Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 35 Whelen Reloading 250s and RL-15 ?

I saw where there were no comments for CFE223.
I use it in my 35Whelen /AI and it is great gives good velocity and accuracy with 200gr, 225gr and 250gr Nosler ABs and PTs. It should work in the standard Whelen also.
I use a stash of old Winchester white box large rifle primers to set it off and they are marked for use in either standard or magnum loads, before I used CCI or Federal match primers with little luck.

How come nobody uses R17?

I am getting 2780fps w 225g partions

And

2550fps w 275g woodlieghs, seated out a little

To my surprise, data from the new Speer manual caught my attention and initiated an exercise in trialing some of the newer powders. I found 2 loads that produced good accuracy in my Whelens. 8208 under 250 gr RN Hornadys looks good and makes a kind of retro looking round. My new "go to" load is a 250 gr Partition over a case full of Power Pro 2000 MR.
While my Whelens have never been finicky, that last package is producing a little better accuracy than I've experienced with RL15 or Varget.

Any idea on the speeds? Been hearing great things about PP2000 but haven't tried it yet in any of my Whelens. I was going to try some 200 grain TTSX's and wondered if it might work there as well..

I have been derelict on getting the chronograph out as I was pursuing accuracy, However..... based on the felt recoil, and considering that I am into a 2nd pound of PP2000, I think the velocity is a notch or 2 higher than I realized with Varget or RL15. Not too scientific, but I suspect that Speers published velocities are are pretty good indicator.
I am overdue on checking a variety of loads against the reality of my chrono.

No problem, if I get to it I’ll post up what I get as well.

I’m patiently waiting for my Whelen and in the meantime reading everything I can on load data. I’m sitting on four pounds of RL15 and 150 Speer 250gr Hot Cors. This is possibly the best read on the Whelen so I’m bumping it from a year and half slumber.

This was a timely bump.

I just started a thread about the 35 Whelen in the reloading forum.

Just in case anyone still looks at this thread and for the original poster a decade ago I’m running 59.5 grains of RL15 with WLR primers Hornady and Nosler brass and 250 grain Speer Hot Cors. No pressure issues at all. Tread carefully and at your own risk of course. My rifle is a tank. I have a SS Ruger M77 Hawkeye with a Shilen 23” 1:14 Super premium match grade barrel. I get excellent accuracy with perfect looking primers.

That is a great shooting load in a few Whelens.

This is great info for me as I have just purchased a Ruger #1 35 Whelen. Thanks for bringing this back to the for front.

I started shooting 2000 MR this summer based on Speer data. It easily bested RL15, Varget and H4895 for velocity with comparable accuracy in my 20" 1:14 Ruger. Getting 2630 with 66 grains and a 250 Speer HC. 67 Grains gets the 225 Sierra going about 2665 and hitting to a similar POI. About 1 MOA for the Sierra and about 1.5 MOA for the Speer. Brass seems to be holding up well. A 3" zero at 100 gives a pretty useful "hold on hair" trajectory out a fair ways with those velocities. Planning to fill my antelope tag with the Sierra.

I have been playing with that powder in my Ackley Whelen, and I worked up to 68grns so far with the Speer 250, and in my 22" barrel my Chrono said 2747! I will compare against another chronograph to confirm. I have seen no pressure signs and groups are slightly under 1".

Have not found the need to push velocity with my old RL 15 load and Speer 250 gr or NP 250 gr. It just works around 2500 FPS for me. Dont want to mess with a good thing.

My God those are high velocities with 250 grain bullets! Muzzle energies up there with the 338 Winchester Magnum. This year I am loading to 2300 fps like I have for the last three years. Love the big leaky exit holes and the very little need for any kind of tracking.

Mine is the Ackley version, but yes, amazing performance. Based on case volume, I have 3 grains more room (which I have NO intention of utilizing) before I even touch the base of the bullet. Speer's data shows a compressed charge at 66.2. I am more than please with where I am at.

The biggest advantage I have found from getting max velocities out of a 250 grain .358 in a light rifle is that it makes the recoil in my 200 grain .300 WM load feel downright enjoyable.

I have yet to chrony my rifle/load. I’m pretty sure I got the load as a hand me down from BeretZ through some guys on a different forum. It’s works well in my rifle with GOOD brass. Some R-P brass won’t behave well in my rifle no matter what load I use. That stuff found a new home in the trash or pucker brush. Oddly I find the old Colonel rather pleasant to shoot even with heavy loads. Might be the stock. I’ve found other rifles more uncomfortable to shoot in 30-06 and various 300 mag chamberings likely due to poor stock design.

My 35 is the Gibbs version and I'm getting very close to 2700fps with 250 Speers and could probably from the looks of the brass get over it. JES bored it and it's a tackdriver, yesterday my wife and I shot a bunch of floating targets and it proved to be moose ready at all ranges.

My handled for 225 grain bullets in the Whelen was 58 gr of RL15 for about 2625 fps