Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Optics Optics for a 35 whelen

Any recommendations or thoughts? TIA

My encore .35 whelen has a zeiss 3-9x40 conquest.

Works well for me.

Appreciate it

Mine wears a Leupold 2.5-8 – no complaints.

Mine has a Zeiss 2.5-8x32 Conquest.

I have a 6x42 on the bolt gun and a 1.25x4 on my 7600 Whelens.

My 35 Brown-Whelen is wearing a 3x9 Vari x II. I think friction knob model.

My Ruger M77 RS has worn a Leupold 2-7 VXII for years.

My bolt had a 2.5-8 Leupold on it for a long time. Held up through a lot of shooting and use, but it stopped holding a group this fall, so put a 3-9 Ziess Conquest I had sitting around on it. Nice bright scope that'll probably stay on it, but have been thinking of putting a NF 3-10 SHV lit Forceplex on it. Every once in awhile I find myself in a pop up tent set up in thick woods, and a lit reticle would be a boon for that duty. Also, I'd pick up the ability to reliably dial with the NF. Not that the Whelen is a long range cartridge, and I typically don't carry it if the shots might be long, but it'll do fine to 400 or a little more, and with it's rainbow trajectory, a scope that can reliably dial will help get the most out of it.

My 7600 carbine Whelen has had several scopes on it. Was a little tough on a couple of them. In addition to the stout recoil, the carbine rifle gets carried in snowy conditions a lot and has went through more than a few drops and falls. It currently has a 2-7 Burris Short Mag on it. These were USA built. I have several and they've all proven to be tough scopes that hold zero. I have a Bushnell 1-4 with lit #4 reticle I'm going to try on it. Bought it mostly because it's a nice short scope and the reticle will be a good fit for big woods tracking. Time will tell how it holds up.

3-9x40

Just got a trijicon green mil dot, for a whelen I might just get the regular dot reticle. The crosshairs on mine are heavy enough to hunt with.

My 35 Whelen is an 1885 Highwall and I have a 3X15X50 Tract mounted. Excellent scope

I put 2-8x Grand Slams on my Whelen and my .30-06, love em.

Incredible bang for the buck with those. Tons of eye relief, huge stable eye box, bright and clear, nice dark etched reticle, great in low light, and they stay zeroed and can even be dialed effectively maybe not for 1000 yards, but certainly within Whelen type ranges. That’s what’s on my general purpose long-action kickers (.338 and 30-06) and would be an excellent choice on a Whelen, I would think.

I have a LEUPOLD VXIIC, 2-7X33, STD DUPLEX, GLOSS, [1989] , It has been on the rifle since that year. If picking a scope today I would go with a 2.5-8 Leupold.

I changed to ithe 2-7 from a Weaver 4X as I had some trouble picking out a spike elk in a herd when switching from binoculars to the rifle. The combo works well. The longest shot I have made was around 240 yards though. I tennd to use it in close cover areas.

The rifle is a 1942 Kar98, glass stock, Gentry safety, Timney trigger, Douglas barrel, iron sights with a folding rear and a removable peep stored in the stock.

DB:

Sounds like an awesome rig. Any chance you could post up a picture?

My bolt Whelen is a first gen Savage 110L with a Douglas Barrel. I have no clue who did the work. Took a chance on the barreled action bare on GB; got it for next to nothing. Showed up without a magazine box or any of the ejector components that mount to the rear of it. Also, the extractor "C" spring was cracked and the firing pin spring was very weak and pitted. The original bolt faces of the 110 with the "C" extractor weren't in production very long, and very few of them were made in LH, so I was thinking that I had wasted a bit if cash on the old Savage, but overtime I was able to track down all the parts I needed to get the thing in full working order. I was able to alter a laminated Boyds stock to fit the old style action, and now the rig looks great and shoots absolutely fantastic. It's 1:12 twist but it delivers tight little groups with just about anything I load in it. I've also been able to track down multiple spare parts for most anything that might need replacing so that I can keep it going for a long, long time.

Had always planned to put together a Whelen on a LH 700 or Tikka, but the old Savage hasn't let me down over a lot of hunts through the years, so the more modern Whelen build never came about.

My .35 Whelen has a Leupold 1-4x on it.

My sister's barbie doll 'wore' a blue dress. My 35 whelen had a 2-7x33 Leup.

My 7600 has a Zeiss 2x8. It flat works for how I use this rifle!

My Rem 700 Classic still has the Leupold 1.5-5x that was installed back when it was new. Was that 1986? So does its twin that was rechambered to 358 Norma the following year.

I have a leup 1.5x5-20 with the German #4 reticle laying around. That's likely what I would put on a whelen.