Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles COAL for 35 Whelen

A friend bought a rem 700 cdl in 35 whelen. The owner gave him some reloads as well as the load data. Unfortunately the owner passed away and he did not list the coal of his reloads. My friend wants me to make him some reloads and I am not sure what a safe coal should be. Unfortunately, I don't have access to the rifle to measure with a coal gauge. The max coal for a 35 whelen is 3.340". The bullet is a speer hotcore 180 grain. Speer's reloading data says their loads for the 180 grain hotcore were tested with 3.03" coal. It seems a bit short but then I found some reloading data on the hornaday equivalent and theirs load data was tested with a coal of 3.05". Do the lighter bullets require a short coal?

Yeah, shorter bullets.

Remington 35 Whelens, in the 2 I've used, have LONG throats.

Max COAL means nothing.

I seated that bullet so the bottom edge of the cannelure band was even with the case mouth, accuracy was OK in my rebored pre'64 M/70.

My Improved is long throated so I run into bullet-in-neck issues (or mag length).

I sure wouldn't guess at COL with a .35 Whelen. I found them to have varying throats and chambers.

My .35 Whelen 98 Mauser was made up before it became a SAAMI cartridge. The handloads I was using worked fine.

Then I bought a couple of boxes of Federal .35 Whelen 225 TBBC loads. The first one I fired popped a primer. Just to prove I can be brain dead on a Saturday morning, I did it again with the same result. I folded up my tent and took it to a gunsmith I respected and told him I wanted it rechambered and throated to SAAMI specs. He did so, no problems since.

FWIW the TBBC load is as good as I have foundd for elk. It was a bit too stiff for the deer I used it on in my opunion. I use the 225 Sierra BT for that duty.

+1 on the TBBC load being stouter than needed for deer, for whitetail I use the Sierra GK 225 too.