, the 250s at 2599 are definitely an eye opener. This load is for a JAN26 bison hunt, then I'm back to the 225s at 2730 and 200s at 2850. For this terrain, it excels though:

Beautiful rig chuck. Tell us more about it! I’d like to know how much it weighs and what barrel length.

Good luck on your bison hunt and congrats!

Merry Christmas fellas!

 

[Chuck R]

Beautiful rig chuck. Tell us more about it! I’d like to know how much it weighs and what barrel length.

Good luck on your bison hunt and congrats!

Merry Christmas fellas!

Sure.. it started out as a 20" barreled MS from the custom shop:

That weighed 8lbs all up with a Swarovski 1.25-4X. With it I killed a couple elk, some deer and a few pigs. It was a little heavy for what I wanted as I aged (gracefully, I might add), and showing its age with wear. So I had it CeraKoted in midnight blue and dropped in a Manners EH8 stock. Total weight "all up" is 6.5lbs with a Leupold VX3HD 2.5-8x36 in Warne QD mounts. I maintain 2 scopes for it, the Swarovski and the Leupold in the QDs. Accuracy remained the same with both stocks.

The Mannlicher stock alone weighed 42.6 ounces, Manners is 24 ounces.

Merry Christmas back!

 

[PJGunner]

My go to load or the .35 Whelen is 60.4 gr. RL15, 225 gr. Barnes TSX, Remington brass and Winchester WLR primer. Velocity is 2710 FPS from a 24" barrel on a custom 98 Mauser action marked Oberndorf.
I strongly suggest anyone interested in using that load work up from about three grains less powder. The load is safe in my Mauser but is way too hot for use in a Ruger M77 or Remington M700 Classic. Accuracy in the Mauser is superb usually close to a half inch or slightly less. I ran 250 gr. bullets in the other two rifles but frankly I don't remember exactly which powders I used. I think they were probably H4895 and H4350 and possibly H335. Accuracy was decent usually running about 1.5" in the Ruger and 1.25" in the Remington. Of the 250 gr. bullets the Speer 250 gr. Hot Core shot the best averages with the Hornady Sitzer and round nose slightly larger. Regardless, and one of those bullets would have worked just fine on moose and aggressive bears.
Paul B.