The RCBS 35-200-FN to hollowpoint or not to hollowpoint?

[Outpost75]

Believe it or not, one of my favorite reduced loads for the .35 Whelen uses the 35-200FN with the GC heel bored out to give a 215-grain plainbased bullet, which I cast from wheelweights with 8.4 grains of Bullseye pistol powder. Velocity is about 1300 fps. Pleasant, accurate and effective. A fine 50-yard deer load, BTW.

[280Ackley]

I've been working on loads for a 35 Whelen I bought last year. 700 Remington Classic. I've been following all the 35 Whelen threads here and experimented with several of the ideas that were discussed. Until today I haven't been happy with the results. Based on a thread that Blammer posted about hardening his alloy with WQ, I went a step further and mixed 9/1 COWW/Lino WQ. These boolits are hard, but don't shatter when hit with a hammer, except the nose shears off. I have tried a number of powders and have settled on H4350. Today I started at 52grns and worked up to 55.0. I don't know if this will be to explosive for a deer load, but I plan on testing them on wet paks in the near future. I do know it shot clear thru a pine 4x4 at a hundred yards and blew a 2 inch hole out the back. The 54 grn load was an honest 1.5 MOA and had 4 in under .9 inches. I think I am starting to zero in on a hunting load.

[357maximum]

280 your alloy will most likely blow the nose off, but you have enough mass with that boolit to kill any whitetail that walks the earth. The best alloy I have found for my whelen is 50%COWW, 50% soft lead which I then add 5% of railroad bearing babbit into......at 2450 and 2700 fps it works great and I can get honest sub inch groups with both loads when I hold my mouth just right. I have my best luck with H4350/H414/H-Hybrid100V...you are close, but I would personally ditch the HP...your call on that one however.

[enoch59]

I've given up on cast HP's after destroying a hind quarter on a beautiful buck a few years back. I was shooting a Marlin 44 Mag with a 265 gr. devastator hp. Somehow the heart/lung shot bounced off a rib and some if not all of the hp traveled out the backside and left a hole the size of my fist with extensive blood shot damage. What a disgusting mess I was left to deal with. Ever since then I have been heat treating by boolits and then annealing them for the desired effect. They just leave a hole with no shot damage. I only use the devastators if I find myself in a dangerous situation protecting my own meat.

[DanWalker]

I shot a VERY large warthog last summer in Africa with that boolit(non HP) from a marlin 336 (35 rem). Alloy was 50/50 WW/Range scrap (BHN 12)
Punched it through his shoulders at 60 yards. He tried to run, but his shoulders didn't work. He did two forward flips under the power of his hind legs, then just died. My PH was struck by the THUMP this little boolit displayed on game. Another fun load in your whelen is to load this boolit over 16 grains of 2400. It's a phenominal target and small game load.

[youngda9]

No need for HP with a properly placed shot. Millions of buffalo agree with me.