Deer and Black Bear with the 3589 boolit in the 35 Whelen

[smoked turkey]

I decided last year to use the 35 Whelen for my local 2014 whitetail deer season and the 2015 Spring black bear season in New Brunswick Canada. The ballistics, and terminal performance of the cartridge are well known by those of us familiar with it. Having read and reread the writings on the big Lyman 3589 boolit, I knew that would be my projectile of choice for my hunts. There are several different powders that are suitable for this combination. I settled on 45 gr. of H4350 Ext, Remington 9 1/2 LR primer, boolit of 50/50 WW/lead+ 1.5% tin, weighing 295 gr, sized .360. My boolit lube is Ben's Red plus a tumble lube using Ben's LL. Cases are neck sized, trimmed and annealed. Cartridge OAL=3.068". I clocked this load at 1700'/s, and calculated the muzzle energy to be 1,893 ft-lb. Accuracy at 80 yards was close to 2".
I tested water dropped WW in wet paper and found the boolits to be too brittle and were breaking apart and giving lower than desirable penetration and expansion. I found what most already knew that the 50/50 mix gave both excellent penetration and expansion with good weight retention.
As was expected, the Whelen gave flawless performance on both deer and black bear. I didn't doubt that on the doe and buck shot in the Missouri 2014 deer season, but I was not sure about the performance on a Canadian black bear. This was my first time to hunt bear so I was a little nervous about the outcome. My bear was shot at 60 yards. I was offered a perfect side shot at a standing bear. It couldn't have been set up any better. It was at the 11th hour however as I was leaving for home the following day at a bright and early 6 am. The boolit could not have performed any better. It was a pass through shot taking out the lungs and leaving a half dollar size exit hole on the off side. The bear ran about 30 yards and piled up. I am totally happy with the performance of the 35 Whelen using the 3589 boolit. Thanks to all those here that have blazed this trail long before me and gave me the confidence in both the caliber and the boolit choice. Thanks for reading this report. If you are hesitant to use a cast boolit on your next hunt I would say to do your homework by doing load development for your rifle and get lots of practice so you understand the capabilities of both you and your weapon of choice.

[waksupi]

Yep. Saw it right off. Works every time!

[35 shooter]

Congratulations on both the deer and bear!! I love that boolit in the whelen.
You've blazed quite a trail with the whelen yourself, both in 2014 and now already in 2015.
Good going!
35 shooter

[jonp]

Fantastic. How big was the bear?

Congrats on a great hunt. Maritimer's are some of the friendliest people in the world.

[s mac]

Great story and details. I know you were looking forward to the trip, glad it was a success.

[Yodogsandman]

Congratulations on your hunts! Thanks for sharing your outcomes! That's a great boolit for the 35 Whelen and I would have expected no less than your success using it for anything on this continent.

[smoked turkey]

The bear was a nice size spring bear at 260#. Estimated him to be 5 or 6 years old. He was in excellent health as was my son's bear he took the day before. This was in New Brunswick. It was not a quick or especially easy hunt. Got this one on the fifth day at about 60 yards. He had a beautiful coal black coat which I will have tanned. I will do a skull mount to supplement the skin. s mac I will show you more pictures and give you more details when I see you if you are interested that is. I can be guilty of thinking everyone is as excited about it as I am. I'll try not to go on and on about it.

[Muskyhunter1]

Congrats and it sounds like you worked hard to get all your ducks in a row the load development. Thanks for sharing.

[s mac]

I'll look forward to seeing you and hearing all about it. Memories of a lifetime.

[TXGunNut]

Good job, thanks for sharing!

[taco650]

These guys with all their success with the 35 Whelen! Just when I stop thinking about getting my 30-06 bored out to 35W, I read a report like this...

Smoked turkey,

Congrats to you! Please know my above comment is made in jest. I'm just jealous of your success but I readily admit that it sounds like you earned it and that it is well deserved. You did you homework, fixed things that weren't working and attained your goal. Don't feel guilty for sharing your results. It encourages people like me to keep at it. THANK YOU!

[Prodigal Son]

Please do share all of your experience, we here live for the collective success of each poster! I hope to be able to post my story & photos this fall for my 38-55 bear hunt to Newfoundland with cast Boolits also! Great job thanks for sharing!

[smoked turkey]

Prodigal Son I will look forward to your report this fall. I am certain you will be prepared when the moment comes to put the smack down on that big boy with that 38-55. I enjoy reloading and shooting different loads in different guns, but when faced with a task such as the bear hunt I wrote about I pretty much devote myself to the task of load-shoot-evaluate-repeat. It is not as much fun as just plinking but the payoff comes when you can walk up to that deer, bear, or whatever the quarry and see that everything worked just as it should. You can and will do it.