Ruger 35 Whelen Range Report

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I finally got my Lipsey's Ruger in 35 Whelen out to the range today. My rifle purchases are always leading my scope purchases, so it took a bit to get a scope mounted. I got some Alaskan Arms quick disconnecting rings and a Leupold VX-5HD 2-10 to complete the rig. After three shots with Hornady Superformance 200 grain ammo to sight in the scope, I shifted over to my handholds using 220 grain Power Hammer bullets and CFE 223. These were the first two three-shot groups with 0.5 grains difference in the loads. My velocities averaged 2833 fps and 2825.3 fps for these two.

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@Reg26
That's how a good Whelen shoots mate.
Bob

 

[F. Vaccaro]

@F. Vaccaro
You got the wrong Bob mate my wife's name is Judy.
Bob

Sorry, my mistake.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Nice. I have same rifle. Mine is liking the speer 250gr bullet with Varget. I have a couple boxes of the hornady super performance and its just too fast for my preference. I put leupold 1.5-5 on mine.

@professor
No such thing as to fast. Speer lists loads for the 250s at 2,700fps. Plenty of wallop.
Bob

 

[ZG47]

@F. Vaccaro
You got the wrong Bob mate my wife's name is Judy.
Bob

Nice lady, as well.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

I like the 225 Gr. bullets in my 35 Whelen. That being, said I wouldn't quibble over the 5 Gr. difference. With the kind of accuracy and velocity you are getting, I'd stop load development right now! Bob has been trying to convince me to shift from my IMR 4064 to CFE 223. My accuracy is about the same as yours, but my velocity is only 2730 FPS.

@Shootist43
Art one day you will give cfe223 a go it is written in the stars.
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

@ Mikelo thanks for your post of the Ruger #1 .35 Whelen with Hornady 250 grain bullets and Varget.
That's what I load, mid-range book load, not chrono, but it is accurate.

@cajunchefray
Mate try the 250s at full throttle of 2,700fps. Makes the Whelen a beast. Go hard or go home as we say. To many of them shrimp poboys is makin y'all soft mate. Stoke it up and have fun
Bob

 

[cash_tx]

"All the 143 owners will breath a sigh of relief as I can't hang shit on them as much"

I think calling it a "143" was intentional. ;-)

Btw, nice rifle and grouping!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

"All the 143 owners will breath a sigh of relief as I can't hang shit on them as much"

I think calling it a "143" was intentional. ;-)

Btw, nice rifle and grouping!

@cash_tx
It was intentional as I hate writing the number two before those other numbers. It makes me shudder thinking of it
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Nice lady, as well.

@ZG47
Thanks mate I think she is beautiful. We celebrated our 22nd anniversary on the 15th
Bob

 

[professor]

@professor
No such thing as to fast. Speer lists loads for the 250s at 2,700fps. Plenty of wallop.
Bob

From what Ive read, the Speer bullets perform better moving slower. Im just going to continue what Im doing. Maybe when I run out of powder, I will have to change.

 

[Uxas]

35 Whelen is a good cartridge, good enough for any game animal on the American continents. That said, there is not a lot of factory ammo available, and those tend to be 200 gr bullets unless you look hard for the 235s or 250s. Seems like a lot of people don't like getting thumped by their rifles (cue the 6.5 Creedmore fan boys), especially when very feeble cartridges can slay Bambi just fine. For elk, 300 Win Mag rules the roost, but there is plenty of room for the less common cartridges. I have hunted with 7X57 for years, although dabbling with 7mm Rem Mag, 8mm Rem Mag, 338 Win Mag, 375 H&H, and a few really odd oes. All of them kick too hard, but they are great to hunt with in spite of that. So, if you want a 35 Whelen, get one, scratch that itch. It might stick, it might not. But if you don't try it, you will never know, and it will bug you forever. So I say do it!

 

[F. Vaccaro]

@ZG47
Thanks mate I think she is beautiful. We celebrated our 22nd anniversary on the 15th
Bob

Hope it was a very happy anniversary Bob!

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

From what Ive read, the Speer bullets perform better moving slower. Im just going to continue what Im doing. Maybe when I run out of powder, I will have to change.

@professor
The 250gn Speer worked just fine in Namibia at full throttle in plains game
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

35 Whelen is a good cartridge, good enough for any game animal on the American continents. That said, there is not a lot of factory ammo available, and those tend to be 200 gr bullets unless you look hard for the 235s or 250s. Seems like a lot of people don't like getting thumped by their rifles (cue the 6.5 Creedmore fan boys), especially when very feeble cartridges can slay Bambi just fine. For elk, 300 Win Mag rules the roost, but there is plenty of room for the less common cartridges. I have hunted with 7X57 for years, although dabbling with 7mm Rem Mag, 8mm Rem Mag, 338 Win Mag, 375 H&H, and a few really odd oes. All of them kick too hard, but they are great to hunt with in spite of that. So, if you want a 35 Whelen, get one, scratch that itch. It might stick, it might not. But if you don't try it, you will never know, and it will bug you forever. So I say do it!

@Uxas
My Whelen with 225s is a kittens caress but the bigger bullets aren't to bad either. All to do with gun fit
Bob

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Hope it was a very happy anniversary Bob!

@F. Vaccaro
Thanks mate it was a very happy anniversary with my beautiful wife
Bob

 

[professor]

Todays range work. Ruger hawkeye african 35 whelen. This batch used Fiocchi lr primers. Ive ran out of the Rem 9 1/2 that have been good for me. The 64gr load which is Speers max offered a 2 gr spread in the first 3 shots. Chronograph garmin xero c1.
CFE 223 definitely gets it going faster than Varget but my barrel is slower than Speer lists. The max load according to Speer should go 2600+.
accuracy was MOA with 64 gr. 62.5 was 2nd best , not sure what happened at 63 and 63.5gr. 62 gr had much blowback, black stuff, over case neck.
Primers look good at max. Thinking I can load bullets out to fit throat better and maybe bump charge a bit. Its also possible that the Hornady 250gr bullet might perform better. I have 300 of them, but not tested yet.

 

[Captain Munro]

Good information. I just bought one of these and a couple boxes of factory ammo to try. Rifle gets in tomorrow. Thinking about putting my Leupold VX3HD 2-8 on it for now and using it for deer hunting this fall.

 

[209hunter]

Good information. I just bought one of these and a couple boxes of factory ammo to try. Rifle gets in tomorrow. Thinking about putting my Leupold VX3HD 2-8 on it for now and using it for deer hunting this fall.

Mine shoots the 200gn TTSX factory load and the 200 gn Hornady Interlock factory load well, right at MOA. I put a Leupold 2.5-8x36 on mine and I think that’s about the perfect scope for this rifle. I’ll be using this rifle with the 200gn TTSX for whitetails this fall.

 

[Captain Munro]

I got a box of each of those coming my way. I meant 2.5-8, that's the scope I have waiting. Probably going to get those Alaska Arms rings too.

 

[Bob Nelson 35Whelen]

Mine shoots the 200gn TTSX factory load and the 200 gn Hornady Interlock factory load well, right at MOA. I put a Leupold 2.5-8x36 on mine and I think that’s about the perfect scope for this rifle. I’ll be using this rifle with the 200gn TTSX for whitetails this fall.

@209hunter
Forgit the TTSX fer deer. Expensive bullet that may be a bit hard for soft little Bambi
Just stuck with a nice 225 gn cup and core.
You will find you get more emphatic kills on smaller game like deer. The 225 gn Sierra spbtgk is a good bullet. Loaded with a healthy dose of cfe223 I get 2,880fps in my Whelen. Shoots flat enough out to 400 and plenty of power.
Bob