Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Tell me about the 35 Whelen

Please school me on the 35 Whelen.

Effective ammo, ranges, etc...

It's my favorite cartridge for elk.

Factory ammo is kind of punky because Remington screwed up again by chambering the pump and semi-autos for the round, just like they did with the .280 Remington. Ammo is somewhat underloaded for that reason.
Remington, along with Ruger went with the slower 1 in 16" twist so in theory bullets heavier than 250 gr. may or may not stabilize.

That's the not so good news. The good news is if you handload your ammo, you can gain a noticeable jump in velocity. My personal favorite bullet in my .35 Whelen is the 225 gr. Barnes TSX which I load to 2710 FPS in my custom Mauser. Powder used is Re15. It's something you have to work up to and my load is too hot for a Remington M700 Classic.
Accuracy with that bullet is superb BTW.
Results on elk have been excellent. I've taken five elk since I bought that rifle. Two were one shot kills like DRT. The other three were shot and stopped but not dead thus requiring a second shot. Blame my not so hot shooting on moving game as the three were hit just a bit too far back. Still, they were anchored on the spot and unable to go anywhere. Shots ranges from roughly 100 yards to a lasered 350 yards.
I'm booked for another hunt this coming December and you know the Whelen will be going with me.
I haven't tried them on game but I hear good things on the Nosler 225 gr. Accubond and Partitions. Just my thoughts but unless you know your shots are gonna be on the short side, say 200 yards or less, I'd skip the 250 gr. bullets. Factory 250 gr. bullets only did 2450 FPS from my 24" barrel. Be fine if hunting dark timber. JMHO.
Paul B.

It's a great hunting round.

But I suggest you do a little searching of your own first; the information is already out there. There have been several threads on the Whelen in the past few months, both here and in the "Gunwriters" section.

It is totally worthless!

The ultimate cumulation of cartridge design...the Chuck Norris of rifles. I usually just walk into the woods, yell "I have a Whelen" and listen to deer fall DRT...rarely have to even fire it.

Necked up 30/06 to 35 cal. Soft kicking, but up to most tasks in North America. A wildcat for years but now offered off and on by major gunmakers and by several Ammo companies. Bullet weights from 200 gr- 250 gr.
I leave barrel twist discussions and its powder capacity to those smarter than me.

ETA: with premium 225 gr bullets I would go after anything in North America at sane ranges.

It's not a 9.3x62 nor a 358 win, or a 358 Norma Mag. So yea you gotta pretend a lot more to be happy with it

It doesn't suck . . . (because it's not gay like a .270 is)

Small fry those are the Yugos of 35 cal

The Whelen is an easy keeper. 250 grain bullets and H4895 or Re15 and the load development is over.

I prefer H4895 and the 250 grain Partition for elk. But pretty sure the 225 grain TSX/TTSX would work just as well.

The Remington factory 250 grain loads are also excellent for elk. They average 2400 fps from my 22" barrel. Handloads will safely get you only 100-150 fps velocity increase. Not enough to shorten the brass life over.

Beware all the internet handload advice.

Mine eats 4064 and 250gr bullets in necked up 270 brass and kills bears, moose, and caribou inside of 350 yards with aplomb. Kicks like a 3006 kills like a 375 or so they say.

It kills stuff if you put the bullets in the right spot. But so does every other rifle cartridge ever made. If you are getting 30-06 recoil you are shooting anemic loads. With 225-250 gr bullets loaded to their potential recoil exceeds 300 WM. A 30-06 loaded with better 200-215 gr bullets will do anything the Whelen will do with 225's up close, and handily beats it beyond 150 yards with less recoil.

If you just want to be different from the 30-06 crowd it is a fun round to work with. Just don't expect to see any dramatic difference in effectiveness.

The 35 Whelen was born in an era of poor bullets where larger calibers and heavier bullets actually made a difference. That is no longer the case.

Fatter, slower, harder kicking .30-06 that doesn't kill anything the parent case can't kill just as well only the parent can do it farther out.

While I’ve nothing against the .35 Whelen and have found them interesting, I've never been able to rationalize getting one. Guess that is because I started with a 7mm RM and didn’t find it lacking for elk. After a couple decades I wondered if I was missing something and got a .300WM. It killed elk just as dead but no deader.

When I decided to go bigger still on a custom build (because I could, not because I needed to), I looked at a lot of options up to .375 Ruger. In the end I decided a .338 WM was a better choice for my needs than anything larger. It wasn’t an ammo issue, because I reload, but rather a flexibility issue. Bullet selection for the .338 ranges from a 160g Barnes TTSX to a 300g Nosler AccuBond. In the end I opted for a 225g Nosler AB (B.C. .550) at a relatively sedate 2742fps and later used it for my longest kill ever, a cow elk at 487 yards.

This last weekend I was looking at a beautiful Remington M700 BDL in .35 Whelen on the used gun rack at Cabelas. While it was interesting, I can’t think of anything it can do that the .338WM won’t do just as well while the .338WM can shoot flatter and deliver more energy and velocity down range. I put the Whelen back on the rack.

Think .35 Remington not 'on steroids' but on 'gamma rays'.

How does it beat it past 150 yards?

I'm just spit balling here, but you can get some pretty impressive BC bullets when you get into the 200's in 30 caliber.

By comparison, like weight bullets in 35 caliber have the BC of a brick.

JMR40 has stated this several times, as that is what he believes. I've stated with data several times that it takes between 400 yards before the .30-06 with 200 grain bullets @ 2500 fps begin to beat ballistically the Whelen with the same bullet in 225 grains @ 2600 fps. However, I never stated the Whelen kills better than the .30-06 and the only difference you'll ever see is in your ballistic software.

If you buy a 35 Whelen, I have 17 boxes of Remington factory ammo in both 200 and 250 grain I will sell.

After owning one 35 W and I truly wish I had it back...
for nostalgia, the Col, & the KOOL factor....

<<Mike I have come to the same conclusion.>> IMO the 06 with 180 POINTY bullets & 200s the 06 is FLATTER shooting and has more Energy than the Grand Ole Whelen.

I know about E>>but given the bullets perform as designed, they'll do MORE damage OR penetrate better.


Jerry

I agree with Ken Waters that the best improvement for the .35 Whelen is the .338-06. The latter has more shoulder, works with a variety of powders, and has a lot of good, high BC choices with better SD than in .35. BTW, I have had both, handloaded for both, and have ordered a NULA in .338-06.