Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters .35 Whelen..........

And my Whelen ain't going anywhere, one of my favorites, just not for deer.

I have a M700 Classic with Vari-X II 2.5-8x36mm scope that has accounted for 17 WT and a 250 lb Black Bear.
The first 4 bucks were taken with the factory 200 gr SPSCL bullet back in '88 and '89.
In '90 I started using the then new 225 gr PT at 2650 fps and killed quite a few more deer. I only had to blood trail 2-3 deer and they were short and heavy. The rest dropped in their tracks.

Is there such a thing as "too dead"?

I picked up a 7600 myself but haven't had a chance to shed any blood with it. I figure if my 35 Remington works, the Whelen should be "that much" better!

George

[quote=whelennut]I have only killed a few (dozen) deer with my 700 Classic in 35 Whelen but I have never had to shoot one twice.
One hundred bullets could last for generations. I used to play around with different bullets and came to the conclusion that deer can't tell much difference from a well placed shot with any bullet out there. The last 11 point buck I shot was in the brush about 20 yds away. The 250 gr Speer put him down so fast it was like the Hammer of Thor. I will leave the .223's for prairie dogs. I am sure they work on deer but how they could kill faster or better than instantly is beyond me. Where I hunt the pressure from other hunters causes the deer to move mostly at dawn and dusk. I like to find my deer right away, not after somebody else is gutting it.
whelennut


Compelling

Profound

Nope, not wrong. I still contest, based on seeing lots of [bleep] die, that a small/fast slug impresses deer more.


Here is one Whelen'ized (whatever the [bleep] that is) deer.




He went a good 150 yards. I caught up and could see the bullet hole where it should be on the offside, but the deer weren't impressed. Took a good couple of minutes for it to die. Of course part of the problem was that the 225gr Ballistic tip didn't expand.

I've got a few more less than impressed deer pics with the Whelen. I also recall one that went ass over teakettle with a shot straight on.

They seem to impress bear a bit more than deer and moose even more so.

It don't take a rocket scientist to figure out that one certainly don't need 200+ grains to kill a deer and burn 60grs of powder to do it.

I'll be ML hunting again this fall, the 54 that I bought came with 100 or so 540gr Maxiballs. I laughed when I started doing the math, the total combined weight of bullets used to kill the last 6 critters is 562grs.


If folks want to believe that the Whelen is some sort of magic wand, I'm happy for them, but don't tell me it tastes like French vanilla ice cream and expect me to eat it with a spoon.

Tell me some stories?

Got one in a CDL model 700.........and one in a 7600.

Too much for whitetails?

He keeps a vid on his smart phone of him banging and clanging the 800 yard ram at the local range. The most impressive one is calling the shot when he shoots it in the nose. Wish I could do that with my 6.5 Creedmoor, but at least I can hit the ram.