Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .400 Whelen

What ballistics can you get with a .400 Whelen and is there enough shoulder to headspace on it?

Yes, there is plenty of shoulder on which to headspace. Do a Google search for 400 Whelen and Michael Petrov. He did a great, 2 part article on the myths of the 400 Whelen. You can also search the Campfire for 400 Whelen and should find a few threads on the subject.

Too summarize quickly, the 400 Whelen was always an "improved" case. The good Colonel designed it with a shoulder diameter of .458 as opposed to the 30-06 and 35 Whelen with their .441 shoulder. The 400 Whelen was never a standard 30-06 simply expanded to .411. There are examples of those rifles floating around that were incorrectly chambered by unknowing smiths who did not understand Whelen's original design of the cartridge.

I built one four years ago and love it. I have close to 1500 rounds through it in load development and can tell you it has never failed to fire nor exhibited any of the "headspace issues" often associated with this round.

I get 2150 with a 400 grain bullet, duplicating the 450-400 ballistics. That load is also a hammer on caribou. With 350 grain bullets 2350 fps is pretty easy to get and 300 grain bullets will crowd 2500 fps.

Brass is easy to make from 30-06 or 35 Whelen. My original brass was LC Match fire formed with Cream of Wheat and some Bullseye powder. Quality Cartridge makes properly headstamped brass for it and occasionally you can find Norma 30-06 cylindrical brass. Either only require a trip through a resizing die and trimming. CH4D had excellent dies for around $90, RCBS has them for around $350.

There are surprisingly more bullets available than one would think. Hornady has two .411 300 grain bullets, a spitzer and a flat point, and they have a 400 grain .410 bullet. Hawk produces a 300, 350 and 400 grain, North Fork a 300 and 350, Swift a 350 and 400 grain A frame, Woodleigh a 400 grain RN and FMJ and Barnes, a 300 grain TSX. It is also a very cast friendly round. The correct groove diamter for a 400 Whelen is .411 but .410 bullets will shoot fine.

The 400 Whelen likes mid burn rate powders and one could buy H4895 and never need to try another powder. It has been the hands down single best performing powder in the 400 Whelen. IMR 3031 is all right with 300 grain bullets but 4895 is better suited across the board. Reloader 15, 4064, 4320 and similar burn rate powders have proven to be a bit too slow for optimizing the 400 Whelen.

It's a great round. It's reputation unfortunately suffered at the hands of some scribes who ignorantly passed on myths as truth.

Would be a fine candidate for cast bullet work, Hmmm, not that I need another big bore project but if I come across an -06 at the right price I might just "need" to take the 400 whelen plunge one of these days.

Check out the 411 Hawk also.

The 411 Hawk is an option although I think you find the 400 Whelen chambering reamers easier to find and dies to be cheaper. Realistically, there isn't 5% difference in case capacity between the 400 Whelen, 400 Brown Whelen and 411 Hawk.

Ballistics will be close to the 375 HH with light bullets and the 400-450 with heavier ones.

If done the way it was originally designed, headspace is not an issue, just like anything else.

Z-Hat has the reamers and dies for the Hawk cartridges. I had him do some work for me and it was top notch.

Very interesting. You could have a 450-400 bolt action rifle, for all practical purposes, just by rebarreling a 30-06. That would be legal for all DG in Africa.

Let's face it, the 9.3 X 62 is very, very close to 30-06 case size and does approximate .375 H & H performance in the field. I don't know if that case will get you .450/400 performance. I like the idea.

OH and just to add a little fuel to this fire, you can rebarrel a Rem.760/7600 in a 30-06 size to this or .411 Hawk and have a big bore Amish machine gun. A pump 400-450. My my

I handled a gorgeous 400 Whelen at the Pig hunt in Texas last week. Gunner had it built up on one of the Dumolin(sp?) actions.

Cases were from Quality Cartridge and the cartridge itself was very impressive.

The effect of a 400 grain Woodleigh round nose on caribou is also impressive.

I never understood why this round was not more popular.

We need lots of pictures

Mike

Before the internet all we had was gun rags and books and word of mouth, once a rumor got started it was spread like the gospel.

The reloading issues mentioned above prolly killed it off.

Mike

Because very few chamberings larger than 30 caliber are popular. Once you get past 338 win mag and 375 H&H mag, popularity really declines. The way it's always been, the way it will always be.

HTH did I miss that? Must have been late at night!

The same was said by some of the .35 Whelen. I've got an AI version of it, I can assure you there are no headspacing issues!

The 400 Whelen has been a great round for making hogs bleed all over the timber despite having short trails.

It also lacks the blast and sharper recoil of belted magnums, much like the 35 Whelen, it seems to make up for the speed with the slap of a larger diameter bullet.
9.3 shooters probably notice similar traits.

It's basically a straight wall cartridge running at high pressure with a case 2.5" long and the cartridge 3.33" long. Bullets to SD of 0.34 are readily available.

There's an analogous cartridge--one that fits the same description--from which you can gauge the ballistics: the .458 Win. With the same SD (ie. 500 gn bullets), Hodgdon's data shows you get 2150 fps. The .400, then, should be able to send its 400 gn to the same 2150 fps, matching the old 450/400.

It would be a very versatile cartridge. The 400 gn could reasonably be used on the heaviest game. With Trail Boss and .41 Mag pistol bullets, it's a mild recoiling deer rifle.

Like Docbill, I've thought a Rem 7600 in this would be a pretty spiffy rifle, but I'm not much for recoil any more, so I never got around to trying it.