I am new here and darn glad to be here.
. That being said it is nice to see someone did some good research. As said the companies that put out reloading books have kept the SAAMI specs low for the 35 Whelen so with some work and a chrono and know what to look for as far as pressure signs the Ole 35 Whelen can do far more than what the reloading books tell you now from all the reading I have done.
This summer there was an article in the Handloader Mag that was talking about the 33 and 35 cal bore rifles as in 338 Mags and such and then the 35 Whelen and talked about shooting distances and how the SAAMI specs have changed over the years. But in the end he said in a nice way if you are looking for a 300 yard Deer/Elk/Moose rifle you would be hard pressed to have a better rifle than a 35 Whelen.
But I am very new to this so I am doing all of the reading I can find and I think I am going blind and will need glasses soon lol.
But my rifle was just finished and should be here in a couple of weeks. It is a Marlin XL-7 originally a .270 win but now sports a Shaw Mag contour barrel in 35 Whelen with a 1-14 twist 24 inches long. With a Boyd's Thumb Hole stock in pepper that has had pillars installed and the action bedded to the stock. The action was squared and the lugs lapped as well as the feed ramp smoothed. Here is a picture.
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Both the 35 Whelen and the 338-06 are based upon the .30-06 parent cartridge case. The original 30-06 max pressure (of 50,000 C.U.P.) was essentially established for the 1903 Springfield and remained at that level until new SAAMI specs for the 30-06 were established at 60,000 P.S.I. By contrast, when the 270 Win was introduced, it’s max pressure was established at 65,000 P.S.I.
The SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for the .35 Whelen is 52,000 C.U.P. reflecting its close wildcat origin to the 30-06 and the fact that many of the 35 Whelen rifles were originally build on sporterized 1903 Springfields. When Remington commercialized the 35 Whelen they kept the lower pressure limits and ammunition and reloading manuals reflect this, with the 35 Whelen typically loaded to a max pressure of 52,000 C.U.P often not exceeding 55,000 P.S.I. you see in most reloading manuals.
As a wildcat the 338-06 originally had no established SAAMI Maximum Average Pressure for the .338-06, but when commercialized by A-Square I believe they set it at 65,000 P.S.I.
Thus with the higher pressures used in the 338-06 you see the higher velocities. There is no reason why a 35 Whelen in a modern action could not be loaded to pressures equal to the 338-06, and with comparable weight bullets in a bigger bore, the 35 Whelen ballistics (if so loaded) would exceed the 338-06.
Barstooler
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