Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .35 Whelen for whitetail deer..................

Anyone hunt whitetails with .35 Whelen? What is your preferred load?

Lot of folks run them around here in single shots for primitive weapon season. Popular load seems to be 59-60gr RL15 under a 225 Sierra GK or NAB.

Contact Shaman. He and Steelhead have run the Whelen at whitetails.

they WAYYYYYY over penetrate

I've used both the 225 Sierras and Nosler Partitions at 2600 fps and blood trails look like someone put them down with a garden hose. The 200 gr. Hornady SP does the same at just over 2600 fps.

I shot two mule deer bucks with mine. One with 225 Sierra at about 250 yards and the other with 250 Speer GS at 100 yds. Both pretty much went straight down. very little meat damage too. I load 250 Speer hot core for everything.

Don't overlook the Speer 220 grain. It has killed lots of deer for me out of a 350 rem mag. Can't go wrong with the Sierra 225 either.

I've used Remington factory 200's and 250's. Either will work, but I recommend the 200's. I've shot 2 bucks head on while still hunting, one in the chest and one in the neck. Neither took a step. In both cases I recovered the 200 bullet in the rear ham on the opposite side. I don't think the factory Rem 200's are loaded very hot so that might be why they penetrate so far...but it's deer, with a 200 grain bullet you only need so much.

I've shot several broadside, shoulders drop them immediately with either bullet. Heart/lung shots with the 200's work well. The only 250 I put through the lungs was a long run...blood trail Ray Charles could follow, but it was still a long trail.

My days of slaying deer with the Whelen are over but have used Sierra, Accubond, Ballistic Tip & TSX - all 225's with various charges of R15. Never caught one.

Not a 35W. But I use a 338-06 works about the same.

Slenk,

I have a .338-284, thinking about using it on WT's.

What bullet(s) do you prefer?

DF

225 NPT deer or elk don't matter works perfect and doesn't blow the crap out of your eating. Magnum Man

Hi guys!
35 Whelen? I love it. I love my Rem 7600 too. I call it the Whelenizer. However, I load mine down to milder levels using H4895 and a 200 Grain Rem SPCL. It ends up being more like a 358 WIN , and the recoil is like a full-house 30-06.

One thing to remember: my Whelenizer does not kill deer any deader than a 30-06. Sometimes I get DRT. Sometimes they run a bit. I was expecting something more I guess. I usually pull the Whelenizer out late season for freezer filling duty. In the past 10 years, it has accounted for more dead deer than any of my other rifles. I've shot deer out past 150 yards with it. I've shot at deer that stuck their heads in the blind. It's all good-- loud, but good.

The rounds are considerably more expensive to load than 30-06. So I have tagged the Whelenizer as my first rifle for use with cast bullets. I have a 200 grain RCBS mould, and I may or may not get to the project before this deer season. When it's done, I'll have 35 REM-ish performance. With whitetal, that's probably all I need.

Here's a bunch of stuff I've written about the 35 Whelen since 2005.
The shaman and the 35 Whelen

Nice web site and great photos.

DF

Dirtfarmer
used to hunt with a feller that had a 338-284 he liked 180gr NABs real well. killed a lot of Deer and Elk with it.
I use 225 NABs in the 338-06 works on most anything I've shot.

A 225 grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw will go lengthwise through a deer taking out the near side shoulder and exiting the back hip. You aren't likely to have penetration issues.

I load a speer 250 grain over 53 grains of imr 4320, and a fed 215 primer, in my rem 7600 slide action, for everything, because it did and does a very effective job and produced ans still does produce consistent small groups and consistent results from deer too elk, and for the first few years I took a bit of good Natured kidding, about that load being over kill or not good for long range , but as it consistently proved effective it won converts and now theres 3 guys in our elk camp regularly carrying 35 whelens and using those hand loads

Always heard the .35 was the preferred food for an amish machinegun.

My .338-284 really likes the 180 NAB, so that may be the one to use.

Alpha Arms Alaskan, factory chambering.

DF

Yes. 53.5 grains of IMR 4064 with a 250 grain Nosler Partition 0.035" off the lands.