Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles .35 Whelan. I'm interested in hearing about yours....

Mine is a Campfire special, bought mostly in the classifieds here.

Its on a mdl 700 classic action, 24" CDL barrel, and an LSS stock.

VXIII 2.5-8 in Leupold DD's (soon to be Talley LW's)
Shoots 3/4 MOA with 250 speers or partitions.

rosco1,

I'm diggin the looks of that rifle! Kill any big critters, moose maybe?

CLB

This 35 Whelen in a model 7600 has been fully engraved & has a trigger job & scoped with a 6X42 Leupold w/Premier heavy reticle. Using mostly 225G Partitions & 250G Trophy Bounded & a healthy dose of IMR4350 I have taken 5 black bears & over 150 hogs. One of the best over looked medium range calibers. I could have probably done all of my hunting with this one rifle & caliber, but what fun would that be.

I can't get my pic to fit here...don't understand that, Grrrrrr.

Here's one of it's other 249 siblings...
http://www.gunblast.com/Ruger_No1_35Whelen.htm

Sorry I can't seem to post, it says my pic exceeds the allowable size.


Scott

Mines a standard blued/walnut Hawkeye with a Zeiss 2.5-8 scope. Currently load the 200gn Remington over 57gn H4895. Has taken pigs, a goat and a fox. Will load the 220gn Speer when the Rems run out.

Shot about a dozen elk, a few deer, a couple moose and a caribou with my old Rem 700 classic .35 Whelen, mostly with Speer 250 GS at 2500fps. Great combination, and the only reason I sold it was because I replaced it with a Sako AV Classic rebarreled to .35 Whelen with 1:12 twist. I like it even better. I don't have any use for bullets lighter than 250 grains any more, I have other rifles if I want to shoot light bullets or flatter trajectories. I did have two bad experiences with 225 grain bullets, a Sierra failed to expand on a deer and a Nosler BT blew up in an elk. Recovered the deer but lost the elk. I'm interested in playing with some 310 gr. Woodleighs that I picked up. Not necessary to go that heavy but i like to experiment.

Rem 700 Classic (20 years old now!) with a Leupold 4X. Another one in Rem 7600 from Grice's. It likes a 2.5 Weaver steel tube, but may like a receiver sight soon. That carbine was sweet. I haven't loaded much lately, but used to use 250 gr. Hornady PSP with around 55 grains of Reloader 15. I got between 2400 and 2500 fps, so figured all was fine.
Karl

Here's mine.

Stainless Ruger MKII, Bevan King 22" 1:14 barrel, McMillan Classic in GAP and Leupold VXII 3x9. Shoots 225gr TSX at 2700fps. It's my moose rifle.

BCSteve,

2700 fps with a 22" tube? i wonder if that creates any pressure issues since it is outside the reloading manuals i've looked at? that's about what factory 180s go in an 06 isn't it?

a fellow over at AR was telling me about his Whelen and got nearly the same speeds with his and used it to great effect on his bull elk at 360 measured yards. I would never have thought of the Whelen as a distance gun! BTW, isn't 1:14 unusual for the Whelen?

Steve,

That rig is sweet! You have pics of it in action either on paper or with critters!.

CLB

JS LaCourse,

I am not BCSteve, but if I may...

2700fps is above "Manual" specs for the Whelen, yes...

However, it is very easy to reach that velocity in a 22" barrel, without streching the case head, crowning primers, and getting a sticky bolt lift..,typical pressure indicators.

This is not an uncommon velocity in the Whelen with 225gr. bullets.


In the Tradjectory Dept.

Bullets with a B.C of somewhere around .400+ (such as the 250 Partition), carry to only 13" low at 350
yards when zeroed 3" high at 200 yards.

100 = +3.75"
200 = +3.00"
300 = -4.50"
350 = -12.5"
400 = -20.0" Approx.


Barrel twist.

Current production factory offerings are usually 1 in 16" rate of twist, and this will usually stablize most of the longer bullets.

Both of my 35's are turning 1 in 12"

The 1 in 14" rate is an common option from custom builders.., and a great choice.


Sincerely,
Scott

I barreled BCSteve's rifle about three years ago and have no doubt it will do 2700 with a 225...I built one with a 24" barrel that did well over 2700 with a 225 Partition pushed with Rel 15....betcha he's using Rel 15..

this may be making my decision easier... with this load guys, is there anything on the NA continent that isn't fair game with the Whelen?

And does the use of the 225 gr Barnes make up for list SD by its typically high retained weight?

BUSTED!

Heres mine.
Win. Mod 70 S/S Classic
Rebored 30/06
1-12" Twist
Leupold VXIII 2.5-8X36 B&C



Shoots 225gr TSX's & 250gr Speer HotCores very well with RL15.
Have only shot 13 pigs with it up to about 250lbs. It will be my rifle of choice on my next Moose or Elk hunt. Karry

Great looking rifle.

Karry,

That is a real nice rifle. The optics are a perfect size. How does it group?

CLB

As Rembo already mentionned, her rebarreled my Ruger a couple years ago. Most factory Whelen (if not all) come with 1:16 barrel but mine being a custom barrel is a 1:14. Some owners of 1:16 have reported poor accuracy and stabilization problem with bulletes of 250gr and up.

2700fps is not that crazy, if you look at Nosler's manual, they list loads up to 2800fps (which I believe is a little optimistic). I've used RL15 and Varget in mine to get 2700fps without any pressure issues.

Here it is with a young bull moose from a couple years ago when it was still wearing the Hogue stock.


And this year with some other gear while bison hunting.

CLB, it groups around 1" with most loads i've worked with. The TSX's run right at 2700fps with 59grs of RL15 and the Speers at around 2550 with 56grs. Will be out working on these loads a little in the naxt week or so to see if i can make them a little better. If you are interested www.cutrifle.com did the rebore for me.