Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only 35 Brown Whelen

Now that sounds like a good way to go.
Seems funny to me that the shoulder being moved forward , they short necked and short throated it. ?
Maybe they were trying to velocifial light weight 35 cal bullets.
Would be interesting to see what a full length case and a GREAT 458 Winchester Magnum style throat , would accomplish with a 280 gr Swift A Frame or 310 gr Woodliegh.

Bugger;
Does your rifle feed the 35 Whelen loaded ammo satisfactorily ?

It feeds Hornady Interlock 200 grain and 250 grain spitzer reliably. I will need to work on the left rail to get it to feed the blunt cast bullets that I use. (I don't know if I'll do that.) I'm planning on loading some round nose bullets to see if it will feed those OK. When the rifle was still a Brown Whelen the cartridge wouldn't even feed out of the magazine!

The problem now is the case is pushed to far to the right on the cartridges coming out of the magazine on the left side. This pushing the cartridge this way was the same problem I had with the 375 Whelen AI Mauser 98 I have. I had to modify the rails on the Mauser and now that feeds even empty cases (375 Whelen and 375 Whelen AI) with out a hitch.

I wonder what cartridge this 70 used originally (perhaps a shorter cartridge??) - I thought that it aught to feed all 35 Whelen loads without the need for spitzer bullets reliably.

I'm hoping for an elk cow license this fall, if I get one, I may be using this 35. I will be using it on a deer license this fall - I was hoping to do the deer in with cast bullets...

I have a soft spot, for bigger heavy bullets.

"Bugger;
Does your rifle feed the 35 Whelen loaded ammo satisfactorily ?"

Without any modification to the feed rails/ramp the rifle feeds all round nose bullets fine, even light 38 Special 125 grain bullets. I'm not sure why I had that problem I reported earlier, after it was re-chambered.

But only if they're "soft" points, right?

I could tell you what a 286 NP and a 320 Woodleigh can make from my 22.4" SAKO barrel in 9.3 x 62, but I'd have to publish it as does my friend for his various .35s as "experimental loads"! But truly, a standard 9.3 x 62 is the way to go if you want "improved" results from a cartridge similar to the .35 Whelen. Everything, including the Whelen, is dependant on the usual factors: COL, barrel length, cases and PSI. It's no problem for my 9.3 x 62 to "make" well over 2400 fps from the 320gr Woodleigh using RL-17, not at CIP standards but at a longer COL and higher (but safe) PSI. (And I've owned a couple of .35 Whelens)

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

My Springfield with a cone breech is particular about feeding cast 280 Lyman rn bullets from the left side. I worked around that by varying col and found a sweet spot. Working the bolt faster helps too. The big nose on that bullet hits the ramp early and that is why it moves right. I resisted the urge to fiddle with it and found a way around.

Browsing on my Sierra loading app today and it shows 2900 fps with their 225 grain bullet. 79 gr of cfe 223 or 71.6 power pro 2000.
I thought my old load at 2800 was smokin.
Sierra made an excellent point that brass capacity varies widely in the Whelen and I concur. I also believe that chambers vary widely though I only have one. Lots of reamers out there.
But the myth that the Whelen is a range limited round was never true but with modern bullets and powders it is certainly not true.

Yep. Look at the down range numbers with top loads and spitzer bullets of 225-250 grs. I especially like the 225 Accubond.

70 grains of cfe223 not 79. Big fingers. Little keys.

That is a stout load with a 400 grainer.
I get 2260 out of my Remington 700.
I do have to shave the necks a little.

TAg

I acquired a 35 Whelen improved in 2020. I discovered that the barrel hadn’t been set back during the improving. I ordered a Manson 35 Whelen Improved reamer. I then necked up a 280Ackley case to 35 caliber. I filled the case full of lead for a go guage. My friend then took the rifle and reamed out the chamber to the “35-280 Ackley “ or it can be called a skinny 35 Brown Whelen. My 35 Whelen improved dies are set for the 35-280 Ackley, and the rifle shoots great.

25+ years ago I had Randall Redman rebore a pre'64 Winchester M/70 .30-06 to .35 Whelen. After I got the rifle back from Redman I did exhaustive range testing and found that the bullet my rifle liked best was a Sierra Game King 225gr. over IMR 4064. This was my whitetail load for years until shoulder surgery prompted me to go to a lighter bullet. A search of Ken Waters Pet Loads found one of Waters most accurate loads was a Hornady Inter-lok 200gr. RN over IMR 3031. My rifle was super accurate with that load 100yd. 3 shot groups were tight cloverleafs and the load performed admirably on whitetails. The one bullet that I was able to recover was perfectly mushroomed and retained 66% of its original weight. I never used a bullet heavier than 225gr. as I didn't feel it necessary for whitetails the majority of which were taken at ranges of 100yds. or less.