Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 35 Whelen, heard a rumor on misfires and marginal shoulder???

Long ago a local gun nut, who does a reloading business, etc. advised the Whelen could cause issues on headspace IIRC due to smaller shoulder than say a 338/06 and it was concern for misfires.

Any truth? Not really heard that since, but it always stuck in my mind and just wondering. Perhaps it was due to various reamers/dies, etc..

Thanks Whelen fans.

I believe that is said of the .400 Whelen, not the .35.

Yes, you are correct. It is a rumor, nothing more.

As long as the chamber is cut right, whether the 35, 375 or 400 Whelen, with the correct shoulder measurements, there is no problem. I shoot a 411 Hawk, kind of a 400 Whelen AI, and have not experienced any shoulder or headspace issues.

Will that take 41 pistol bullets? The 411? Seems someone makes a solid brass or copper flat nose for that big bore, outta slam game eh?

That old turkey was proved erroneous in the 1920s. It was only a rumor, a calumny perpetrated by folks with duffel-bag mouths, tightly puckered anuses, and oral diarrhea.

Both the .35 Whelen and the .400 Whelen have quite enough shoulder � especially if you fire-form your parent cases first.

I haven't tried it on the 35 whelen, but if you get 35 remington ammo wet(drop it in the snow) it will misfire about half the time. The water around the chamber shoulder cushions the firing pin blow. a lot of the rifles 35 remingtons are commonly chambered in have fairly light hammer strikes(marlin 336's)compared to a modern bolt action.

My .444 Marlin Rimless uses '06 brass (trimmed and blown-out) and headspaces quite adequately on the mouth of the case, like the .45 ACP and the .423 OKH.

If enough water fits in the chamber to stop the cartridge from firing, you have a lot bigger issue than dampness.

Whelens have way too much size to the neck-shoulder contrast for any form of the issues alleged nearly a century ago to actually apply. It was silly then and it's a whole lot sillier now.

Dennis

That's an old rumor that refuses to die and is completely false. I have never had a failure to fire in my .35 Whelen.

If you tell the same lie over and over, someone will start to believe it. Comes from the politicians playbook.

Headspace is headspace; you either have it or you don't, some make things too hard. The Whelens "don't have enough" but all manner of autos, even a 338 version for the Win SL go off of a case mouth?

Funny.

Th Barnes 170 XPB runs from the 400 Whelen superfast and looks about like a half dollar when it slams into stuff.

It still retains over 95 percent of its weight....

Oh, never ever had any headspace from either the 35 or 400 Whelens, but then I shoot both a lot...

I think the rumours have some basis in truth ... sort of. When the Whelen was a wildcat, there would have been a lot of chambers cut to various dimensions. That raises the spectre of a problem. Add that much factory ammunition is undersize, sometimes extremely so (aids smooth feeding) and you have the potential for problems when combined with a generous or over dimensioned chamber.
Cheers...
Con

You know what. The Whelen is totally worthless, what with the Failures, misfires. Just leave us alone, to enjoy this marvelous calbre.

With the 35 Whelen, if the cases are sized correctly for the chamber, then you will not have issues with headspace or light primer strikes. The thing is, the same is true of ALL cartridges. If the rifle's chamber is longish, you might have to back the sizing die out a bit for a good fit in the chamber, but again, nothing different than 30-06 or any other bottleneck round. Poor reloading technique can screw-up any loaded round, even the 35 Whelen.

Whelenman, great sense of pride and attitude sir! LOL.

Guys, great info their, I feel comfortable about the Whelen now putting that to rest, having always loved the 350RM for what it does in a SA, this is just the same in a long action and perhaps a tad more, w/one more in the mag, and easy to find/form brass.

While I have your attention, would it be safe to assume the same powders and charges/relatively are used in both the 350 RM and the Whelen?

Speaking of die setting, I tend to partial size everything, does that maximize reliable ignition on all rounds theoretically speaking?

Appreciate the info guys. Dennis, you hunting that mannlicher 338F this season? I'd be REAL tempted to own that set up if Ruger ever became so inclined...

Most autoloading pistol cartridges headspace on the mouth of the case and belted magnums were designed to headspace on the belt even though most people adjust their dies to headspace on the shoulder. There is no comparison with those designs vs. the amount of shoulder on either the .35 or .400 Whelen.

It goes w/out saying that if the chamber is cut too deep or you push the shoulder back too far while resizing you can probably cause ignition difficulties but those situations are totally independent of the size of the shoulder.
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NRA Patron

That lack of shoulder causing misfires has been floating around for decades claiming the firing pin drives the case into the throat. Now that would be one hell of a firing pin IMO. It was BS then and still is..Even the 400 Whelan can be depended on to fire..

Some self imposed genious scribbed that in some Outdoor Magazine and other scribs accepted it as valid and it has been in print since that time, the printed word taken as the Golden Rule, which in more than a few case it is not..

Too many firearms expert are et plumb up in techincalities and figure something out that makes since to them, take it as gospel, without doing any testing and that is what we have here. It happens a lot, and the rumors surrounding the double rifles are plumb comical, but you would be surprised how many accept them as fact.

Ruger made a special run of whelens back in the middle 90's if I recall correctly. They used boat paddle stocks, blued steel and open sights on them. For whatever reason, I remember a bunch of folks who were griping about issues with those particular rifles, but of course Ruger made it right when they sent them back. I have never heard of anyone having that type trouble with the Remingtons in CDL or classic guise.

I had quite a few misfires with handloads put up in new Winchester brass in my Ruger 77 in .358 Win. The shoulder configuration is about the same as the Whelen.

The headspace of the rifle is proper, primers were properly seated and firing pin protrusion was in spec . I can only opine that the virgin brass was a bit short in the head to shoulder measurement. It could make a guy wonder if the cartridge design is flawed.

I put a heavier striker spring in the bolt but still had a few (but less than before) misfires. I haven't had any problem with reloads using previously fired brass, so the misfires had to be caused by a problem with the dimensions of the virgin brass.