Today was sunny, clear and about 20 degrees. I ran my load of 59.5 grains of RL15, WLR primer and a 250 grain Speer, Hornady brass. My rifle is a Ruger 77 with a 1:14” Shilen SS top shelf barrel. High was 2656 FPS , low 2620 FPS and average for a five shot string was 2637.8 FPS . Next was AA2000MR. I ran 66.0 grains with WLR and WLRM primers. Standard primers high was 2760 FPS, low 2700 FPS and average was 2729.7 FPS. Magnum primers ran high of 2737 FPS , low of 2704 FPS and average of 2719.7 FPS for the string. With this I had absolutely no signs of pressure. I gave my information to M1garand to run it through quick load and he was able to give me a pressure of 62,881 psi. Again this is MY RIFLE. But it gives you an idea of how anemic the lawyers have made the Whelen. A quick look at factory 250 grain 338 Winchester Magnum will give 2660 FPS for Remington Corelokt. 2660 for Federal Fusion and 2600 even for Nosler Premium partitions. I’m sure that the grand old 338 Win Mag suffers the same malady as the Whelen does in factory dress but prudent and safe loading gets me there with the Whelen.
Absolute hammer. I really got to get me a Whelen to go with all my other 35 caliber cartridges!
