Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Harry Creighton FN 98 .35 Whelen

According to sociologist David Yamane, the era of Gun Culture 1.0 (~1850 to 2010) centered on the use of guns for sport hunting, recreation, and collecting, whereas Gun Culture 2.0 (2010 to Present) centers on gun use for self-defense and other tactical applications of shooting. Yamane claims that GC 2.0 now makes up the core of American gun ownership.

From my point of view, this may well be correct. I work in an allied law enforcement profession, and am surrounded on all sides by black rifles, LPVO's, and suppressors, as well as double stack semi-auto pistols with red dots, bucket holsters and WML's. Conversations overheard on the range involve sub-second draws, appendix carry, occluded dots, target focus and splits and transition times.

I try to keep my knowledge and skills as current as reasonably practicable with such platforms since my job as a firearms instructor requires it. Yet if you put a Staccato with a dot and my iron-sighted 1911 both on a table, I will gladly shoot them both, but will then leave the Staccato on the table and shoot the 1911 repeatedly. Why? Well, for one it's fun, and to me the 1911 is a work of fine art, while the Staccato is just a pistol. I can't help but like blued steel and walnut, SA and DA sixguns with home-cast bullets and leather holsters, and Mauser rifles chambered for old cartridges with fixed-power scopes.

All of which brings me to this post. Recently I came across an FN 98 chambered in .35 Whelen put together by the late Harry Creighton, a Nashville custom gunsmith in the 1970's and 80's. From what I can gather, HW Creighton was a machinist by trade and only did the metalwork on his rifles, often working with stockmaker Hal Hartley to come up with a complete rifle. I had a set of Tally bases and rings on hand, but the only unmounted scope I had at the time is an 1990's Weaver 3x9. Whelen ammo is getting harder to find, but I bought a box of Hornady Superformance loaded with 200-grain Interlocks and sighted in at 50 yards. They are listed at over 2900 fps; I have not chronographed any, but based on the magnum-like recoil I have no reason to doubt it. The big game animal in my state is the whitetail, and we are limited to handguns, shotguns, and rifles with straight-walled cartridges. We have no elk, and .35 Whelen is not on store shelves.

The trigger is crisp and the barrel shoots very well, even seeming to want to shoot in the same hole at 50 yards. The rifle sighted-in easily, although as sometimes happens, I would make a change but the adjustments would not take hold until the recoil of the next round. As a practical matter, I could simply buy a case of this Hornady ammo and be satisfied for quite some time. But RCBS dies and Speer 250's are now on hand, and I look forward to seeing what I can come up with for a load.








GC 2.0 may call me a Fudd, and possessing such a rifle may not serve any practical need where I live. But owning, preserving, caring for, feeding, and shooting such a wonderful piece of fine art is FUN! And this rifle is fast becoming my favorite.

Nice rifle.

Very nice.

That rifle has nice lines and just has that "look".

Excuse to go somewhere you can hunt with that rifle!

Nice rifle.

Nice one. FN’s are my favorites.

Yamane might be right, at least in part. Hunting seems to be less popular in general around here; largely due to lack of access, or the perception of that anyway. Never was a collector myself, more of an acquirer of guns that all get shot, not just rubbed and admired. Ordinary guns being produced now don’t have much collectability IMO, due to production shortcuts and other economy measures. I think where he may be off is on recreational shooting. I see very little serious practice or training at the two ranges I frequent; it’s mostly just casual target shooting and folks enjoying themselves with their toys, definitely recreation. We have a small, but devoted group of clays shooters at my club, and we have lots of fun despite our mediocre scores.

Yeah, may be bit of a Fudd gun, but cool. I like it.

Even Fudds need love.

You’ll enjoy that one even more as a reloader.

DF

What a beautiful rifle, enjoy your new 35 Whelen.

StarchedCover

Very nice, always have to click on a thread that says 35W, my favorite!

Don't have a Whelen, but do like my JES .358 Win, pre-64 FWT.

It whacks'em hard, kicks less than the Whelen.

The 178 gr. Shock Hammer over RL-7 is an accurate, killing combo.

DF

That's a great rifle! Congrats!

Thanks everyone!

That rifle looks like it would be really fast on offhand shots.

Nice find!


Okie John

Only thing I would change is the safety.

My own 35 Whelen looks a lot like that. I built mine on a 1935 Oberndorf M98 action. I built one for a customer in the late seventies and liked it well enough that I built my own about like it. My stock is similar to this one but I did not put a cheekpiece on it. I also installed a three position safety (Model 70 style). In truth, I would be happy enough with the Beuhler safety.
I load 54 of Varget with a 250. Velocity is just under 2500 and accuracy is excellent. One thing I like about the 35's is that you can work up light loads with 357 bullets, for practice and small game. GD

I liked the Whelen but this is a classic. I sold my Whelen but have some 358 Winchesters. By the way did I see a rear aperture sight? I would shoot the gun that way for a while if practical. I can still shoot apertures and find them to be fun. RZ.

35 yrs. ago I sent a shot out pre-64 M/70 Super Grade .30-06 to Randal Redman to rechamber/rebore to .35 Whelen, it has been my whitetail rifle ever since. When I got my rifle back from rebore I did extensive load development and range testing. I found that Sierra Game King 225gr. over IMR 4064 gave the best accuracy. For many years that was my hunting load and it accounted for several whitetails. A few years ago I had rotator cuff surgery of both shoulders, so I went to a lighter bullet. My current deer load is from Ken Waters Pet Loads, he listed it as "most accurate", it consists of a Hornady 200gr. Inter-lok RN over IMR 3031. At 100 yds. it produces tight 3 shot cloverleaf groups and has accounted for its share of whitetails. If I were younger I would have JES rebore a pre-64 M/70 Featherweight to .358, a cartridge just as fine as the Whelen.

.35 Whelen is a cool and effective cartridge. That's a nice looking rifle, enjoy!

Congrats on a beautiful rifle!

I own many 35 Whelen rifles, 15 currently. Great cartridge!

I use 225gr. TBBC, 250gr. NP, & 280 gr. SAF. I have taken Elk & Moose in Colorado with them, and Leopard, Sable, Sitatunga, Hartebeest, Lechwe, Bushbuck, Warthog & Oribi in Africa with it. It can take a wide variety/weight of animals.

I have used it on the larger animals in NA, and as a light rifle in Africa. My light rifle in America is a 25-06 (115 gr.) or 280 Rem. (140 gr/160 gr.), and my heavy rifle in Africa is a 404 Jeffery (430 gr. NF). I have used a number of calibers for my light rifles in Africa, and the Whelen has performed as well as the rest of them (25-06, 30-06, 338WM, 9.3x62, 9.3x66, 375 H&H).

Last year I took a 46” Buffalo in Zambia with my 9.3x66 with one heart shot (286 gr. NP). I feel I could have taken it just as well with a 35 Whelen using the 280 gr. SAF. I have quit taking the Whelen to Africa simply because it is not legal there for DG, only PG. Thank God for that, because I was going to shoot the Buffalo with my 404J, but the bull was 140 yds. away in the Bangweulu Swamp, a little long for my 404J, so I handed off the 404 to the tracker and went with my scoped 9.3, crawling on hands & knees until my PH and I were 140 yds. away with no more cover. As it was a 9.3, and Zambian law allows it for use on DG, I was legal for the game scout attached to us. A Whelen would not have been legal, but a lot of times the scout doesn’t care, but if you get one that does care, or is looking for a bribe to use it…

I love my 35 Whelens! I’d hunt anything in NA with it, including the big bears, and any PG in Africa. The largest PG in Africa is Eland (2,000-2,500 lbs.) and I would not hesitate to use it on them. I’d probably choose the 280 gr. SAF on that big animal, but hey, the Buffalo went down with one 286 gr. NP!

Thank you Mr. Whelen & Mr. Howe for a wonderful cartridge!

I'm getting groups like the bottom one with Hornady Inter-lok 200gr. RN and IMR 3031, a Ken Waters "most accurate load". Have taken several whitetails with that load, my rifle is a pre-64 Winchester M/70 rebored by Randall Redman about 35yrd. ago.