Let me be the one wet blanket in all this.
I retired my "Whelenizer" in 2014. It is a Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen that I downloaded to 358 WIN-ish levels. I shot 200 grain RN out of it through most of its career. It produced 1-2 deer a year. My reason for the download was that I was never going to be shooting more than 250 yards with it, and the game was going to be 100% whitetail. The extra shock and awe just wasn't needed.
Honestly, I never saw the huge dividend in power. Yes, it had a distinctive report. Everyone on nearby ridges knew when I'd taken a shot. Yes, it was a bit more recoil than my 30-06. No, it didn't make the deer any deader. I'm not going to say it was a bust. 10 deer in 10 years is a pretty good record. However, I went back to a 30-06 shooting 165 grainers, and immediately went returned to DRT toes-in-the-air performance. The deer I shot would all die. However, they were more prone to running a bit. I'd say on average 70 yards or so.
Was that significant? It meant that more often I'd have to cross a fence and pull the deer out into the pasture. Some people would say it was a negligible difference.
You have to understand that I frequently fill my last tag in the latter part of the season when its getting rather inclement. I often take to my luxury blind, and its from there that I shoot my last doe. The shots are uniformly at 150-175 yards and I'm firing off a sand bag. This is about as close as you can get to an apples-to-apples comparison. Dropping them in the middle of the field also gives me the bonus of a chance to roll the truck right up and load them without any fuss.
I'm not going to say 358 WIN or 35 Whelen is a flop on whitetail. I'm just saying I did not see a huge performance boost. Someone somewhere suggested I try anchoring them in the shoulder. I tried that. The result was an anchored animal, but major devastation and an unusable shoulder roast.
One other note: I started using an 8X57 Kar 98 for the past few years, and I've been equally impressed with it as far as its shot-n-drop capabilities.
