smoked turkey
05-19-2015, 11:11 PM
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.
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.