Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Whelen or 9.3x62 on a M700 action?

Open that face up and do a .375 Ruger. Like a boss.

Smart man!

Is that from personal experience?

Yeah, my new lathe has unreal runout and is crazy beefy. The only obstacle (for through the headstock work at least) is a deep headstock. So, I designed a tool, based loosely on one a Mr. Shelly Davidson built, that let's me engage the muzzle deep in the headstock and make extremely precise adjustments to that end of the barrel to get things as coax as possible.

Just messing with a takeoff tube I have on hand, and my 4-jaw, it works extremely well. The solid steel center shaft in the tool pivots up in the nose of the tool body, on a bronze ball joint I made, and gives me ~ .010" of adjustment potential in every direction, at the muzzle, while staying very rigid and tight. Which is a LOT, considering that the main dial-in happens up at the chuck. Works like a champ!

I'm picking up the material to make a 4-screw spider chuck that bolts right to the spindle nose. Essentially making a small, thick backplate. That'll be easier than wrestling the 12" 4-jaw onto the lathe. That thing is heavy.

Got most of the other tooling made, that I can make at least.

So yes, I am planning on chambering it in my lathe. Sorry for the long post. I get geeky about this stuff.

The tool (on the bottom there):



It is custom-fitted to the spindle ID and locked in place by a 4-screw collar. Not something for high-RPM work but chambering isn't that.



I'm sure there will be no shortage of stuff to learn the hard way yet to come, but I'm excited to take my lumps. And I've got 3 rifles in the safe volunteering for the hazardous duty.........

if you decide to go 35 whelen I have a reamer you can borrow. Mine is done.


I don't plan on doing another one in the near future so you are welcome to use it.

Well, there's a vote for the Whelen right there!

Go with the Whelen and get a 1:10 twist so you can handle the 275 & 310gr Woodleighs.

Otherwise, a 225gr AB at 2700fps using only 61gr of powder is a nice gig.

Go big .400 Whelen and forget the rest.

Isn't Hawk into those .400 Whelens?

I have never messed with the .35 Whelen, but I am running both a 9.3x62 and a 9.3x74R. With 250-grain ABs at 2,648 fps, the ballistic calculator in my PACT chrono shows a 20-inch drop at 400 yds with the rifles sighted in 3 inches high at 100 yds. It shows remaining velocity at 400 yds as 2,123 fps.

I have never shot either of mine out to 400, but the drop out to 300 seems to match up pretty well with the results predicted by the PACT unit. I would feel comfortable to shooting to 300, or even 350 where the drop is approximately 12 inches and the remaining velocity is right at 2,200 fps. So far, no I have had no need to shoot that far.

That I like!

Dober

Let me see-----------Whelen!!!!!

Do not know but a .400 Whelen would be the cats meow in the elk woods. It would just THUMP them critters!

Mark,correct me if I'm wrong,but a .400 Whelen is as big you can go with a .30-06 case,and Elmer Keith had one made by Hoffman Arms back in the 30's or 40's. Would love to see Jeff O do a .400 Whelen.

Yeah, not much shoulder on those .400's.

You could always open the bolt face and roll a 416 Taylor. I did one once upon a time and loved it. Heck of a yote round...grin

Dober

You already have a 358 Win, I'd go 338/06

I've always wanted a .416 Taylor.

Been hunting them both along with the 338-06 for many years. My pick of the three is the Whelen. If I need a "legal" rifle in Africa it will be larger than the 9.3.

The Hawk round is called .411Hawk IIRC.
As much as I like my Whelans, I'd go 338-06.
My dear brother has mine so I may need to set up another.

The "three feet holdover" figure for the 9.3 isn't realistic if you're a handloader. Run the numbers for a 250gr Nosler Accubond at 2600fps. You'll likely have a drop number you can live with at 400 yards.

Of the two I'd do the 9.3.