Got a long winded spiel so here it goes.
My affair with the .35BW dates back quite a few years,before factory .35 Whelen brass was made, had to use .30-06 brass neck up to about .40 cal. create false shoulder and fireform.First rifle was a commercial FN 98 that was originally a .270,screwed on a Brownells threade short chambered barrel in .35 cal. I don't remember if it was a 12 or 14 twist.This was a good combination and fed very well with no work to the rails,it has become my all-time favorite caliber.Have worked primarily with 250 gr. bullet but have shot 225's as well 275 and 300 gr. Hawks.Initially left the barrel at 26" but later cut it to 22",this lost about 100 fps velocity.I then went on an involved quest to get 2700fps with the 250 gr. bullets,as you'll see.
Powders tried were IMR 3031,4320,4064,4007,4451,4350.RL 12,15,16,17,19.VV 140,540,550,560.Hodgdon 380,4350,Varget,Superformance,BLC-2,414.BG4351.Norma 202,204.Winchester 748,760.AA 2520,Big Game. The newer powders that are really supposed to be the ticket such as 8208,100V,2000Mr were tried.All this in a maniacal effort to get to the magical 2700 fps 250 gr. bullet load.H4350 got to 2620fps but that has been tops.
My load development process consists of increasing one grain at a time till I get unmistakable high pressure indication back off 3 grains, then chronograph.If velocity is good then test for accurracy.I'm no big stickler for accuracy,if it shoots into an inch and a half good.
As you can see this barrel digested quite a few rounds and you must include fireform loads.I was always looking to simplify the fireform process and wound up trying a fast pistol powder with some kind of filler.This method seemed to work but actually resulted in a ringed chamber and made extraction difficult so this led to scrapping this barrel and going to plan B.
Next up was a push feed WIN. 70 in .243,not a big trick to remove the magazine spacer and rebarrel in .35 BW with a Lilja SS tube which was finished at 23" length,also believe this was a 12 twist.
Oddly enough,and I do mean oddly,only shot one big game animal with the first rifle and that was a Dall Sheep! Weird ha!
As a supposedly hairy chested hunter were you ever chided for not having a go at sheep hunting? I was pretty sure I wasn't a sheep hunter and set out to prove it.
Business obligations had interfered with a try at sheep so I contacted Rod Hardy in the Yukon and told him if he ever had an open warm fall to give me a call and one year he did.Met up with Rod in Whitehorse and off we went in the SuperCub to a remote spot that had sheep close by.Only thing is the rams had moved a couple mountains over but off we went.Blundered into a bunch of rams down low,looked them over and found a suitable ram and proceeded to shoot over him.Took another couple days but did manage to collect a nice ram.I used the 225 gr. Barnes X loaded to 2700 fps on that go around because grizzly was on the wanted list,didn't see one.
What a hell of an adventure it has all been and I'm sure I've left out quite a bit of stuff! Hope I haven't bored you too bad!
Bore us?? Heck no! Love the hunting stories. And rifle stories. I built my .35 Whelen AI in about '92 or '93. The late John Pell barreled the Husqvarna commercial '98 for me and I did all the other work. It was a shooter from the start and I hot rodded it too much in my youth, but a tribute to the strong rifle it suffered no damage. Only primer I ever blew in over 30 years handloading was back then on that rifle. I'm totally over that nonsense these days but still love to find optimum powders and loads that give great velocities at moderate pressure.
Nowadays I can get better velocity than back then with loads that are not even breathing hard. Thus, I feel it my mission to help get you the velocity you're looking for, if possible.
Please check your records and tell us what charges you used with the 2000-MR and what velocities you got. (BTW, I used CCI 200 primers for all my 35 WAI 2000-MR loads and it "lit" just fine, despite some folks' advice to use magnum primers for heavy spherical powder loads.)
Speer's max for the 250 HotCor is 66.2 gr for 2709 FPS in the basic Whelen. 65 gr gave me 2650 and great accuracy in my 23" barreled WAI. and I quit there.
If you can get the water volume of a fired case of yours to the base of your desired 250 bullet, slipped in to your desired OAL, we'll do the math compared to my volume and get a WAG on what your MAX ought to be. Other than the extra volume you pick up from the Brown configuration, we won't get much more in the case 'cause its already compressed in the basic Whelen.
I'd say we can take this offline with just PM's but I bet some others are interested, based on the subject of this thread. PM me if you like.
I should have asked - what's your throat like. What would be the max OAL you can load based on touching the lands? How about the Mag length of your M-70? 3.4", or longer?
Cheers,
Rex
