SR4759 is yer friend for reduced loads. It's exceptionally clean burning. You might think the barrel had been cleaned after several hundred rounds. I've had fabulous accuracy results with it in 3006,308,45-70. and a bunch of others. Burn rate is about that of IMR4227. The down side, it's a bulky powder that's not going to go thru a powder measure. I use the Lee Dipper set and throw the powder in the scale. My 3006 loads of 19.0 grs SR4759 under a 147FMJ shoots well under an inch at 100 yds. Will varmint hunt to 200 yds easy. There is zero recoil and I use this when teaching Boy Scouts how to use military sights. I set the sights of the 03's at 300 yds which puts it on the money at 100 yds.
From an old DuPont reloading handout, For a 250 gr jacketed bullet in yer Whelen, 32.5grs of SR4759 gets you 1975'ps with pressures 50600 CUPs. If you're looking for plinkers, I'd start somewhere around 20.0 grs and go for accuracy. As a comparison for you, I load the 19.0 grs in a 3006 with a 147 bullet. The handout says 31.0 grs is max for that bullet weight. The 19.0 grs is about a 75-80% loading density in the 3006 case. I'm not sure how you'd get 31.0 in the case even with a drop tube. Try it, I guarantee you'll like it.
