35 Whelen

[bullshot]

Just acquired a Rem 700 in 35 Whelen. Looking for a mold that would work well in that caliber. looking at Lyman's 358315. Anyone with any experience with that boolit or any other suggestions?

[felix]

358315 is good one. A better one is Saeco 356. 395 might even be better. All nominal 200 grainers work extremely well with your 16 twist. In a good barrel, they will shoot 1 inch or better at 2400. Take the 180 grainer 395 lookalike on up to 2600 for a delightful target. ... felix

[NVcurmudgeon]

With your Remington's 1:16 twist avoid the 250 gr. and longer boolits. 358315 has given mixed results in my 1:16 Lilja .35 Whelen, better is a discontinued NEI clone of 315 with less taper on the nose. Best is RCBS 200358, which will cast 205-210 gr. in wheelweights. At the recent Nevada Cast bullet shoot my Whelen placed first with a 1.19" five shot 100 yd. group. This is not an isolated incident, though "Jezebel" often wins in other hands.

[358wcf]

Recommend you try the RCBS 200 gr FP GC mold- as noted above, it usually drops at about 210gr with most alloys-- this mold is readily available, and works really well in my 358Win with 1in16 PacNor barrel. I've recently acquired several molds in 35 cal for heavier boolits in the 240-250 gr range (Lyman and Saeco), as well as a 358009 Lyman, but haven't had time to break them in yet-- gotta find the time.
Good luck with an outstanding cartridge for cast boolits in a well-made rifle!

358wcf

[Dean D.]

I have had good luck with the 358318 with my .35 Whelen.

[James C. Snodgrass]

The 358315 over a case full of wc - 860 gets me about 2000 fps from my 24" barrel and shoots MOA,a great combo . James:cbpour:

[softpoint]

I use both the Lyman 200 gr, and the Saeco 245 gr. in my .358's, but they have 1/14 twist.:cbpour:

[Le Loup Solitaire]

Hi, The Lyman 358315 as already stated is a good choice, but make sure that it is not undersize as recently Lyman is specializing in running their mold cutting cherries down to the absolute minimums. Undersize molds will/would have to be lapped out or else beagled as undersize yields leading and/or slumped in the bore bullets that group badly. While several other bullets (molds) also do well, the king of the casts for 35Whelan is 358009, a round nose bomber that not only shoots accurately, but when loaded up around 1900-2000fps will ventilate any size game that you might encounter in the western hemisphere. Problem is, they discontinued making it some time ago and the only place it ocasionally pops up is on E-Pay and the bidding goes plumb crazy. Understanding the Lyman mentality and rationale when it comes to (discontinuing) bullet molds has never been clear to me or some other folks and trying to talk to anyone in Lymantown about it is like trying to fold a newspaper in a hurricane. I have an older version of the mold stamped 3589 in a single cavity and it shoots very well in my Whelan which has a 1:12 twist. Nice thing about the whelan is you can also load bullets ordinarily used in 38 spl/.with light(er) charges for short range plinking or practice. LLS

[Bret4207]

The above posts are right on, especially the RCBS 35-200 and Lyman 358318. Don't forget all those fun revolver boolit designs. Very useful and light recoiling, saves on powder and lead and turns the Whelen into an all around rifle.

[bullshot]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I sure do appreciate them. Gives me a whole new bunch of ideas. Lyman is only a few miles from my home. I have had some issues with some or their molds and had the occasion to bring them to their facility. A trip there might shed some light on what comes out of there.

[felix]

I've been there often enough to go directly into the back room where they do mold repair, etc. I traded off molds back and forth until I got what shooted' in my guns. All used molds, and they had just about any mold you could want including some never put into literature of any sort. Experimental, I assume. Back in 1972,73. ... felix