Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 358 Bullet for Elk?

My favorite load for the .35 Whelen uses the 225 gr. Barnes TSX bullet at 2710 FPS. Elk killer galore. Two elk DRT and three more hit so hard they went down but still had their heads up. Just totally unable to even try to get up and go. The load is accurate in my custom Mauser but too hot for the Remington M700 Classic. I have tried it in the M77RS Ruger as it has a potential headspacing problem. I got a total case head separation fro a Remington factory load so it's been sitting idle for a long time. I figure I'll use it for a cast bullet shooter where I can seat the bullets into the rifling eliminating the excess headspace. I'll use it as a fun gun.
Funny thing, before I got the custom Mauser I was playing with the 250 gr. Hornady's and 250 gr. Speer Hot cores with interesting results. Then came the Mauser and a coveted Kaibab National Forest deer tag. Hunters were asked to voluntarily use monometal bullets and the state would furnish them for handloaders free. I got the TSX bullest and bought 100 more and worked up to my 2710 FPS load. Biggest surprise was groups ran from .50" to .75" depending on how carefully I shot the group. The load was a keeper so I never bothered to try anything else. I still have a bunch of the Speer, Hornady and Nosler bullets to try when I get around to it. That is if I ever do. Maybe I'll try and use those in the M700 for a back up rifle.
Paul B.