Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting 35 whelen Expansion problem

I have a savage 110 that is barreled in 35 whelen. I have been shooting Hornady #81193 a 200 gr sp. it shoots good. But the bullets appear to be blowing up on impact. No through and through and the animals are running farther then I like. I had been using a 350 rem mag shooting 200 gr core locks. When hit they never took more then a step and dropped. With a large hole in and a large hole out. Contacted Hornady they weren’t much help saying the round could do this on deer under 150 yards. So now what do. I guess reloading the 200 gr core lock. Not what I wanted to do.

What speeds are you running them at? I’m not partial to 200gr bullets in the Whelen unless perhaps you’re talking about a mono. In my world I use the Whelen with 250gr cup and core or 200-225gr monos. If they’re blowing up then I’d suggest backing down on their speed or go heavier. You don’t need to hot rod the Whelen to get excellent performance and unless you use bonded or monos 200gr is too light for the speeds you’re running them as evidenced by their performance.

Good luck. 👍🏼

I used them pretty extensively in a 358 win 2425fps, 1-12 twist. I shot a couple of deer a year with them for around 8-10 years. Two mosdest bear as well. Most all of the shots were close 10-50 yds, none past 80 yds. They worked pretty well. I think I recovered just one bullet that time. I usually try the right behind the shoulder shot, but sometimes when near a property line do the high shoulder shot. My feeling on the 200 HSP was like the OP'son the coreloct. Decent hole in and out, dead deer in a few feet.

I don't know if hornady has made any changes in the bullet, mine were all likely bought 1998-2010.

Maybe the velocity difference between my moderately loaded 358's and a Whelen is the difference.

I’d try to locate some 200 or 225 Accubonds.

That's the Superformance factory load doing close to 2,900 fps at the muzzle, right?


Okie John

I shot 2 animals this year with the Horn 200SP in my .350RM at just under 2900 FPS, The hog pictured:



and a large doe. Both were within 100yds and in both cases the Horn 200SP penetrated completely. The hog was shot through the shoulder, into the neck bone and out the off side. She spun and bang flopped. The doe was quartering towards me and the bullet penetrated completely through about 35 inches and made a pretty awesome wound channel. At impact, she jumped and made it 15yds.

I know not a large sampling, but for the 2 animals I shot last season with my .350RM and the Hornady's it worked well.

Not familiar with that bullet but almost sounds like a bullet designed for the 35 remington running way faster than it was designed for. I would back off the speeds or try something a bit heavier if wanting to stay C&C design.

The H 200 spire point has a pretty good track record at Whelen speeds in hunting reports. Thus I’m surprised they didn’t work well for you sir. Been shooting things a long time so certainly believe it could have happened.
What speed are they loaded to?

if you need to buy a better bullet buy some Hammer Hunter bullets you won`t have that problem anymore and they are all copper so this kind bullet is legal in all areas to keep the liberals happy too.

I’ve used that bullet on quite a few deer but I have more experience with it out of a 350 Rem Mag than my 35 Whelen. That’s a load that chronographs at 2600 fps. One of the first I shot with that load was at about 50 yards as it trotted by and the bullet broke both shoulder bones and found it under the skin of the off side. That was after the bullet center punched 1 1/4” grape vine I didn’t see that was about 5 yards short of the deer. That’s the only one I’ve caught in a deer.

I tend to go to 225 gr bullets in my Whelens, the discontinued 225 Ballistic Tip, the 225 Partition, 225 Accubond and 225 Sierra. I have yet to shoot a deer with the 200 gr Accubond but it, along the 225 gr bullets, is a tack driver.

I used "The Whelenizer" successfully for 10 seasons before putting it aside. It is a Remington 7600 in 35 Whelen.

I have to say that my experience is not the same as the OP's. I used 200-grain Corelokts and Hornady ILs. However, I loaded them differently than the OP, generally running them at 358 Winchester levels.

What I found was that bullet performance was okay. I never lost a deer, but what caused me to retire the Whelenizer from regular whitetail work was that I was generating a lot of sound and fury, but getting no better results than my 30-06. I harvested 10 deer, mostly large doe, with the Whelenizer. This was my late-season rifle that I brought out to top off the freezer. In all circumstances, shots were from 25 to 180 yards. None of the animals were DRTs. Most ran. Most of them ran 50-100 yards. I got good expansion from the bullet-- exit holes were appropriate. However, when I went back to the '06 in 2014, I started seeing the deer fall over again, usually not taking a step. I'll also say that the effect on the boiler rooms of these animals were far more devasting. The bottom line is that out of the same blind under identical conditions, the 35 Whelen often had me retrieving the carcass from the woods whereas the 30-06 and 150-165 grainers usually left them in the field.

I have recycled The Whelenizer for this season. It will be shooting 180-grain Speers at hot 35 Remington velocities. We'll see how it does.

Look, I know guys swear by their 35 Whelens for whitetail work. In fact, it was the exuberance of those approbations on this august forum that caused me to get the Whelenizer in the first place. My conclusion after all this time and effort is the 35 Whelen is best suited for something other than whitetail. YMMV.

These are factory loads. end flap on box says 2920 fps. i was hoping to avoid reloading since it is only shot about 3 times a year. And I bought 5 boxes when i built the rifle. Oh well off to the loading bench I go.

I've tested the 200 Sierra RN at 2600 and it held together completely and got well into the 4th milk jug testing from 25 yds away. Not much help to you as it is a different bullet but similarly constructed enough it shouldn't be too far off. I have the 200 Hornady RN's as well and have been meaning to test them I just didn't get around to it yet. This is out of Whelen as well, just an intentional reduced load to keep the speeds down for that bullet. If you're running full tilt with a RN intended for the 35 Remington, I couldn't tell you what that bullet would do.

I also have a load with the 180 speer that just runs 2475 and shoots plenty well enough for its intended use. 1.5" & under at 100. That's also a good bullet in the 35 Remington and at 2475 is a powder puff in the Whelen but still well ahead of 35 Remington speeds.

Didn't realize when I was posting that you were using factory loads. In my view there's no reason to run a Whelen full tilt for whitetail at woods ranges based on what I've seen out of a 35 Remington. My plan when using the Whelen is to stick to bullets intended for the 35 Remington but at very mild speeds for the Whelen which still gets me well beyond what the 35 Remington is capable of speed wise.

Yes and I know a lot of people that shoot that load around here and they report mostly exits unless they shoot one length ways

Most any 225 gr load at 2,600 fps is lights out on deer. Elk, too.

I have a .35 Whelen but generally prefer the 225 grain - 250 gr bullets. A excellent deer bullet for me has been the 225 grain Partition

The 225 Sierra at 2500-2700 is deer poison. One of my most recommended Whelen loads, big holes in and out and if they move its buckets o blood.

Had great results with the 180gr. barnes TTSx factory ammo in my encore.

Shot two does two years ago from the same stand at about same distance 40 yards with the Hornady 200gr SP and the Sierra 225 SBT in a Rem 700 CDL 35 Whelen. Hornady was doing 2765 fps and the Sierra was doing about 100 fps less. Both were dropped in their tracks. Both bullets passed completely thru slightly angled quartering to me high shoulder shots. The Sierra did more damage than the Hornady but was satisfied with both. Not your velocity but same bullet.