My 35 Whelen

[rickt300]

I just got it back from the gunsmith. I had my FN 270 rebarreled to 35 Whelen. I need to bed it and get it powder coated but I have worked up a load using the 250 grain Hornady RN on top of 61 grains of WC 852 which appears to be at Max. Recoil is brisk and it makes big holes in my dirt backstop. I loaded these rounds using my RCBS 358 Winchester dies with no problems.

[Boxhead]

Sounds great. I have been using the Whelen for some time and use your bullet driven by RL-15 in a rebored pre-war J.P. Sauer Mauser with good results.

[tanoose]

Rick you lost me , how are you using 358 winchester dies for the 35 whelen . What is it you are actually doing with the dies.

[rickt300]

The rifle was chambered very tightly. Closing the bolt on a factory round is snug. The 30-06/ 35 Whelen case has plenty of neck and really I am just neck sizing the cases. The 358 shoulder angle is 20 degrees and the whellen's is 17 degrees so I can size the neck completely without the die shoulder touching the case. Of course I have to set the die body far enough up in the press to do this. It is also impossible to use the die to deprime. Also the bullet seating die can't be used to crimp bullets. I fired the same case 14 times working up to 62 grains of powder and decided 61 was fine. The case still chambers perfectly.

[rickt300]

I took the Whelen to the range today after work, the rain finally let up some. I had 20 rounds loaded with the 200 grain Remington RNCL and 20 loaded with the 250 grain Speer Hotcor. Both bullets were loaded on top of 61.0 grains of WC 852 and using a CCI 250 primer. All but 2 cases Were range pick up 30-06 brass neck sized in the 358 Winchester die. The two had been fired several times each. I had the rifle 1 inch high at 50 yards in a few minutes. I went to the 100 yard range and took a few rounds to get the 200 grain bullerts 3 inches high at 100 yards. I then started with the 250 grain bullets. There certainly is more recoil with these bullets but the really nice thing is they hit less than 1 inch under the 200 grain bullets. So now I started fireforming my brass emptying all 20 of the 200 grain loads I had left into 2 1/2 inches. The last three I fired on their own target and got a vertically strung group of 2.010 inches. I really wasn't doing my best shooting and firing brass from different rifles may have contributed to the stringing. Could have been me too, long day. Then I started working on emptying the 250's. No real joy here so after 5 rounds I decided to shoot three on their own target and quit. These went in to 1.220 inches. I guess not bad using a powder not really suited to the 200 grain bullets and only having 40 or so shots thru the barrel.  Also the Whelen is not on my list of pleasant bench rifles even with the 200's and especially not the 250's. I think I will try a different powder with the 200 grain bullets but I sure like that the two weights hit so close together. In fact I could easily hunt with either bullet using this powder charge and do well. I don't think I want a faster 250 grain load either.

[fatercat]

i use the alliant reloder 15. 62 1/2 gns. with 225 gn. triple shock. 2800+ fps. less than 1 1/2" group. very happy with it.

[rickt300]

If I had need of more velocity I would try RL 15. As soon as I shoot up my 200 and 250 grain bullets I am going to get some pointed 225's.

[quickdtoo]

62.5gr Rl15 and the 225gr TSX gets me ~2870fps in a 26" barrel.  That's loaded at .050" off the lands, got a 1" group, gonna try .040" off to see if it helps or hurts accuracy.

Tim

[rickt300]

For my uses the 35 Whelen is a solid hunting rifle and I load my shellst to feed smoothly from the magazine first and probably won't try to improve on groups of an inch and a quarter. After all if I want three shots touching I have several bench friendlier rifles to do that with. I worked up my load with WC 852 till I was getting a bit more compression than I liked and backed off one grain. No pressure signs evident. If I need more range then my 7MM Remington magnum will work nicely.

[Coyote Hunter]

rickt300 -

Sounds like the new barrel is going to work.  The 35 Whelen is a great round, reasonably mild mannered yet big enough for anything in North America and most anything else.

It will be interesting to see how the loads shoot after you have bedded the rifle.

[rickt300]

I went to the lease yesterday to do some hog hunting and work on my stand, fill the feeders, change batteries and maybe get a hog. Well a couple small hogs cleaned up under one of my feedesr after the awesome thunderstorm I was treated to but before daylight. I put a floor in my stand and took pictures of turkey's with their baby turkeys, friendly jackrrabbits and cottontails and saw maybe 10 deer. The wild plums are ripe and there is echinacea (Purple Coneflower) blooming everywhere. The mosquito's were also thick and the storm muddied up the place big time. Just before I leave the lease I always take one more look around. As I was going down the west fenceline a coyote went running up the slope on my right. Igot the Whelen ready if he stopped and sure enough he did. It was 300 yards at least, way over there and when he stopped all I could really pick out of the tall flowers was his ears. I knewe which direction he was pointing so I too a careful rest over the hood of my truck, held a bit over him an let go with a good squeeze. Coyote leaps into the air and runs a few feet. I drive over there and find him, hit just a bit far back in the ribs but the over 1 inch exit hole showed there was plenty of damage. Call it luck but I was shooting at that particular coyote and I did know about how high to hold. Maybe the coyote was having a pretty unlucky day but the Whelen was definitly having some. The real variable to me was the bullet had to negotiate a foot or so of wildflowers to get him, no problem I guess for 250 grains of pointed bullet.

[rickt300]

A bit more range time. I loaded up some of the 200 grain Remington corelokts  on top of a max book load of 3031. The first three were 4 inches high and just barely not touching. Recoil up a bit from the WC 852 load and the Round nose 200 corelokt is a bit over driven as it turned inside out and gave shallow penetration on the soft dirt backstop at 100 yards. I will try this load with some pointed Hornady 200 grain bullets next time I go.