Best Path to an Accurate .35 Whelen

[skipglo]

You could consider 350 rem mag!

 

[65WSM]

I had a Remington 760 Pump in .35 Whelen, equipted with peep sights and carried on a sling, for my fishing rifle in Alaska. I handloaded 225 Barnes X bullets and later the tipped version TTX. I found that IMR 8208 was both accurate and very fast. I am loading for a Nosler factory bolt action rifle as we speak. I have fired cases in the tumbler.

Does anyone have any data for the .35 Whelen with Hodgdon Leverution(sic) or 2000MR?

 

[MoreSalsa]

I had a Remington 760 Pump in .35 Whelen, equipted with peep sights and carried on a sling, for my fishing rifle in Alaska. I handloaded 225 Barnes X bullets and later the tipped version TTX. I found that IMR 8208 was both accurate and very fast. I am loading for a Nosler factory bolt action rifle as we speak. I have fired cases in the tumbler.

Does anyone have any data for the .35 Whelen with Hodgdon Leverution(sic) or 2000MR?

Those must be some big fish!

 

[Wrenches]

The latest Sierra loading manual does.

I had a Remington 760 Pump in .35 Whelen, equipted with peep sights and carried on a sling, for my fishing rifle in Alaska. I handloaded 225 Barnes X bullets and later the tipped version TTX. I found that IMR 8208 was both accurate and very fast. I am loading for a Nosler factory bolt action rifle as we speak. I have fired cases in the tumbler.

Does anyone have any data for the .35 Whelen with Hodgdon Leverution(sic) or 2000MR?

 

[beretzs]

I had a Remington 760 Pump in .35 Whelen, equipted with peep sights and carried on a sling, for my fishing rifle in Alaska. I handloaded 225 Barnes X bullets and later the tipped version TTX. I found that IMR 8208 was both accurate and very fast. I am loading for a Nosler factory bolt action rifle as we speak. I have fired cases in the tumbler.

Does anyone have any data for the .35 Whelen with Hodgdon Leverution(sic) or 2000MR?

This is what I came up with for the 220 Hammer in my 22" Ruger with Rem cases.



Haven't gotten to finalize yet but I think I could hunt it if I had to.

 

[wv270wsm]

My tc encore in 35 Whelen shoots right at an inch just a touch under at 100 yards. I think I may have got the needle in the hay stack with my encore though . Haven't done nothing to it other than change barrels and it shoots very very well with all the different barrels I've got. I've only shot maybe 20 rounds through my 35 barrel so far though.

 

[cajun]

I bought an encore action and put a mgm barrel on it. Mine is in 350 rem mag. Due to hunting regs in LA and Miss. where I hunt it's legal for primitive weapon seasons. Very accurate.

 

[coueskiller43]

+1 for the JES rebore. I have a Howa rebored in 358 win that shoots lights out. Gives my high dollar customs a run for their money. I've been interested in the 35 Whelen for awhile. Saw a model 70 extreme weather sell on here a year or so ago for a great deal. Keep your eyes out. They come around sometimes.

 

[Joe Bishop]

+2 for JES the reborn man. My hunting partner had his Remington 700 3006 rebored to the 35 Whelen shoots sub MOA 225 Nosler Partitions. I went the other way with a Winchester 70 pre 64 06 rebored by JES to the 330/06, sub MOA with 210 Nosler Partitions, scary accurate.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

Find yourself a used Ruger Hawkeye in 35 Whelen. My rifle (35 whelen Hawkeye) shoots well under moa on bad days and on a good day can cloverleaf at 200yards. A 220 Speer fp at 2700 fps is good quite a ways out, but I've got 259 grain mono's running 2400 fps also. I suspect the 225 Sierra would be great. To my knowledge there aren't any good factory loads in the Whelen. It's pretty much a roll your own affair.
It would actually be better to buy a 375 H&H for a mid bore to run factory ammo. You might actually have a chance at something like this working: https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/375-h-and-h-mag-250-gr.-cx-outfitter#!/

 

[Greenvette01]

I want a .35 Whelen for deer hunting in an area where the laws make this caliber one of the best options. I would not choose this caliber for deer hunting if not for the legal requirements. I'd like it to be deer hunting accurate, which I'll define as within 1 MOA at 300 yards. I'll be using it out to ~300, maybe 400 if I can improve my shooting. I don't currently handload, so I'd like to be able to do this with factory ammo.

I'm seeing no factory rifles available in that caliber. So, what do you think is the best (as in cost vs. value) route to get what I want? For budget, I'd just say that I'm trying to find the most cost effective route and then decide if I want to shell out the cash. If I can't get what I want for a price that I'm willing to pay then I'd just rather save the money. It's not a matter of I absolutely need one and so I want the best I can get for X budget. But I'd say I'm certainly hoping to get there for under $1500.

One reason I'm struggling is that there are two parts to it .... one is getting a .35 Whelen rifle ... the other is ending up with a rifle that is accurate. It seems like there are a lot of different possible routes to go after both of those two things. It sort of seems like I can either spend more on the rifle I buy or spend less on the rifle and more on the back-end (gunsmithing). One thing I have in mind is that since I'm shooting factory ammo and there aren't many factory ammo options for .35 Whelen, I probably need a rifle set up to shoot most ammo accurately.

I could buy a used rifle chambered in .35 Whelen but from what I'm seeing on GunBroker, good rifles tend to go for over ... or well over ... $1K, and any accurizing work that is needed on the back-end would just add to the price tag. I see there are some custom rifle places that seem fairly affordable. I could get a used 30-06 or .270 and take it into a smith, but I'd really like some advice here. I have a smith near me and he thought the best route would be getting a Krieger barrel in .35 Whelen and putting it on a 30-06, which would probably cost me around $800 between the barrel and labor. I originally thought the best route with a smith would be re-boring a 30-06's or 270's existing barrel (not sure if he thought that was a worse route or that it is just something he doesn't do). Whatever the case, I thought that if I'm already taking it into the smith for barrel/chambering work, it might be more cost-effective just to bundle that with accurizing work, and that would be most likely to produce an accurate rifle in the end.

I do have an old but nice Howa 1500 in 30-06, but the smith said he probably wouldn't be able to work with it because it's probably metric. So that means I'd have to send it out to another smith, which adds shipping. Also, not sure I want to lose my 30-06 (I have a lot of ammo). This makes me wonder whether it would be better just to get a newer Remington or Savage and go from there. Then again, if using the Howa is going to save me a lot of money, I could always just do that and then pick up another 30-06 later.

Last thing I'll throw out there in case it matters is that I don't want this to be an ultralight or even light rifle. I expect a lot of recoil from the Whelen, so I'd like something that is probably 7.5 lbs or heavier (8-9.5 lbs would be better).

ER Shaw is my go too...have had 5 rifles rebarreled by them and have had no regrets! And they were done in my price range affordability!!

 

[Ak_Hobie]

I would consider trading a custom 35 Whelen AI for at 300 win mag or either PRC caliber of equivalent value. It's on a Remington 700 action, McMillan stock, 20" barrel.

 

[beretzs]

I would consider trading a custom 35 Whelen AI for at 300 win mag or either PRC caliber of equivalent value. It's on a Remington 700 action, McMillan stock, 20" barrel.

Very slick rifle. That looks very useful!

 

[Ak_Hobie]

I hunt where there a lot of brown bears so with 375's and 338's in the quiver it's been a safe queen. It's a nice gun and would be perfect for that area.