Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 35 Whelen 225 TSX can I hit 2700 fps?

Keep seeing post of members getting 35 Whelens up to 2700 fps with 225 gr TSX's, my best speed has been 2600 using 56 gr Varget or 60 gr of RL15 with the latter being very accurate.

Any other powder suggest other than compressing more in? No Presure sign on case or primer pocket.

I am shooting a Tikka T3 .270 Win rebored to 35 Whelen. It has been very accurate with most loads except with IMR 4064

thanks

Maybe if you use a 26 inch barrel, but 2700 FPS is pushing the string IMO...I really see no need to go beyond 2550 or 2600 and those are max loads IMO..brass will last longer at 2500 to 2550 and you won't be able to notice any difference in trajectory or killing effect as a 100 or so FPS changes nothing from a field perspective and not much on paper as a matter of fact.

But to each his own, there are guys out there that will squeeze evey last drop of velocity out of a caliber and they live on the edge all the time, I have done that myself, but not anymore.

In handloading, knowing where you are is the secret, and sometimes you can get some real fast velocity and still be in a reasonable safety margin, it just depends on your barrel, chamber and a number of other things..

To really know where you are you must know the pressure signs to look for and that usually begins with flatten primers, then a cratered primer, then a cratered primer with smudge ring around it or perhaps first a extractor mark, case head expansion byond .005 and that is max IMO but some say .015 (too much for me)..sticky bolts, and then by using a chronograph and using the above you can come up with a comparitive analysis that is pretty darn accurate IMO, any of these signs of pressure is a good reason to cut back a grain or two..some may not agree, and others live a life of fear in all they do! but it boils down to the above is all we have to make this determination, like it or not! It has worked for me for over 60 years. Variation can occur with differnt batches of brass as some is soft, some is hard, some is thin and some is thick, take that into consideration, and know how to cope with that..WW is thin and good, Rem is thick and good, use 1 gr. less in Rem..RWS is the best brass in the world and the most expensive, Norma is a tad soft but its good brass, Hornady, Federal, Frontier is all good stuff..Horneber is excellent and Bertram is not good at all except perhaps in old Win. cartridges Maybe..

I wouldn't worry about 100fps difference, especially when comparing to postings on the Internet. A 225 TSX @2600fps will get the job done nicely.

I have often noted that keyboard velocities and chronograph velocities have a tendency to be out of sync.

If you need a higher velocity, go to a magnum cartridge, don't exceed recommended loads / pressures. It's just not worth it.

old willys,

Are you willing to bet your eyesight, even your life, on obtaining a velocity someone posted anonymously on the internet?

-

If you really need higher velocity, put your screens a little closer together.

In August 2008 HL article JB's was getting 2750 from a 358 Win. and 200 TSX. Seems like it would be easier to get that speed from a 35 whelen due to bigger case.

Anyway the two loads I have are shooting tight groups so I am sticking to mt 225 gr at 2600...

Just out of curiosity, I fired up the old laptop and opened Load From a Disk (they don't offer it for Mac users, one of which I am now). Using data for 225 Nosler Partition in a 24" barrel:

Powder, Charge, Velocity (est), Pressure (est)

RL-15 60.7 gr 2,658 fps 52,207 (high pressure)
Varget 60.7 gr 2,645 fps 51,697 " "
H4895 60.7 gr 2,726 fps 54,790 " "
Benchmark 57.5 gr 2,682 fps 53,058 " "

Looks like getting to 2,700 is pushing it pretty hard. That's what I thought with my 9.3s and ended up using 250 ABs in the 2,600-2,650 range. YMMV as they say...

I'm getting 2717fps with a 200gn bullet and H4895 (22'brl). Not sure if I'd want to push a 225gn bullet that fast either.

Hitting the animal in the vitals is far more important that hitting 2700 f.p.s. You'd be surprised how dead that bullet can kill at 2600 f.p.s. After handloading for more than 35 years and worshipping the Gods of Velocity for most of them, I finally matured to the point of believing that achieving the ultimate in velocity is far over-rated. YMMV

GH

Are you getting any traditional pressure signs? Lightly loaded my long throated whelen will easily get 2700fps with the 225tsx. 63gr of varget and a magnum primer gets 2900fps. Don't anyone try this though! Whelens are really best suited to 250gr bullets. If you need flatter shooting get a 30 something or a range finder and correct as nessesary.

GH pretty much hit the nail square on the head.

A 225gr .358 bullet (especially a TSX) at 2500-2600 will take care of business. There's just no need to "hotrod" a Whelen IMHO.

WN

Take a look at the latest Nosler manual. They get 2800 with 225's--and yes, they do pressure test every round.

The .35 Whelen has always been underloaded because of so many old rifles. But the Nosler data is updated.

What Mule Deer said: That concurs with my experience.

Bob

www.bigbores.ca

I was never not impressed by the old 225 XFBs launched at lowly 2350-2400 fps from my 358.

I just went through this process from start to finish. It started with me reading about how it�s not hard to get 2700+ fps with 225TSX out of the 35 Whelen. I loaded some different loads with RL15 to try. At the range my loads started out at 2500 fps and going up � gr at a time I went up to 2600 with out any problems. That was 58.5gr of RL15, Rem brass and Fed 210M primers. From there on in half grain increments to 60gr velocity increased exactly zero. So in my Rem 700 Classic 58.5gr, 2600fps was it and I was good with that. As someone said, 100 fps is not at all important. What�s really interesting about this combination is that in all my years of loading this is probably the most accurate load/rifle combination I�ve experienced, truly amazing accuracy!

Now I said from start to finish. The finish was a nice 5 point Idaho bull three weeks ago.
The first shot, under far less than ideal conditions, landed high just missing the spine. The second was the old Texas heart shot that penetrated into the chest cavity putting him down for good. My first elk.


Dennis.

I use the 60 gr R15 load with 225 gr bullets but I don't get 2700 out of my 22 in barrel.

The factory TBBC load does 2640+_ very consistently from my Whelen.

My 60 gr R15 load with Noslers doesn't quite make 2600fps

61 grains should. I have some loaded.

58gr of Varget in my 22" Whelen gives me 2675fps with the 225gr TSX. Just finished reloading 20 rounds about 10 minutes ago for next week bison hunt.

Anybody load the 225gn Sierra or the 220gn Speer? How do they perform on game? My Whelen gets used on pigs mainly, though I've carried it for deer a few times this year, but not taken one. I tend to favour standard non-premium bullets.

What bullet do you guys run in your Whelens for smaller game like deer and pigs etc? I found some 200gn Corelokts but they are just about gone and I don't think they are offered as a component bullet anymore. There are the 200gn Hornadys but I thought I might go a 220/225gn bullet next.