Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Old vs New

If you had to choose, which would it be.


35 Whelen or 35 WSM.


Adam

Whelen!

It has been around for many, many years. I doubt that you will be able to say the same about the 35 WSM 50 years or more from now.

drover

Never heard of the 35 WSM. Wildcat?

Sometimes called the. 35 Sambar.

The WSM probably has a performance advantage over the Whelen . Plus it can be housed in a short action . The Whelen requires a long action . The Whelen has the advantage of available factory ammo and brass ( which can also be formed from 30-06 ) . Custom dies for the WSM would be an added expence also , not to mention a total lack of load data for 35 WSM . I subscribe to the KISS theory , so it would be the Whelen for me !

Don't forget you'll get one or two more rounds in the magazine with a Whelen.

.350 WSM for me.



the .350 RM (ballistic twin to the Whelen) on the left, .350 WSM on the right. the .350 WSM case will hold ~15 gr. more H20 than the Whelen.
think of it as about the same step up as going from an .30-06 to .300 Win Mag

In the field, six of one and a half dozen of the other. The ease of the Whelen trumps.

That's a plus, especially if you shoot like some of my friends do.....

Look at it this way. You want to tell your buddies your rifle is chambered for the .35 Whelen or a Whizzum? Seems easy to me...

Old

Even older.... 9.3 is where it's at.

You can use a cartridge which has a long history of killing heavy game and doing it with class or you can shoot a cartridge which is short and fat. Depends on how you like 'em. GD

i've picked cartridges to build rifles on to use brass i have, and i've picked cartridges based on the donor's bolt face, but, pickin' a cartridge to impress buddies? wow. 'class'? i love this schitt...

i 'spose no one else here has actually tried 'em both.

for conversation, the .350 WSM will run ~150 fps faster than the Whelen at EQUAL pressures, or run the same speed with 4"-6" less barrel.
the difference is much greater if you limit the Whelen to the 58015 psi max pressure it's factory ammo is supposedly loaded to


35 Cal. website has plenty of info for those interested

Never owned any "wizzum" but have heard many tales of feeding issues. But I do own a Whelen and many other rifles based on the 30-06 case, and they feed like greased lightning. Ultimately, its up to you if you want 150 more fps at the added expense. I'm sure others here would share their load data.

I'd sure rather have the Whelen when the time comes to sell the rifle. Prior to that, nothing you shoot at will know the difference between the two.

The REAL question is can you (or anyone) shoot well enough to actually get any benefit from and extra 150 fps? The next question is... is an extra 150 fps worth the extra cost associated with the wizzum?

Let's CTC... GET THE WHELEN! Or a .350 Rem. Mag.

Screw the wizzum.

the last things i ask myself when selecting a cartridge for big and/or dangerous game is 'how cheap can i do this?'

or 'can i shoot well enough to use 150 fps more' (my fav LOL)

YMMV

Toad, will the wsm shooting longer bullets fit in a short action?

Though I have no need for something more than my 350RM I always like the thought of saum and wsm wildcats (especially since I have a pile of 300 saum brass)

if you use a Kimber or M70 WSM action, you will have a 3"+ mag box and have plenty of room for heavies. in this picture, the .350 RM (left) has a COAL set for M7/SA M700, while the .358 WSM has the bullet seated for the M70 WSM.

i'd also like to do a .375 WSM, and a .450 Marlin on Kimber/M70