Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 35 Whelen with modern powder and bullets...?

I would like to point out that there was no SAAMI pressure standard for the .358 Norma Magnum when Nosler developed their data--and there still isn't, because the .358 Norma isn't listed in SAAMI's specifications for members. Thus there's no SAAMI "reference ammo," which members shoot to compare the results in their pressure barrel and system. As a result, Nosler was obviously (and understandably cautious) in their testing.

According to be laws of internal ballistics, the .358 Norma should be capable higher muzzle velocities than the .338 Winchester Magnum at the same pressure, with the same weight bullets. Yet Nosler's fasted 250-grain load for the .338 is listed at 2780 fps, which exceeds their maximum velocity listed for the .358 Norma by over 150 fps.

A better source for .358 Norma data might be Norma. Their data listed a maximum load for the 250-grain Nosler Partition as getting 2845 fps, which is more realistic.

Also, according to the same general laws of internal ballistics, the .35 Whelen should be able to get about 1.088 times as much velocity as the .30-06 with the same bullet weights, at the same pressure, due to the larger bore. Which is one of the factors I used when working up loads for 200- and 225-grains for the Whelen with Ramshot TAC.

Using Nosler's data for 200 and 220 grain bullets in the .30-06 (maximum velocities of 2690 and 2602 fps, respectively) I came up with max .35 Whelen velocities around 2900 fps with 200's and 2750 with 225s. And my loads at those velocities showed not the slightest indication of high pressure. In fact I could open the bolt of my .35 Whelen Remington 700 with my little finger.

All of this has been more-or-less confirmed by more recent data for the .35 Whelen, such as that published in the latest Speer manual.