Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 35Whelen - what is your go-to bullet?

moose/elk/black bear/whitetail
All shots under 250yards, with the majority being under 150yards

What’s your bullet of choice?

With elk and moose at those ranges, I’d look at a 225g Partition or Accubond. FWIW, my deer/bear thumper uses 225GK which are bit soft for ranges closer than those specified with heavy bone a possibility. I’d be comfortable with the GK on elk and moose from 200 and out. A lot of folks are content with 250s and heavier. I’m a real believer in the hydrostatic shock the 225s produce across a wider range of vehicles. If you’re not familiar with Ballistic Studies, this is worth a read.

https://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowledgebase/.35+Whelen.html

Thanks for the advice and the link.

200grTTSX and/or 225gr Accubond

Thoughts on the 180 ttsx?

225 Partition or Accubond. Also a 250 Partition or Speer. Take your pick; it’ll be hard to screw it up.

I used a 250gr Frame in Africa last year. I will be moving up to the 280 gr this next year.

For the game you listed 225 gr Partition or 250 gr AFrame/Partition would be my choice.

Tagged for interest.

I am in that camp, along with the 225 Sierra for bucks.

250 grain Partition. Works every time.

Sierra Game King 225gr. and Hornady Inter-lok 200gr. RN, both accurate and effective on whitetails. Only recovered one, a Hornady 200gr. RN from a buck taken @ 100yds. it was perfectly mushroomed and retained 66% of original weight.

This

The 225 gr TSX.

Always has been the 250 grain Nosler Partition.

Used that in a 350 since the 60’s. But the 250 grain partition hits the same POI as the 250 grain Interlocks which is handy.

I’m thinking the Barnes TTSX would work great, though I have not tried that bullet in 35 caliber.

180 in a 35 cal is not on my radar. I would go 200 and above.

I really liked the 225gr ballistic tip, but about the only bullet you will find new anymore is the barnes bullets, the hornady bullets, or the 250 gr speers, ive had decent accuracy with the speers.
Those are the big manufacturers of them now, but you can also get multiple smaller companies projectiles like, hammers, cutting edge, or hawk bullets
Barnes would probably be the best for your application.

I like 250 grain bullets in my .35 Whelens. If I want a lighter faster bullet I generally use a smaller caliber. Had very good success on elk with the discontinued Speer Grand Slam. Around a dozen elk and a moose and a caribou taken nicely with that bullet. Although too tough for the couple deer I killed slowly with them, on bigger game I got deep bone breaking penetration, Ok expansion, usually exit wounds. No complaints. Of course they quit making them.
Since then I've used Hornady 250's, both the old RN and the Spitzers with good results. Never a bullet break up with either style. They open a bit quicker than the Speer GS. Probably kill a bit quicker. For the one elk I shot with the Speer Hot Cor 250, results seemed very similar to the Hornady SPIL. All those animals were taken at under 200 yards, and many much closer.
My hunting style in recent years has turned towards waiting in blinds and tree stands rather than stalking, so ranges tend to be a bit longer some times lately. Currently experimenting with Nosler PTN 225 gr and Barnes TTSX 200's, to see if an extra 2-300 fps matters for good hits at up to 300 yards. I still haven't decided whether I like them.

For regular size deer a 200 grain cup and core will work fine.

For the other critters i use a 200 grain Barnes-X bullet.

I have lots and my rifle likes them.

Works great in the Whelen. I would use it in a situation where I needed as much speed as I could squeeze from the Whelen. I killed my second black bear with a 180gr TTSX from my 358 Win. One shot to the noggin at 265 yards killed her DRT. My MV= 2669 fps

Consider that a 250 grain bullet that loses 40% of it's weight weighs 150, a 180 Barnes that retains all of it is an easy choice, at those ranges, for that game.

When I was doing load development work after receiving my Whelen back from rebore I tried 180gr. bullets though not Barnes, accuracy was not what I was looking for so I confined myself to 200gr. & 225gr. bullets. 200gr. RN Hornady Inter-lok and 225gr. Sierra Game Kings shoot great in my rifle. IMR 3031 with 200gr. & IMR 4064 with 225gr. are the powders that give the best accuracy for me.

I tried the various cup and core 250 gr. bullets and while accuracy was decent I got a chance to hunt the Kaibab up in Northern Arizona. They were asking hunters to voluntarily use copper bullets and would give free bullets to reloaders My late wife and I both drew tags so I got two boxes of the 225 gr. Barnes TSX. I worked with RL15 and got 2710 FPS with excellent accuracy with groups running around .50" to .75". Been using them ever since and never looked back. Used them on guided cull hunts for cow elk and six shots gave me six elk. Four were DRT and two needed finishing shots but I could walk right up to them to do it. It was like the Whelen just paralyzed the hell out of them. I may hunt der with whatever strikes my mood for the day but for elk it'sthe Whelen and 225 gr. TSX for me. It's been my lucky elk combo.
PJ

The 225 original X bullet leaving my 25.5” barrel at 2821 was the killing’est thing you ever saw. But; at your ranges I would be shooting a 250 Hornady RN at 2450-2600 and be very happy. In fact that is what I did myself when my supply of Barnes x’s expired.
F01

Not a 35W, but a 350RM (35W short and fat with a 20" barrel) for deer sized I've gone to the Hornady 200 SP at 2830.

For bigger game, it really is hard to beat the Nolser 225 partition, at a little over 2700FPS for trajectory and terminal performance. I'm somewhat handicapped with a 2.8" mag box, so the 225 Partition is about perfect. Now that the NPs are unobtanium I'm going to work up a load with the Barnes 200 TSX.

I use the 180 TTSX in my M600 with H4895. It is accurate and nearly 2900. Great handling rig as well.









I'd have no reservations using that same bullet in any of my Whelens. Right now, I am using 8208 and 200 TTSX in my Ruger 35 Whelen and 225 Sierras in the 7600's.

I've looked at these, even contacted Barnes for load data, just not sold on the 180s in all copper yet. Mostly because the much cheaper Hornady 200s are working well on deer & pigs and I'd like to go heavier for elk. I've got 75 225 NPs left, then I'm going to have to do "something" since Nolser doesn't seem to be inclined to make any. So maybe the 180 TTSX will get a try.

Two bullets for me:

200 gr TTSX @ 2,850 fps and 250 gr NPT @ 2,600 fps.

Never could get the 225 NAB to shoot in my 1:12 twist, try as I might.

225gr. TXS and Sierra GK out of my bolt gun. 200gr. Hornady SP out of my Encores for Miss. deer and pig hunting.

250gr Speer spitzer if your talking about Moose/Elk. For deer and black bear consider the Speer 220gr flat point. Don't hot rod it and it really is a great medium game bullet.

^^ this is my thought too but with Hammer bullets cause i have them ^^

Barnes 225 TSX. I've used it on caribou and moose so far and going for grizzly this fall. Although, my rifle shoots great with just about anything I put through it. Remington Classic in a McMillan Edge stock.

M77rs 225 gr npt.

240 trophy bonded bear claw. small stash of them

250 Gr Speer Hot Core or 250 Gr Nosler Partition about 2480 FPS works great usually 2 holes in an Alaskan Moose

Sierra 225 Gameking or Speer 220 grain is all I’ve ever shot out of a Whelen or 350 Rem Mag. Work great on elk, deer, and bear.

I shoot 200 grain accubonds out of my handi rifle . I haven’t killed a deer with them yet but they are very accurate.

Do any of you guys know what bullet Remington used or uses in their 250gr spitzers and 250gr roundnose? It’s the Remington factory load that’s marketed as the “Core-Lokt”.

Like some others, the .35 Whelen is very versatile, especially now with new powders and bullets. I have 2 loads for mine - a single shot - the 225 AB at 2840 fps and a 300gr Barnes Original at 2355 fps. They both hit in the same group at 100 yds without any adjustments to the scope. CFE 223 for the 225 AB and RL-17 for the 300gr Barnes. I load 3 -4 in the stock cartridge holder and one in the chamber. Depending where and what I'm hunting the one in the chamber fits the situation. If it's thick brush, it's the 300, if there's potential for a longer reach it's the 225. But if both kinds of terrain is possible the same day, its the 225 AB. The load for the 225 is close to max, but the load for the 300 is medium. In the stock cartridge holder, I load two of each.

The rifle is a Traditions Outfitter G3 with fluted SS barrel and action, cerakoted and muzzle brake (22" barrel). Very accurate. It has a 3 - 9 x 40 Vortex scope, and weighs about 7.75 lbs with scope and 4 cartridges. OL = 39".

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

I should have added 250 grain hot cores shot very well in my 350.

It seems as soon as I have started with a new Whelen someone wants it. The current one I have has had the barrel cut back to 20.75” and threaded. I have not had time to work with it, though I have lots of jacketed and cast ready. I am planning on trying lots of bullets and loads with this Whelen - the rifle is suppressed.

One of the powders that worked very well in a 350 with 250 grain bullets was IMR 4320. Other powders included H4895, IMR4895 & TAC.

WW748 also shot well but I found the powder to be temperature sensitive with changing POI.

I have never shot the hot cores at animal in the 35’s.

They didn’t open well in 6mm. I tried hot cores in 30-06, & 280 - had no issues with tgem.

All the factory 250 gr round nose bullets in rp 35 Whelen ammo were hornadys. The 200 gr ptd corelokts were corelokts . Remington.made a 250 gr ptd corelokt for the 350 mag. Not sure they were ever loaded in 35 Whelen ammo though. Mb

I was having a tough time finding 250s when I first finished up my Whelen. Shot some caribou with 180 Speers and 200TSXs, the TSX worked wonderfully and the Speer was junk that turned inside out and blew up.

Next season still looking for 250s I ended up with a box of 350 Remington Mag handloads from the early 1990s and the end flap indicated they were loaded with a 250gr Wyoming bonded core. I pulled them and gave the brass to a friend with a 350 and loaded the bullets in reformed 270 brass for my Whelen. A couple shots at a target confirmed zero and into the bush plane I went. Shot two middling sized grizzlies with those bullets and recovered one after it clipped the edge of the skull and then broke two vertebrae and the off shoulder blade. Cut it out and it weighs 249.1gr.

Next season finds me almost out of my mystery bullets when I happen onto a 2”x2” ad in the back of a 1991 Handloader magazine for none other than Wyoming bonded bullets. On a dare I called the number and left a message. A couple days later a nice guy named Robin called me back wondering how on earth I had gotten his number and called wanting bullets. He’d been out of the bullet business since the mid 1990s. After a visit he told me he made one run a year of bullets for old customers who wouldn’t shoot anything else and since I’d asked nicely he would put me in the queue. We ended up becoming friends and visiting via phone and email for years and I continued to be on the list and shoot his bullets. I probably have enough now for about all the Whelen use I’m likely to engage in.

Otherwise I like 250gr Hornady RN and Nosler Partitions.

225 grain GK
It’s a hammer

I have two 35 Whelens. They both love 225g bullets. Especially the .358 Accubond Noslers and 223g Hammers.

I shoot deer with mine. 225 Game Kings. The only one that ever stopped in a deer went lengthwise and was under the skin on a ham. It was a perfect mushroom. I figure they would work well on anything.

Mb….Thanks for the reply. Remington did load the pointed 250 in the Whelen and I bought 5 or 6 boxes of them along with the 250gr roundnose.

Appreciate it.

Your welcome.

Like others I have used the 250 grain bullets the most and the 220 Speer some. I had no issues with the Hornady RN or spitzer, the Nosler Partition or the Speer Spitzer. If I had to pick a favorite it would be the Speer first and the Partition second. However they all did their job perfectly. I had spotty results with the 220 Speer on a few hogs. 2600 fps may have been too much for it.

For one bullet in the Whelen for moose/elk/black bear/whitetail you'll do no better than the 200 TTSX (the 200 TSX is nearly as good). I've used that combination for several mature moose, several brown bears, a caribou, and deer in my Whelen. I've witnessed a couple failures with Hornady/Sierra/Remington cup and core 200 grain bullets on whitetails and have no confidence in their penetration at Whelen velocities. The various 250 grain bullets work fine, but at increased recoil and a less useful trajectory. The 220 Speer is too soft for moose IME, though they just barely worked. The 225 Sierra, 225 Accubond, 225 Partition, and 225 TSX are all fine bullets for bigger deer, and I've used them successfully for deer and moose. The 200 TTSX has always expanded wider in deer size critters and penetration isn't an issue, but I'll admit that I typically load 225 TSX when my hunts are for moose/brown bear.

Emulating a 30/06 loaded with 220gn bullets puzzles me.
I get that the Whelan has greater frontal and expansion area and I get that the '06 has greater SD but.........

I really like the 200 TTSX and the 220 Hammer Hunter, both are fast, flat shooting, excellent killng power and plenty of penetration

On game performance will probably clear it all up for you, if you really want to understand it. You might question if the Whelen is any more effective on animals than a 30/06. That's a reasonable question and with the innovations in bullets in the past century the difference isn't what it once was. As for the 200 TTSX in a Whelen, it'll compare more similarly to the .300 Win Mag. Penetration will be measured in feet and easily more than many of the 250 grain bullets that are touted. Personally, I've used a lot of different bullets in the Whelen for a variety of North American game for decades, and while I prefer other bullets for certain applications, the 200 TTSX at 2850+ fps is as good of a selection as I am aware for the variety of animals such as moose/elk/black bear/whitetail.

One big advantage the Whelen has is cast bullets. Though I shoot cast in both.

Full respect for the ‘06 and 220’s but there is an observable difference in on game performance with a 358 bullet like the 225 X at 2700-2800 and a 250 expanding bullet at 2600. The size of the full penetration hole and the shuddering effect on the animal.
I’d be happy on anything anywhere with either but the old Whelen stands tall.
F01

180 or 200 gr Barnes TTSX.

Seeing that the TTSX seems to be more consistently available, I might have to give the 200 grain TTSX a try

200 TTSX

Jacketed, cast and pistol bullets, my Redman rebored Whelen shoots them all accurately. Ken Waters Pet Loads has lots of great info on .35 Whelen loads, it's my one stop source for accurate loads.

I used a Furry 220gr Flat Point last fall on a small 7pt whitetail, and it knocked him sideways. Damage was not excessive but thorough.

One counterpoint to that, fellas, is that a 250 grain bullet that "loses" 40% of its weight just blasted 100 grains of lead fragments through the vitals while (in the proven case of the 250 Partition that folks have been advocating) continuing with very reliable penetration and a probable exit.
I killed my first elk with the 250 Partition, which worked great, but have also put 3 x 200 TTSX and 2 x 225 TSX through elk with fine results since. Only Barnes X I ever recovered, of any caliber, was a 225 TSX that went through both shoulders at the thickest point on a big 342" bull. DRT, and bullet under the hide on the off side. It weighed exactly 225 grains after being cleaned up, for 100% retention (all these were the .358 bullets, per this conversation, but the 200 TTSX were from the .358 Win at 2700 FPS muzzle velocity - Others were in the Whelen).
So while I'm a Barnes fan too, I'm not blind to the virtues of the big 250 Partition. I'd also bet it retains more than 60% weight based on where the partitions are located on the big Noslers.




Cheers,
Rex

I used the Barnes 225 grain TSX at 2550 fps out of my 22" Remington 700 (originally 30-06, rebored by JES ). I've taken a Sitka blacktail, a Michigan whitetail, and a Kodiak Island Brown bear with ii. No bullets recovered. I'm very happy with its performance, knocks deer size game off their feet. The bear took 2 hits to put down.