Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles The 35 Whelen Is Dull & Boring

A few days ago, I bought a Remington Model 700 Classic in 35 Whelen. Date code tracks to August 1988, the first year of production for this combination of rifle and cartridge. I also snagged 100 pieces of Hornady brass and two boxes of 225-grain Sierra Game Kings.

I put it into an old factory synthetic stock and stuck an old 4x Leupold on it. All-up weight is just under 8 pounds.

A quick ladder test with TAC showed that 61.4 grains looked good, so I chronographed five shots on the MagnetoSpeed and got 2,689 fps average. I loaded a couple of dozen rounds with the GK about 0.10” into the case, planning to refine the OAL by seating them progressively deeper.

Recoil is kinda sharp so I flinched on the first group but the second was 0.788 MOA.

I’ve fired a total of 25 rounds to get this far, and I might be done with load development.

Seems like the 35 Whelen might be a pretty poor choice if you're looking for drama.


Okie John

Mine was one of the most accurate rifles I ever owner and shot groups at 200yds that were great. I shot a mule deer in Mt w/250 Speer @ 2500fps and the guide said he had never seen more damage to a deer. It did get your attention when you pulled the trigger. It was a Rem 700 Classic as well.

I have a Remington classic rechambered to Improved.... the cases look cooler not sure if there is any noticeable improvement though. That said it is now in a McMillian stock and has a Kippinger set trigger installed. Crazy accurate.

I got this put together when I had a location in Eastern NC to hunt bears in thick cover. Never got a shot at a bear but I have been "testing" it on deer for years now... last count was 10 for 10 bang flop kills.

I second the notion that with today's max loads, the Whelen can be about the limit of what I do for fun off the bench. Mine is an AI (which makes little difference) and I recently acquired a Whitworth .375 H&H, and decided to swap the 1.5-5 VX3 off of my Whelen onto the .375, and I replaced it with a 1.75-6 VX3, which of course I then had to sight in.
My go-to load for the Whelen is the 225 TSX over 70 grains of 2000-MR. To save some money I loaded up the Sierra 225 GK over 70/2000-MR for the sight-in loads. Sierra's published max for their 225 SGK is 71.6/2000-MR for 2900 FPS (pretty amazing!). My rifle was getting 2870-2880' with 70/2000-MR under the 225 SGK.
Well, my .375 weighs 9.5 pounds and the Whelen weighs 7.5 pounds. I can tell you a max load with the 300 partition in the .375 was noticeably more pleasant to shoot off the bench than the 225 SGK at 2880' in my lightweight Whelen! As someone once said - "it kills on both ends!"
Interestingly, in the same Sierra manual (the latest one) in which they show 2900 FPS with the 225 in the Whelen, the highest speed they published with any powder in the .338 WM with their .338 225 SGK is 2800 FPS.
I actually think the new loads published by Speer and Sierra with CFE 223 and PP 2000-MR make the Whelen pretty darn exciting! And the 200 TTSX at just under 3000 FPS is not to be yawned at either - I get that with PP Varmint.
But I get what you mean in the title of this thread - it's an easy round to get to shoot well, that's for sure.

Cheers,
Rex

I like mine boring using a 250 grain Speer pushed to a mild 2400 fps. Even more boring using the 250 grain Hornady RN. Still waiting for any complaints to be filed over my using easy shooting 35 Whelen loads. I also topped mine with a 4 power M8 Leupold. Boring in that it is always sighted in year after year. Mine is on an FN Mauser action.

Yeah, pretty much. That's why I recently barreled two actions to 35 Whelen. One with a shroter, lighter, 22" barrel, the other with a 26" tube.

I made the dumbest shot ever with a 35 Whelen.

Whilst calling, a smallish bull came out of a deep ditch full of alders right in front of me at very close range. I clocked him behind the ear with a 250gr Speer from a 7600. It knocked him flying right back down into that deep ditch full of alders. We had one tough time getting him out of there. If I'd let him walk ten feet the other way onto the woods road, we could have loaded him right onto a trailer right there, but no ..........

Right behind you, John. The 700 should ship any day now. Hoping to find mine as simple as yours.

Yep, kind of like the Nosler partition.

If you want boring in a Whelen, buy some 250gr Speers. They shot well in several 35cals I've owned over the years.

I shoot basically the same load out of my late 80's 700 classic, 61.5gr TAC under a 225 SGK. Mine was seated a little deeper and I think it shot a little better there. That is an easy bullet to tune and makes a big mushroom at least over 2000-2100 fps. The 250 Speer and partition are equally easy to get shooting. If you want drama try messing with the 225 accubond. They are more jump-sensitive.

You all are making me want one. I like the classics too

Just picked up a custom Mauser model 98 from a member here in .35 Whelen. Just annealed 50 cases to get started from my stash of 06 brass. Have some 225 ago and a few hundred 225 accubonds to start working up loads. Looking forward to trying it out and think it will be a good big game rifle. There is a lot of overlap in cartridges, and I’m trying to get down to a few rifles that I can go and do more hunting. The .35 and a .308 or 7mm/08 n in and a lot of sense.

My Whelen is a walnut stocked Ruger Hawkeye. It had the same hard thin rubber recoil pad as my Hawkeye Roberts' and recoil was sharp with 225gn loads. I do like Rugers but I wonder if anyone there fires their own guns? I replaced the stock with a HS Precision with a nice thick one inch pad. Much better. The .35 Whelen may not be that big a boomer but the recoil was enough to start splitting the stock behind the tang.

Yep. The Whelen will ring your chimes with modern loads.


Okie John

As you said, accurate, hard hitting rifles are super boring 😀

My 35 Whelen is an 1885 Highwall that started life as a 30/06. I sent it to Jess Rebore to have it rebored to 35 Whelen with his 5 groove in a 10 twist. With 68 grains of Power Pro Varmint behind a 180 TTSX I'm getting 3231 FPS. With the 250 grain Hornaday with 64 grains of CFE223 I'm chronographing 2745.FPS. Groups at 200 are .5 MOA or slightly less.
The Highwall has a 28" barrel. With Barnes 180 TTSX advertised at 2900 FPS I'm getting 2971 FPS. Hornaday 200 grain Superformance factory load advertised at 2910 FPS clocks at 3026 FPS.

Nothing wrong with "dull and boring" , I rather like the 35 Whelen's steady performance .
I have a 1989 Ruger M77RS 35 Whelen that I purchased new; the only thing I've done to it is have it bedded and have a Timney trigger installed .
I have never really pushed it with the newer powders available these days; it has been pretty successful w/ 225 gr. bullets @ 2600 and the 250 Gr. Speer at 2450 fps . I think before I go to warp drive with newer powders the thin, hard Ruger factory pad will need t o be replaced with something a little more forgiving .
The Whelen covers a lot of bases , everything from 158 gr. pistol bullets , 200 gr. cast bullets w/ 12 grains of Unique on up to 250 grain bullets ; not much you couldn't hunt with that range of bullets .
I don't shoot it much these days but I may have to take it deer hunting this year .

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There are bullets heavier than 250.grains available. Woodleigh has a 310 grain and the swift A-frames has a 280 grain available

jwp,
I know they make heavier 358 diameter bullets , I have some old 275 Grain Hornady RN bullets I may try just to see how they shoot .
It hasn't been a front burner project as my 9.3x62 covers the 286/320 grain range for me .
My Ruger is twisted 1 in 16 and haven't tried anything heavier that a 250 grain jacketed bullet yet .
Who knows, might build a 1 in 12 twist Whelen as a retirement project .

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