Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Question for the .400 Whelen Crowd

Which did you order? Bore and Groove? I was thinking a Krieger #4?

I'd go with a 12 twist. 12 twist gives the best straight line penetration in 416 caliber.

JWP, you know I ain’t scared of twist so it’ll be a 12 or better. Just me.

Thanks guys. I was just wanting to share my 400 journey. I have truly enjoyed following the journeys of other 400 fans. There’s been a lot of good information put forth in recent years.

I'm going to rebarrel my 416 and I'm going 10 twist

.411 bore, 8 groove. The only option they had. I was surprised at how limited twist options were…seemed a lot of manufacturers only offered one. One I forgot to check was McGowen (my .25/06 wears a McGowen) and I checked tonight and they have several twist options.

Pac Nor will do any twist you want. They make their own buttons in house . Therefore they can make a button for any twist rate you want.

Interesting. I specifically asked if 1:16 was the only option and was told it was. The gentleman I spoke with did indicate they are still limited on tooling after the fire and slowly getting everything back in order.

That's true,about limited because of the fire. They lost their other twist buttons in the fire. I was told they just needed to make another one. I told them that I wanted a 10 but could settle for a 12 if I had to.

Any of you guys read the Sports Afield article by the guy that bought Elmer’s 400 Whelen? My copy is boxed up, so I can’t reference it but the new owner took it elk hunting with some of Elmer’s reloads. He had to make a slight sight adjustment when checking zero. A Speer bullet over WW748......maybe 350 gr? Do you think Speer made those especially for Elmer? My guess is probably so.
The new owner successfully took a nice bull elk and said he’d probably use the rest of the loads assembled by Elmer for more hunting. When those were used up, he would retire the rifle.

I haven’t read it but man, I’d like to!

X2

They responded today that they can do other twists but the buttons are $500 each. I told them for $500 I would be happy with my 1:16

I meant to call Krieger today to see what they’d do. If I think about it I’ll do it Monday.

Anybody ever called Benchmark about what they might do? They did a 1-9.5 .358 barrel for me.

I talked a Pac Nor employee today and he said that he thought his boss making a 10 twist button for .416 caliber.

Mart is the reason I have one as well haha. That 30 page thread on AR piqued my interest to jump on the bandwagon

Because of this thread, i'm going to dig my 400 Whelen out of the safe, wipe it off, chrono a load, shoot three Woodleigh softs at 100, one Woodleigh solid at 100, then one solid at 50 with the express sights off hickory shooting sticks, measure muzzle dia. on the 23 inch barrel, weigh it on Wifes canning scales, then see if Riflecrank will post us up some pics, may give you guys on a build some ideas.

I can say ft lbs of muzzle energy is basically a useless term to me, sells a lot of rifles, pistols and ammo, but, 4500 ft lbs of it with a 400gr bullet at 2255 fps on basically an '06 sized hull is another testament of extreme efficiency, i'm no Elephant or Rhino hunter, but wouldn't hesitate either with my rifle and loads, that also means any critter under those two is more than fair game, and that's anything that walks.

It's a little basher!

Gunner,

You are so right. Essentially we have a magazine fed 450-400 Nitro Express. Same ballistics with the same bullets. I don’t know that I’ve ever hear a disparaging word about the 450-400. It made its bones and then some.

Looking forward to the shooting report and pics!

Looking forward to torching off a few of my own later this year. I am thinking when I eventually draw a bison permit this would be a fun candidate for the job….just because.

Looks like Buffalo Arms has cylinder brass in stock.

https://www.buffaloarms.com/30-06-cylindrical-reformed-cas-3006cyl.html

Little cheaper then QC. The pic shows it as Hornady .35 Whelen but who knows.