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The 35 Whelen, a Range Report
Andries interest in the venerable 35 Whelen got me looking at my inventory of ammunition and I found that I was lacking greatly, down to my last 23 rounds in fact. I haven’t reloaded for it in quite some time and as I have opened a couple eight pound jugs of H4350 since then, a range session was in order to see if the newest jug shot any different than the last. My load is not in any book so I won’t list it here other than to say a 250 grain Hornady Spire point Interlock compresses the powder enough to make it “squeak” when I seat the bullet.
My rifle is a Remington 700 BDL that I purchased back in 1988 and has been a favorite for elk hunting since then. It’s topped with a vintage Simmons 3-9X40 in Weaver mounts. The rifle has a few “character dings” it received during a couple tumbles on slick, snow covered hillsides and from a horse wreck when we both took a tumble with the horse landing on the rifle while it was in the scabbard. Here it is shown in my “Bob”sled (it weighs 47 pounds and can tame even the most savage of beasts)
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This rifle has always shot well and this range session proved to be no different, with the new loads printing exactly where the last ones did, 3 inches high at 100 yards. My 35 Whelen is no bench gun. Weighing only 7 ½ pounds with scope and shooting 250 grain bullets at 2470 feet per second it will get your attention, but the saying “I don’t feel recoil when shooting at game” is very true.
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Not “our” best group, but as I said, from the bench she’s a handful and as I was shooting from only sandbags this particular day, I feel I should get a pass as "we" had also been shooting at my 9 inch steel plates out to 400 yards for practice. She doesn't recoil nearly as bad shooting from sticks, standing or sitting.
Happy Hunting and Safe Shooting!
Allen Oliver
Beautiful rifle. That group is good - we know from the hunting rifle Group Shooting competitions here that all rifles are way way tighter shooters than 50% of shooters are.
Shooting distances here means that a 1.8" high at 100 metres (110 yards) will allow you to aim dead on the heart anywhere at anything you hunt. Bringing a .35 Whelen to Africa with US ammunition I would use no other bullet than a 250gr Federal Fusion or the Hornady Interlock / Interbond no matter what you plan to hunt.
The 250 gr bullet will equal 30-06 trajectory and penetration with 220 gr but will put more impact mass into the shoulder mass of an eland - the test for any big game cartridge. Trajectory and penetration will also be the same as the 7x57 with 175 gr.
No hunting rifle should be a bench gun and that 7.5 lb is just perfect. I would love to hunt and shoot an eland with that rifle. In the whole of South Africa I could not locate a single .35 Whelen during my search for one to test a new 284 gr bullet I had planned.
In testing this load, rifle and scope combination I've learned that sighting it in 3 inches high at 100 will result in a 230 yard "zero" and the bullet will impact between 7 and 9 inches low at 300 yards. I have taken one elk at a measured 370 yards, but without the practice on my steel plates I would not have taken that shot. Building one's own ammunition, tailoring it to your rifle and relentless testing under "hunting" conditions and shooting situations was the key to that elk being harvested cleanly.
As an aside . . . . I have never recovered a bullet from any animal harvested using the 250 grain Hornady spire point Interlock. All have been complete pass throughs.
Allen
Than you Allen for the post.
Yes, the Interlock is a good bullet. Recovering left over bits of bullet while eating due to the silly,,,,, self destructing projectiles that divest themselves of themselves is still a source for wonderment out here.
Both the 100 metre 1.8" setting and the suggestion for Federal Fusion bullets out here is because I shall get you to 200 metres or less to anything we hunt - and mostly to less than 100; and at 100 the damage from even an interlock is more than our eyes like. :-)
I was hoping to see you holding that nice little rifle in your hands.
It would look like a gorilla holding a matchstick but I will try and oblige.
Muzzle energy is a measly 3333 ft lbs (4518 joules)