The .35 Whelen has spoken

[smoked turkey]

The firearms portion of the Missouri 2014 Deer season is over. I used the 35 Whelen this year. I wanted to get some experience with the 3589 boolit. I developed a couple of different loads for this boolit using both IMR 3031 and 4350. For this season's hunt I settled on 47 gr of IMR 4350. I was able to shoot both a doe and a small buck this year with this load/boolit combination. Both animals weighed about 90 pounds field dressed. I have read that with some cast boolit loads you can "eat right up to the hole". I can positively say that was not my experience with the doe and a shoulder shot from the Whelen. The boolit entrance was in front of the right shoulder, with the exit being just barely in the rear of the left shoulder. For all intents the left shoulder was blood shot so badly that I did not process it. I can only imagine what a shot directly on the shoulder point would do to the front quarter.The Whelen has plenty of energy and shock power that is for sure. Having learned from the doe, I placed the shot on the buck a little further back of the left shoulder and had much more eatible meat. The ranges were 35 yards and approximately 125 yards. All in all I had a good season with the Whelen with all kinds of cold weather, ice, sleet and snow during the season. It performed just as it should in my opinion. I am planning to use this set up for a black bear hunt in New Brunswick, Canada in the coming spring. We will see how it performs on a little tougher game than our Missouri whitetail.

Mods please move this to the hunting section as I see that I have put this is in the wrong place!

[JSH]

You might read this article. Pay no mind to the caliber. There is some food for thought in it if nothing more.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?95252-The-crazy-crazy-BFR-500-JRH

[RobS]

I do like the 35 Whelen cartridge..........so very versatile.

[Shuz]

Congratulations on your hunt! Great caliber and great boolit!

[sthwestvictoria]

Nice work with Whelen. What alloy did you settle on for hunting work?


You might read this article. Pay no mind to the caliber. There is some food for thought in it if nothing more.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?95252-The-crazy-crazy-BFR-500-JRH
Which part of this 15 page thread is the part you are referring to - seems to be about shooting beer cans and porting and brass difficulties.

[runfiverun]

he probably meant to reference the sticky in the hunting section discussing how boolits can be TOO effective at higher velocity's.

[clintsfolly]

The 35 Whelen is a great round. I use a 9.3x63 (just a fat 35Whelen) and it flatten,s deer with gusto just have to stay back of the shoulders. I too am looking for bigger test subjects to try. Have fun Clint

[smoked turkey]

sthwestvictoria...In answer to your question regarding alloy-

.."Nice work with Whelen. What alloy did you settle on for hunting work?"
It has been a while since I cast up these boolits, but my mould is the Lyman 3589 which is supposed to drop 280 grains using #2 alloy. My boolits checked and sized weighs right at 293 gr. According to my old information ww have about 5% more lead in the mix than #2. Based on that I am fairly certain my boolits are straight ww alloy. I am thinking of water dropping ww alloy and see if that will still give the expansion I need at the terminal end. My checked velocity on some 3031 loads was about 1800'/s. I did not chronograph the 4350 load but the point of impact was about the same. My conclusion is the velocity is about 1800'/s. I have sized these at .360 and I use Ben's Red for lube. I have zero leading with this load. I am not done with my testing as I have an 8#er in the 3031 and no IMR 4350 left. I have a couple of pounds of H4350 that I believe will be close to the same as the IMR 4350 I used for the loads I currently have. So that is the set up and I appreciate your work with the Whelen and have learned quite a bit from the thread on the 3589 boolit elsewhere here.

[sthwestvictoria]

I appreciate your work with the Whelen and have learned quite a bit from the thread on the 3589 boolit elsewhere here.

Thank you however I have stood on shoulders of giants - for the 35 whelen this would be runfiverun, blammer, shuz, swheeler and jestergrin_1

[JesterGrin_1]

Thank you however I have stood on shoulders of giants - for the 35 whelen this would be runfiverun, blammer, shuz, swheeler and jestergrin_1

Thank You very much for the support. But I have yet to work with it in some time as I had it changed to a 35 Whelen AI. I am following another thread and after hunting season may try some IMR-4350 and the 358009 G/C sized at 360.

I am currently going to try my 358 Winchester build with the BRP 360-225Gr G/C. But have not as of yet been lucky enough to take any game with said rifle. :(