35 Whelen Progress Report

[TXGunNut]

Ol' Ugly is starting to enjoy life as a 35 Whelen more these days, seems she's finally taking a liking to the RD 359-190 boolits that I'm feeding her until JT gets her 360-230 Thor mould cut & shipped.
Yesterday she started coming around, a couple of loads printed groups in the 2.5-3.25" neighborhood on a rainy morning range trip, not going to waste bandwith with a pic but they told me I was on the right path. One load did something I've never seen before. The case mouths failed to seal and absolutely painted the case black with soot! First time it happened I thought I'd had a case failure, next shot landed pretty close to the first one and was just as black so I decided to finish the strings. Other load was a bit warm for the powder/alloy but showed promise as well.
Today I got up and loaded some more rounds, adjusted the sooty load up .5 grs to 39.0grs RX7 (2B) and blew the first group, was too busy telling my shooting buddy about the soot from the day before, still had some in the extractor groove that survived three hours in the case cleaner. Next group I knuckled down and worked a little harder, right up until the 5th shot anyway. Danged spotting scope tripped me up again.
Other load; 44.0 grns of 3031, (1D) is coming along nicely as well. May tweak it a bit more but I think I'll shoot 2B again without tweaking, may even drag out the chrono next trip.
I think I'm going to like this cartridge!

[TXGunNut]

Got so excited on 3000th post I forgot to attach a pic. It ain't great shooting but it's progress!

[Blammer]

good shooting! fun ain't it!

I like my 35 whelen too.

[Shuz]

My 35 Whelen game getter likes 48g of AA 4064 and the 358009, (2150fps)and my other .35 Whelen likes the RCBS 35-200FN and 24g of mil surp 4759.(1765fps)

[TXGunNut]

Yes, it is fun! The 35 Whln isn't as good a CB cartridge as the 35 Rem or 358 Win but I like it. 358009 is a bit much for anything here in TX but it sounds like fun. I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get that RD boolit to settle down but I think I'm getting close. I think I'll try those same loads again, see what the chrono tells me.

[taco650]

What was the range you were shooting at and what kind of rifle is it?

[TXGunNut]

100 yds, rifle is a Winchester 670 rebored by JES in a new walnut stock from Boyds.

[taco650]

100 yds, rifle is a Winchester 670 rebored by JES in a new walnut stock from Boyds.

Would you recommend JES for re-boring? I talked with them a few months back about doing the same to my Ruger M-77 and the cost was very reasonable considering I had to ship it to OR from GA.

[TXGunNut]

I most certainly would! If you'll do a search here I'm pretty sure you can find a half dozen happy customers very quickly.

[TXGunNut]

Was a bit windy today but figured it was too pretty a day to do housework. I'm giving up on ACWW for the 35 Rem and the 35 Whelen. Velocities for the 35 Whelen were all over the place, as were the boolit holes. Velocities were in the 2200 fps neighborhood but it was a big friggen' neighborhood! 35 Rem was a bit more consistent (2000 fps) but still shot poorly. I'm not sure how boolit hardness affects velocity but I know the rifle shot better with HT'd 50/50 w/ tin. Shot the same loads as last week but results weren't as good, guess that's why I double check.
I suspect HT WW will be a bit hard even for the 2200-2400 fps loads I'm looking for but I'll shoot them up and try a softer alloy next time.

[taco650]

Maybe you're wanting too much velocity?

[TXGunNut]

Maybe you're wanting too much velocity?

Quite possibly, my goal was to better the 35 Rem by 200fps with the same boolit or similar velocity with a heavier boolit. I know the HT 50/50 alloy will get me to 2000fps in the 35 Rem and probably in the 35 Whelen, just don't know if it will make it to 2200fps. But yes, a 200 or 230 gr boolit @ 2000 fps will suffice for anything I'm going to hunt.

[357maximum]

What twist rate did you choose?


In a 14 twist.....I run a 225 grain BRP boolit @ 2500 for deer hunting with 1.2 M.O.A accuracy or less, and I can run the same boolit to 2700 if I choose to with only slightly larger groups. I suggest a trip to the alloy area and a read of the copper and babbit alloy enhancement threads. You are not asking too much...it is very likely your alloy is simply failing.

[TXGunNut]

JES rebored mine to 1:14. Seems I do need to study up on alloys. Metallurgy is not one of my better subjects but I think some homework is in order.

[35 shooter]

Maybe it's just, my particular whelen but i had to ht ww to get over 1800fps. Acww did work up to 1800 tho.
HTww at 465 to 475 degrees for, 1 hour and water dropped gets me to 2500 fps. They get hard quick, so best to size within 24 hours or sooner if possible. One thing i found too was that i could shoot them after only 48 hours
and they would shoot just as good as if i had let them harden for a week or more.

Good luck with yours.

[JesterGrin_1]

Just wondering out loud. But what about Water Dropping Pure Lino? Will that help with the ability to shoot a higher FPS with accuracy?

[Shuz]

Just wondering out loud. But what about Water Dropping Pure Lino? Will that help with the ability to shoot a higher FPS with accuracy?

Years ago I tried water quenching lino and the bottom line was that it didn't change the hardness at all. Air cooled lino is Saeco 10(Bhn22) and so was my water quenched lino.

[TXGunNut]

Maybe it's just, my particular whelen but i had to ht ww to get over 1800fps. Acww did work up to 1800 tho.
HTww at 465 to 475 degrees for, 1 hour and water dropped gets me to 2500 fps. They get hard quick, so best to size within 24 hours or sooner if possible. One thing i found too was that i could shoot them after only 48 hours
and they would shoot just as good as if i had let them harden for a week or more.

Good luck with yours.

Thanks.
Last year's hunting boolits were HT 50/50 WW/PB with just enough tin for a good fill. That was good for around 2000 fps in my 35 Rem and it gave marginal results in the Whelen. I thought I'd try ACWW just for grins, only thing that's working in is a 30-30 @ 1800 fps. I use the oven HT method recommended by Fryxell, treated the balance of the WW RD 359-190's and will try to load & fire some this weekend. Just hope it's not too hard for a hunting boolit.

[35 shooter]

Thanks.
Last year's hunting boolits were HT 50/50 WW/PB with just enough tin for a good fill. That was good for around 2000 fps in my 35 Rem and it gave marginal results in the Whelen. I thought I'd try ACWW just for grins, only thing that's working in is a 30-30 @ 1800 fps. I use the oven HT method recommended by Fryxell, treated the balance of the WW RD 359-190's and will try to load & fire some this weekend. Just hope it's not too hard for a hunting boolit.

I spent so much time developing my loads this year that i never took time to test for expansion, so yea, i'm wondering about that too.

Anyway another guy says he uses 50/50 ww/lead and water drops in his whelens for 2200 to 2400 fps for deer loads.
Don't remember if he added tin or not.
I'll try to test a few for sure, cause i would prefer a little expansion and a DRT instead of a blood trail. But for now gotta go with what i worked up, hunting with guns in MS. is right around the corner.

[JesterGrin_1]

I would think that even if you do not have a bunch of expansion it is still a .358 Hole at the smallest. . Go to the boiler room and I am sure there will not be a problem.

A few years ago I worked up a load for my 1895 Marlin GS in 45-70 of which were the Ranch Dog 350Gr RNFP/GC pushing them with a good dose of H-322 to around 1900 FPS or so. I found that with the game I have taken with the round that it does not leave a big exit hole. Probably not much bigger than 1/2". And that is with Hogs from 8LBS to over 300 LBS and a few Deer. But they were all DRT except 1 Doe went about 20 yards. Made a good shot that took out the Heart and Lungs. It still amazes me how far an animal can go when they are Gone on there Feet. Sorry the point being is that if you make a good shot then you may not need a bunch of expansion if any to take game cleanly. Besides it is sure nice not to have a bunch of blood shot meat.