.35 Whelen Gallery Loads

[richhodg66]

I have recently joined the .35 Whelen club and am working on coming up with good loads to deer hunt with. WHile I ultimately want to come up with a heavy bullet load that will transfer energy and penetrate well (seems to be a lot of good advice and institutional knowledge of how to do that), I'd like a cheap, fun, plinking and small game practice load.

Most of my .38 revolver shooting involves Lyman #s 358311 and 358477 so I have a lot of these around. Has anyone had good luck making a 25-50 yard load using a similar bullet for off hand plinking and perhaps the occasional rabbit or squirrel. Will the lack of a gas check cause leading in a bottle neck cartridge? Will the faster twist rate of the rifle cause over stabilization of bullets that light?

[outdoorfan]

Big Game Hunting: 220-250 grain LFN, RL 15, 2,200 fps = Accurate & Deader than dead

[yondering]

I haven't used the .38 bullets you mention, I do use my Saeco 352 (245gr FP) over 10gr Unique for a good plinking load. I mostly use them paper patched, but lubed works fine. Velocity in my rifle is ~1,100 fps with that load. Either way, it's very accurate at plinking distances (one hole groups at 25 yards).

Your .38 bullets should be just fine for a similar load. I don't know what the weight of those are, but assuming their lighter, try maybe 8gr of Unique? No gas check should be necessary. Plenty of other fast pistol powders will work too. Bullseye, Green Dot, Red Dot, etc.

You didn't say what rifle you have, but unless it's a real oddball with a fast twist, over-stabilization shouldn't be an issue. I've used jacketed 158gr hollow point bullets (intended for .38 special) at ~2400 fps in my Whelen with no problems; those are a real explosive load and will cut down small trees.

[Ben]

I have a Ruger # 1 , 35 Ack Improved Whelen, A fun plinking load is 13.0 grs. Red Dot and my NEI 250 gr.

This is a 3 shot group fired at 50 yards with the NEI bullet.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0002-5.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v494/haysb/PICT0001-23.jpg

[richhodg66]

Mine's a Remington 700. One of those bullets is a nominally 150 grain SWC and the other is a nominally 160 grain RN. I have used both in my .35 Remington and they shot pretty well, if I remember right (it's been a while). I would like the load to be as simple and cheap as possible, something I can shoot a lot of for offhand practice for low cost and easy to load.

Guess I'll have to get some RL 15. I'm hearing it's THE powder for .35 Whelen. I was gonna mess around with IMR 4320 since I have a lot of it and use it in several other things.

[Ben]

Cheap and simple Uhhh ?

I'd start with 8.0 - 9.0 Unique with your 38 / 357 pistol bullets and go from there.........Please keep us informed with your results.

[44mag1]

Ive used 5 grains of titegroup with a 150 grain rcbs SWC in my 358 with great results. Titegroup is not supposed to be position sensitive so I use it for all kinds of reduced plinking loads. So far it has done me well.

[richhodg66]

OK, I have Unique and SR7625 also some Herco and 2400. I'll give 8-10 grains a try and see what works.

I've done reduced loads a lot in '06 size cases and .303 Brit, 7.62x54, etc, but it has been with gas checked bullets that were in a more "normal" weight range for caliber. We'll see how these work.

The intent is to get a lot of trigger time with it and get off the bench under some more field like conditions. One of the things I have noticed about myself is I'm not as good a shot as I used to be when I spent a lot more time on the range and just informal plinking with various things. Hopefully I can get out shooting a little more this year with this rifle.

[NHlever]

Yes, isn't that the truth! I've been spending too much time shooting from the bench too. In the 06' case, I've sometimes had to go to 12 grains of Unique to get the cases to seal in the chamber better, and that has been a good load usually. The Whelen usually has a slow enough twist to really work well with handgun boolits at reduced velocitiies. My first Whelen was about 35 years ago. I paid $37.50 for an FN Mauser commercial action that had been rebarreled to .35 Whelen. I think it was originally a Sears rifle since the stock looked like th one they used at the time, but it sure shot well ......... Boy, I sure wish I still had that gun!

[yondering]

The intent is to get a lot of trigger time with it and get off the bench under some more field like conditions.

One thing to keep in mind (you'll figure it out pretty quick) is that you'll either have to adjust your sights, or hold over, with the plinker loads. They will shoot considerably lower, not just from the difference in trajectory, but because of the lack of recoil. Even at short range they will be 2-4" low, which means they really aren't great for "practice" unless you adjust your sights/scope.

[Larry Gibson]

358477 in well fire formed cases over 3 - 6 gr of BUllseye. Work up in 1/2 gr increments shooting at 50 yards. Some sight adjustment may be necessary as mentioned. Best accuracy will come between 800 and 1050 fps. If your rifle is moa capable expect 1 to 2" 5 or 10 shot groups. No filler or wad necessary and for normal shooting the small amount of Bullseye in the larger case will not be position sensitive. If you find a good load (shouldn't be hard) and like it then you may want to dedicate 50 or so cases and drill out the flasholes with up to a #28 drill. This will prevent the shoulders from setting back after several firings of this type of load.

LarryGibson

[richhodg66]

Thank you very much, I wouldn't have guessed charges of Bullseye that light would be the way to go. I haven't had any Bullseye around for a while, but it's useful stuff but I shot a whole lot of it in .45s of various types and in .38 Special wadcutter loads while I was learning to handload.

I figured sight adjustments would be necessary. As I play around with this rifle, I'll figure out how many clicks to adjust and tape a card with it to the stock. I haven't done much with this rifle yet, it wears a Nikon 4X scope on it that came with the rifle, for now I'll see how that works out.

I have several pistol bullet molds to experiment around with. I just loaded some rounds for this weekend, unfortunately, both types of bullets I used are types friends cast for me that are from molds I don't have. One is the Saeco that is nominally 245 grains, the other is a custom 280 grain flat nose I believe was made by Mountain Molds.

Besides the pistol molds I have, I also have Lyman's 358009, their 204 grain RN designed for the .35 Remington and a strange one I picked up, 35875, looks to be a heavy bullet designed for .38 revolvers, looks to be about 200 grains, has a flat nose and a beveled base. I have cast the 204 grain RN before, haven't used the other two molds yet. I'm pretty sure a little experimenting will produce a good deer load.