I have three rifles in .35 Whelen, a tangsafety Ruger M77, Remington M700 Classic and a custom built on an Oberndorf Mauser action. I picked up the Mauser at an estate sale and when I physicaly picked up that Mauser, well it came home with me. So far it has been in one the very sudden demise of two very tasty cow elk.
Since the Mauser came home the other two rifles have more or less been retired. I should take them out of hibernation and play with them before they get too depressed.
What I can say is the Ruger and Remington have 1 in 16" twists and they shot reasonably well woth Paco Kelly's H335 load. That's a 250 gr. bullet and 53.0 gr. of H335. Got velocities in the 2500 tp 2500+ FPS range with the Speer 250 gr. Spitzer Hot Core and the 250 gr. Hornady spire and round point bullets. Groups were in the 1.0 to 1.25" ranges depending on the bullet. This was a just load 'em and shoot'em with no special work other than to determine a safe pressure level. The loads also worked in the Mauser.
My pet load for the Mauser is 60.4 gr. of Re15 and the 225 gr. Barnes TSX. The two elk hsot with that l0oad was bang/flop/drt with absolutely no back talk from said elk.
Paul B.
