Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Express Rifles and Big Bores Only Question for the .400 Whelen Crowd

Sir Ron,
Thank you for the pix and text just above. You have reaffirmed my loading of .411 300 grain Hornady bullets to 2250 fps for my Winchester 1895 .405. NF bullets add to the killing power.
The Hornady 300 grain factory ammo box says 2225 fps so I just target my handloads close to that to maintain compatibility with factory ammo.
As demonstrated with your photos, that is adequate for much of the game in the US. It has provided one shot kills on Nilgai and 300 pound red deer/elk cross (yuumy too) here in Texas.

Plus, I agree with not pushing the 400 grain Woodies too hard. My 1895 405 used a 2100 fps 400 grain Woodie to take a Cape buff cleanly, so why tempt fate for another 300 fps? I have contacts loading their 1895 .405 WCF rifles with 400 grain Woodies to 2200 fps for cape buff and they too found that fast enough.

Great stuff Rifle Crank! I actually called Shilen a few days ago and they confirmed that the smallest they will do is a #5 even though I want it cut later to finish at 20-21”.

PAC-NOR said they will do one closer in a #4 contour so leaning that way.

The resizing of .416s definitely opens up some options.

Thanks again!

I did the resizing route with 416 bullets. Pain in the butt. They shot well but it really was a chore with the Lee push through dies. It can be done though.

There are an adequate number of good .411 bullets available and it is an awesome cast bullet round. Accurate Molds will make you a good mold if you're a caster. I would keep a close eye on Gunbroker for .411 bullets. They crop up pretty often.

Hawk Bullets has a 300, 350 and 400 grain. I have used the 400 grain on one cow moose. It worked fine. I'm carrying the 350 grain bullets in it now hoping to try them on caribou or moose or bear. The 300 grain is pretty short and didn't feed well in my rifle. Swift has a 350 and 400 grain A frame. I think the 350 A Frame would be outstanding. The Hornady 300 grains shot well but didn't feed well. My rifle likes them magazine length. Of course Barnes has their excellent 300 grain TSX. It can be loaded out long enough to feed well in my rifle.

Mart, have you tried the .411 300 or 360 grain North Fork bullets? Being copper, they are a bit longer than solid lead bullets. They will also shoot through most any critter. I like them in my 1895 .405 WCF .

I tried both of them. I liked them a lot but should have bought a few boxes of them when they were in business. I think I have a few of the 360s. Probably 8-10. Enough to load enough for a hunt. They both shot and fed well in my rifle.

I’m guessing either would shoot the full length of a moose or bear.

Mart, how was the accuracy of the Hawks in your rifle? What jacket thickness?

I use the .025 jacket. The 300 and 400 grain shot well but the first box of 350 grain gave me inconsistent results. A good group then a bad group. I was pretty disappointed because I thought 350 grains would be an optimal weight in the 400W. I ordered another box several month later and those have shot well. Consistently 1.5 inch groups. Which is what mine shoots with just about everything.

I’ve shot a lot of Hawk bullets in several calibers in load development and that one box of .411 350s have been the only ones to give me inconsistent results like that.

Mart said " I liked them a lot but should have bought a few boxes of them when they were in business."

Mart, North Fork is in business. Their bullet making machinery is in Sweden and bullets are being made there and shipped to various countries, including America.

I am presently loading and shooting the .458 350 grain SS bullets and found them accurate. I still have a good supply of 450 grain FPS loaded to 2150 fps, but they are DG ammo.

I thought North Fork shut down. I remember seeing the posting on their website. I’m didn’t know they were back in business. Same company or did someone else buy them out?

Mart,
as I remember, the founder, Mike Brady, sold the business to an American company who moved machines further north and west.
Then that group sold the business to a Swedish group who moved all operations to Sweden and this shut down operation for a few months. The Swedish group now is making the bullets and distributing them through distributors in different countries.
I do not know the names of the various distributors and get my information from Mike.
They do maintain an Internet site and can be located that way.

I use NF in my 1895 .405 WCF(.411 ) and in my 1886 45-90 (.458) . They are my favorite solids in those calibers. Their bonded bullets are tops also.

I’ll have to order some. I’ve wanted to try both the 300 and 360 on game.

Dang good stuff Sir Ron, i need to look into that and draw down a pile of .416 cal 400gr partitions and shoot em in my 400 Whelen, bet they'd be real penetrators at a leisurely 2255 fps over CFE-223 powder.

Sir Jerry,
You will not be disappointed.
A base-pusher sizer of 0.412" and then 0.409" will get you sprung back to 0.411" final diameter on the Nosler Partition 400-grainer.
Roll the bullets on a Lyman lube pad before each step, with RCBS Case Lube-2.
And that super load with CFE-223 will keep the rifle clean !
Win Win.

Thanks Sir Ron, can i do that with my load press, or do i need to mount it to a heavy steel shop table with a 4ft cheater pipe? think i have around 200 of the 400gr partitions, may need to do only half or none at all, and save for my 416 Taylor, had a couple people interested in it, dug it out of the safe for pics and forgot what a cool rifle it is, now i dont want to sell it. LOL.

Thanks Elk old buddy, if a man wanted to spend the money, work up a load, practice a bit and not waste, bet those .410/.411" 400gr Cup Point Solids would do it all, deer to Cape Buffalo.

Still waiting on that phone call to meet you halfway betwinxt your place and mine to hand you off a 26" barreled 500 Nitro so i can read about you bashing an elephant in the head!

If I was smarter I would just buy your .416 and forget this .400 Whelen project. You .416 is a great setup. Unfortunately I am infected with the Whelen bug and can't seem to shake it.

I’ve sold a fair amount of my rifles. Posterior cervical fusion C2 to T2 limits recoil tolerance. The only rifle I miss is a 416 Taylor. It is a wonderful cartridge and easy to shoot and load for. Shoot lots of cast bullets at almost full speed. The Speer 350 grain is an outstanding performer as is the hornady 400 soft.
The Lee dies have a tapered expander to neck up 7mm mag cases and make something useful out of them.
Killed a pile of bison with it, mostly two year old heifers at 1200 pounds. A few bulls in the upper teens weight wise. Just puts their nose in the dirt now. Somebody sent me a handful of 300 grain bullet made from 40 s&w cases swaged. Killed seven heifers, all head shots. No exits so a pretty soggy bullet. It was a fun rifle

Still waiting for a rich aunt or uncle to leave me mucho money.

Mart,

Good to hear you have Hawk another chance and the results were better. When I first read your post about the hawk bullets my first thought was "he tried those years ago and said they shot like crap?!"

I have been tempted to order some myself, but maybe a heavier jacket, possibly a very heavy custom jacket. The biggest detractors of Hawk seem to be pushing everything they shoot to extreme speeds. Hawk being old school tech, heavy weight and moderate speed seems to with just fine. If they will make a 350 with a .50 or .65 (i think that's the heaviest I've seen in their page) *should* equate to a decently stout bullet at whelen speeds.

I emailed NF and they're pretty far behind, but they're taking back orders. Just wish we could get them to offer more weights in 410/411. Seems the biggest variety is for those Miroku 1895's @.412/413