Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Harry Creighton FN 98 .35 Whelen

According to sociologist David Yamane, the era of Gun Culture 1.0 (~1850 to 2010) centered on the use of guns for sport hunting, recreation, and collecting, whereas Gun Culture 2.0 (2010 to Present) centers on gun use for self-defense and other tactical applications of shooting. Yamane claims that GC 2.0 now makes up the core of American gun ownership.

From my point of view, this may well be correct. I work in an allied law enforcement profession, and am surrounded on all sides by black rifles, LPVO's, and suppressors, as well as double stack semi-auto pistols with red dots, bucket holsters and WML's. Conversations overheard on the range involve sub-second draws, appendix carry, occluded dots, target focus and splits and transition times.

I try to keep my knowledge and skills as current as reasonably practicable with such platforms since my job as a firearms instructor requires it. Yet if you put a Staccato with a dot and my iron-sighted 1911 both on a table, I will gladly shoot them both, but will then leave the Staccato on the table and shoot the 1911 repeatedly. Why? Well, for one it's fun, and to me the 1911 is a work of fine art, while the Staccato is just a pistol. I can't help but like blued steel and walnut, SA and DA sixguns with home-cast bullets and leather holsters, and Mauser rifles chambered for old cartridges with fixed-power scopes.

All of which brings me to this post. Recently I came across an FN 98 chambered in .35 Whelen put together by the late Harry Creighton, a Nashville custom gunsmith in the 1970's and 80's. From what I can gather, HW Creighton was a machinist by trade and only did the metalwork on his rifles, often working with stockmaker Hal Hartley to come up with a complete rifle. I had a set of Tally bases and rings on hand, but the only unmounted scope I had at the time is an 1990's Weaver 3x9. Whelen ammo is getting harder to find, but I bought a box of Hornady Superformance loaded with 200-grain Interlocks and sighted in at 50 yards. They are listed at over 2900 fps; I have not chronographed any, but based on the magnum-like recoil I have no reason to doubt it. The big game animal in my state is the whitetail, and we are limited to handguns, shotguns, and rifles with straight-walled cartridges. We have no elk, and .35 Whelen is not on store shelves.

The trigger is crisp and the barrel shoots very well, even seeming to want to shoot in the same hole at 50 yards. The rifle sighted-in easily, although as sometimes happens, I would make a change but the adjustments would not take hold until the recoil of the next round. As a practical matter, I could simply buy a case of this Hornady ammo and be satisfied for quite some time. But RCBS dies and Speer 250's are now on hand, and I look forward to seeing what I can come up with for a load.








GC 2.0 may call me a Fudd, and possessing such a rifle may not serve any practical need where I live. But owning, preserving, caring for, feeding, and shooting such a wonderful piece of fine art is FUN! And this rifle is fast becoming my favorite.