Hi,

Not really a big bore for the big bore loonies but not a small one too. The Norma 35 Whelen is arrived after more than a year of waiting.
Norma just send me 2 boxes of 20 to test for accuracy and speed, then in driven hunt.

Loaded with 250grs (16,2g) Oryx bullet at 740m/s (around 2430fps)from a 24in barrel (factory spec) these cartridges may be a very good solution for the one who don't handload and has great beast on the menu. Oryx are really good bonded core bullet. Not the king of BC but good enough for a medium range cartridge and big game. I shot lots of big boars, red deers, mooses with Oryx. Only recovered one that went south to north on a very big wild boar. Stayed under sking after breaking right shoulder and traveling from hindquarter, through animal. Never a very spectacular bullet, it does'nt destroy to much meat.



When i come back from hunting next week i will do some measure. If you're interested stay tuned.

Dom

Nice. Do let us know how they work. Thanks,

JCM

I have several boxes of the 250gr Oryx bullet but to date haven't used them in the Whelen, only the 358 Win.

A former poster did quite well with his Whelen. Christer Hansson [cchunter at AR] put out a DVD "South African Adventures" before sidelined with a psychological personality disorder of some sort. "The Big Wiking" took plains game up to giraffe with no problem, his loadings were factory RHINO's from Sweden.

Dom, I would be very interested to see how they work out for you. Too bad they are quite hard to find here in Canada.

Very interesting and nice to finally see a pic of this ammunition. I'd noticed this cartridge listed on the Norma website and couldn't quite figure out why they were loading for it.

Any background as to how the Swedes arrived at their decision to go ahead and produce 35 Whelen ammo? No doubts as to its usefulness in hunting Scandanavia but it just seems to be an odd choice.

Sounds like a good load for the whelen.

pinotguy,

Norma doesn't load ammo just for hunters in Sweden.

In fact right now they're making a big effort to improve their sales in the U.S. with a line of Norma USA ammo. Oddly, however, their Norma USA website doesn't list the .35 Whelen,
but does have four 9.3x62 loads.

Marketed for those puzzies who can't handle a 358 Norma.

LOL!

John - owner of a .358 Norma, by the way! I can load it down to .38 Special revolver levels, or load it up until it makes my nose bleed! My .358 Norma (because of stock design) kicks much worse than my .375 Ouch & Ouch!

If I had to shoot factory I always thought that Federal nailed it with th 225 gr TBBC.

Hi pinotguy,

As i explained sometime ago and, even if it's difficult to admit for the american hunter, the 35Whelen as factory loading and factory made rifles (Rem 7600,7400,750)was kekp alive for most part because of its use in southern Europe (mostly France, but also Greece, some in Spain, Portugal and Italy)in our driven hunts where an heavy/medium heavy bullet has it's utility (don't want to enter discussion here, already done thousands of time by people who mostly never practiced these hunts or whose experience stand on two or three games shots in five years).

Norma is making case for other manufacturers in special calibers (Nosler, Federal, once for Winchester, Lapua, Sako, all the Weatherby cases and cartridges, Blaser and so on).

With the 35 Whelen and it's 250grs Oryx they adress to the hunters in Europe (first) and US (second)who don't handload and want a good expanding, well penetrating bullet, which is also designed from the start not to spoil too much meat. Think they don't push it in America because of price (Norma is expensive)and because most of 35 Whelen users in your country are handloaders who have custom or semi custom rifles and roll their own recipe. They sell cases too, and good one they are.

Just back from roe deer hunt and working a lot this week i don't have tested them yet for velocity and accuracy. Will do with rifles commonly used there: 7600, 750 and single shot H&R. Will post results waiting for real hunt season.

Dom

Thanks for your news writing frog! As a long time user of the .35 Whelen and admirer of the practicality of European and Skandinavian hunters, I welcome this addition to the loads available to hunters using the .35 Whelen worldwide.
My only small concern is why the wonderful Oryx 250 gr. bullet was restricted to less than 2500 FPS. Not that it really matters, but I have always loaded my Whelens to 2500FPS with 250 grain bullets. Many elk and moose have determined that it is a very deadly combination of bullet weight and penetration along with a versatile trajectory. If I was not a handloader, I would certainly order a case of this ammunition!