Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Let's Talk 35 Whelen, Who Loves Them?

I've used the Whelen to kill many deer, a couple brown bears, moose and caribou. I'm with Steelhead in that there are better deer cartridges. No doubt that it will kill them, but I've had faster results with smaller, faster bullets. For the bigger stuff I can't find anything to complain about. I've used various 250 grain bullets (notably the A-Frame and Speer Hot-Cor) on game animals and won't do that again. Any of the 225s are better performers in my experience. I prefer the 200 TTSX to the 250s, but for bears and moose I'll take the 225 TSX or Partition for most situations. My Whelen has a 24 inch barrel and weighs within an ounce or two of 8 pounds scoped and loaded. I like that it provides great terminal performance on large game with a fairly light rifle and very manageable recoil. It's not a better killer than a host of other cartridges, but as an all-around package the Whelen makes a very efficient rifle for our biggest NA animals.