How many people have a 35 whelen?

[Rick Cox]

I guess if I had asked for a rifle to shoot a good, tough 225 or 250 grain 35 caliber bullet accurately with a 2500 fps MV, for an average range shot of 75-100 yards on an animal of elk size and toughness, I could not have found a flaw in going with the Whelen. However, that would have been a pretty narrow range of ideal circumstances and I never asked that question- simple as that. When I had two of them I was asking questions like, "what is the ideal 300 yard pronghorn or mule deer or caribou caliber in my safe or what one caliber/rifle would work best for impala and wildebeest and kudu and eland and buffalo?"

75 Yards?? You are just pulling @Bob Nelson 35Whelen chain, or you have never actually examined the Whelen's ballistics.

 

[crs]

CEH,
My double rifles all begin with a 4. as do some of my lever guns.
My mid size rifles includes .308, .338, 357,

 

[leslie hetrick]

i shot a cow buffalo with a older MS rifle in 9.2x62 and it didn,t complain, 250 gr barns x at 2400+ fps, a 35 whelen would have done the same thing with a 250 gr bullet a the same speed.

 

[C.W. Richter]

My neighbor has a 35 whelen Ackley improved it's very nice but I can't play keep up with the Joneses so I have a 350 Remington Magnum and a 33806 LOL

 

[freefall]

I will reiterate. When I was putting together my Alaskan Guide Rifle I put a 19" barrel on a Mauser 98 action in .35 Whelan. Why? Because 5 rds of 250 gr at 2500 fps equals a metric shit ton more horsepower than 3 rd of 250 gr at 2650 fps when one is following a blood trail into an alder patch.

 

[freefall]

I will reiterate. When I was putting together my Alaskan Guide Rifle I put a 19" barrel on a Mauser 98 action in .35 Whelan. Why? Because 5 rds of 250 gr at 2500 fps equals a metric shit ton more horsepower than 3 rd of 250 gr at 2650 fps when one is following a blood trail into an alder patch.

contradict me, iffen you have the experience.

 

[CoElkHunter]

@318AE
I have a soft spot for a lot of old midbores. As a kid I fell in love with the 318WR and 350 Rigby and always wanted a 404 and a Schultz and Larson 7x61 Sharpe and hart.
Alas I will never have any so I chose the 35 Whelen. Closest I could get to a 350 rigby and be able to afford it. It is as close as I could get and is an awesome round. It give an insight into what the old cartridges were really capable of and how well they worked. To me it's a shame the new cartridges have overshadowed some of the old that have the same capabilities.
Bob

Bob,
With all the flak and teasing your subject to with your promotion of and espousing the accolades of the .35 Whelen, I have to say I do admire a certain “economy of scale” with regards to not only the Whelen, but the .358 Winchester and .35/.303 (don’t remember the wildcat name). By that I mean, plentiful, inexpensive military cartridges (and thus reloadable brass) adapted for hunting with better bullets. Then, you neck them up to .35 with an appropriate bullet and you have now an original military cartridge that can now take very large game animals. Many other cartridges have done the same thing, but not with the quantity of the inexpensive military brass available back in the day.
CEH

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

My neighbor has a 35 whelen Ackley improved it's very nice but I can't play keep up with the Joneses so I have a 350 Remington Magnum and a 33806 LOL

@C.W. Richter
Close enough mate both are good.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Bob,
With all the flak and teasing your subject to with your promotion of and espousing the accolades of the .35 Whelen, I have to say I do admire a certain “economy of scale” with regards to not only the Whelen, but the .358 Winchester and .35/.303 (don’t remember the wildcat name). By that I mean, plentiful, inexpensive military cartridges (and thus reloadable brass) adapted for hunting with better bullets. Then, you neck them up to .35 with an appropriate bullet and you have now an original military cartridge that can now take very large game animals. Many other cartridges have done the same thing, but not with the quantity of the inexpensive military brass available back in the day.
CEH

@CoElkHunter
The 35/303 in Australia was called the 35 Territorian, as bout the same as a 38/55 in the old SMLEs.
Bob

 

[CoElkHunter]

I have a .35 Whelen, but I also have a .35 Remington, a .358 Winchester, a 9X57 Mauser, a .350 Rigby Magnum, a .358 Norma Magnum, a .350 G&H Magnum and a .35 Brown Improved Whelen, with a .400/.350 Rigby and a .350 No. 2 Rigby in the works. Do I seem to have a preference for .35 Caliber?

Yes, very impressive collection of .35s. When you finally build a .35 Territorian (Bob said) (.35/.303), you will have reached Shangri-la in the .35 cartridge world. Good luck and God speed!

 

[Daga Boy]

I have a 358 Norma Mag and love it! If I didn’t already have a 35 I would definitely have a 35 Whelen!

.358 Norma Mag is arguably the best all-round African calibre ever invented. Just a pity that they are so hard to come by.

 

[Cousin Bongo]

@Cousin Bongo
Love the idea of the scout style set up. All you need is the 10 round mag and it would fulfill all the criteria..
Only thing is it would spoil the beautiful clean lines of your rifles. They are very nice.
Bob

Thanks, Bob. You're very kind.

Both rifles are pseudo-Scouts but I like them. (FWIW, there is actually no 10 round magazine criteria requirement for a Scout rifle.) I took the second rifle (the one with the walnut stock) to the Sconce and showed it to Jeff Cooper and he was okay with it as a pseudo-Scout, which is how I presented it. (I was friends with Jeff and took several of my Scout attempts to him over the years for critique and evaluation.)

I really like the 35 Whelen. It was my go-to cartridge for a number of years when I lived in Alaska...until the late Don Johnson, during one of our conversations out a Bear Lake Lodge, recommended I give the 375 H&H a whirl due to its greater capability and international résumé. (I built a 375 H&H pseudo-Scout and it became, and remains, my go-to medium bore. This one:

)

CB

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Bob,
With all the flak and teasing your subject to with your promotion of and espousing the accolades of the .35 Whelen, I have to say I do admire a certain “economy of scale” with regards to not only the Whelen, but the .358 Winchester and .35/.303 (don’t remember the wildcat name). By that I mean, plentiful, inexpensive military cartridges (and thus reloadable brass) adapted for hunting with better bullets. Then, you neck them up to .35 with an appropriate bullet and you have now an original military cartridge that can now take very large game animals. Many other cartridges have done the same thing, but not with the quantity of the inexpensive military brass available back in the day.
CEH

@CoElkHunter
The 35/303 in Australia was called the 35 Territorian, as bout the same as a 38/55 in the old SMLEs.
Bob

Yes, very impressive collection of .35s. When you finally build a .35 Territorian (Bob said) (.35/.303), you will have reached Shangri-la in the .35 cartridge world. Good luck and God speed!

@CoElkHunter
If you build a 35/303 on my case design for my 25 and put it in a P14 it will go close to the Whelen.
Bob

 

[fourfive8]

75 Yards?? You are just pulling @Bob Nelson 35Whelen chain, or you have never actually examined the Whelen's ballistics.

Nonsense! Have had two of them. After reading what you guys say about the Whelen it’s darn near a 9.3 because of the SD potential with heavier bullets… which reading the stuff about the 9.3 is darn near a 375 because of the SD potential of heavier bullets and so and so forth. So logic therefore dictates the Whelen is really darned near the equal to the 375. Whatever anyone thinks… no argument from me. Bob’s OP asked a simple question about who owns a Whelen? I’ve owned two. worked up loads in both with multiple bullets, powders and used a chronograph. Shot them a lot, then sent them down the road. My opinion remains unchanged. The Whelen is not a bad cartridge. But IMO it seems to be kind of a Jack of all trades but master of none- sorry

 

[ducmarc]

U know I have a nice fn Mauser in 06.fla is flooded with 06's so no one gives it a second look.could send it to Jess and have him stretch the barrel out and then have another caliber to monkey with.

 

[ducmarc]

But I do have a set of 358 Norma dies

 

[CoElkHunter]

@CoElkHunter
The 35/303 in Australia was called the 35 Territorian, as bout the same as a 38/55 in the old SMLEs.
Bob

@CoElkHunter
If you build a 35/303 on my case design for my 25 and put it in a P14 it will go close to the Whelen.
Bob

Bob,
If it's your case design, it must be the .35/.303 Nelson Improved? I think I'd still rather build a .35/7.7 Jap, eventually to be known as a .35 Banzai Nelson Express on a good, strong Arisaka 99 action. Apparently they are much stronger actions than the Mauser 98 or P14 actions according to you per a previous post somewhere here regarding P.O. Ackley's experiments with rifle action strengths.
CEH

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Bob,
If it's your case design, it must be the .35/.303 Nelson Improved? I think I'd still rather build a .35/7.7 Jap, eventually to be known as a .35 Banzai Nelson Express on a good, strong Arisaka 99 action. Apparently they are much stronger actions than the Mauser 98 or P14 actions according to you per a previous post somewhere here regarding P.O. Ackley's experiments with rifle action strengths.
CEH

@CoElkHunter
You could always call it the Arizona Elk Slayer.
Or the th 35 sushi
Bob

 

[Rob404]

If you want better performance try 60.5 grains of varget and a 225gn accubond. Or the following
View attachment 415162
Or try speers online loads with the 250 grain hotcore for 2,700fps
Bob

With the air quality being so bad here in Ludifisk land and my lungs still not up to par because of Covid I decided to do a little scope swap. I took my 3x15 ED glass Nikon and put it on my 375 Whitworth and take the Leupold VX5HD 3x15 and put on the Remington 35 Whelen, I'm Convinced that the Whelen will be the rifle I take to Namibia in 2023.Of course this means I need to sight the Remington in again but all I have left are 250g Speers. I have been doing my research but maybe you already have a hot set up for me. I like Velocity but not at the expense of accuracy, so what do you guys think?

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

With the air quality being so bad here in Ludifisk land and my lungs still not up to par because of Covid I decided to do a little scope swap. I took my 3x15 ED glass Nikon and put it on my 375 Whitworth and take the Leupold VX5HD 3x15 and put on the Remington 35 Whelen, I'm Convinced that the Whelen will be the rifle I take to Namibia in 2023.Of course this means I need to sight the Remington in again but all I have left are 250g Speers. I have been doing my research but maybe you already have a hot set up for me. I like Velocity but not at the expense of accuracy, so what do you guys think?

@Rob404
Here's a load for the 250s that is both very potent and accurate.
Bob

2,700 fps That should get your attention