35 Whelen build

I am trying to build a 200 yard bear and moose rifle in35 Whelen at a minimum cost.
Start: Model 110 in 270Win., F serial no, probably around1990. Weaver mounts with Bushnell Banner 1.5 to 4 scope, $300. Bore looks okbut heavily copper fouled. Shilen 35 Whelen barrel on order, $400 totalw/shipping. Baseline test with Rem 130 grain ammo and a fixed 40 powerLeupold scope. Five 3 shot groups, cold dirty barrel, averaged 2.5" @100yds.


The barrel was difficult to remove. Stripped the teeth inone wrench. Shaw wrench, 2 foot breaker bar, and 10 pound maul finally loosenedit. Reinstalled the barrel to test results of the work, from baseline.

Present status: Floated barrel, bedded action (JB Weld), installed andbedded Picatinny base ($35.00), and lightened trigger. Five 3 shot groups,averaged .9" @ 100yds. Looks like it will be a solid base for the 35Whelen build. Will probably keep the 270 barrel as well.
I have a 3-9X40 Leupold I will use.
$735.00 so far.
Now it is the wait for the barrel. Shilen is usuallypretty good, around 3 months. Will update progress.

Sounds like you are well on your way! The factory bbl nut can be a bear sometimes. while you have it apart you might as well replace the factory stamped recoil lug, although you have already bedded the action so it might take a bit more work if you go that route.

Best Regards

Have thought of a barrel nut and recoil lug but intend to keep cost down as much as practical. Considering my past history, it will probably end up, long term, with a composition stock, trued action, and nut/lug.

You'll like the Whelen. You might consider asking Shilen about the reamer they use. The SAAMI spec chamber has an extremely long throat. It's been my experience that the Whelen works better with the bullet closer to the lands. Something like the 225 gr Nosler AB is hard to get there with a spec chamber without exceeding magazine length. It works on a long action Remington, but barely. A bit easier with the Barnes TSX. I know that my reamer is going to be sent back to PTG with a dummy cartridge for a re-grind.

I love my 350 Remington Mags, just a tad more power than the Whelen in a short action. But I hunt bears with a .338 WinMag. They always seemed to be just out of range of the 350 and whenever we would close the gap, they had always turned into ghosts. Mine was taken at 426 yards this spring, one shot quartering away. He might have made it 10 yards. I would have had to walk away had I been carrying either of the 350's due to the canyon that was between he and I.
For shots within 300 or so, you'll enjoy the Whelen.

Sent Email to Shilen. They replied within one day with a print of their reamer. Looks like it will be OK. Hope so.

Threads merged.

Hey, that's good service!

I did some measuring on mine today. For all practical purposes, the base to ogive measurement is 2.80 which yields a 3.60 OAL when using a 225 gr Accubond seated at or near the lands. This bullet has given me the best groups so far. That same base to ogive yields a 3.475 OAL for 225 Barnes TSX or Speer 250 Hot Core.

I have tried varying seating depths to the extent of SAAMI spec OAL of 3.340. My rifle, without fail, performs best at no more than .030 off the lands.

GBFLYER thanks for the length info. It may be very useful after I receive the barrel and measure the chamber.
All my rifles respond to seating <= .030 off the lands. That's a range from .204 Ruger to 30-06, several in between, and multiple barrels.

I have received the Redding Neck Sizing dies, 50 Hornady brass, and 100 Sierra Gameking 225 grain bullets. So now I wait for the barrel.

I am also waiting on a RemAge 30-06 barrel from The Barrel Outlet. First time dealing with them. They called me promptly when I erroneously sent 2 orders {my fault as I thought I had cancelled the first}. Initial impression is excellent customer service.

Received barrel yesterday. Was planning to do assembly over the week end but as usual stayed up and did it last night. Went to range.
Used powder and primers I had in excess. I intended to run 20 rounds thru it then clean.
52.0 gr H322
225 gr Sierra
Hornady brass (no brass prep)
OAL 3.320" (3.324" put it at lands)
Ave Vel 2603 FPS: Std Dev 10 FPS: ES 21 FPS (6 rounds)
5 three shot groups averaged 1.3" @ 100yds.
For no good reason reduced powder to 51.0 gr for last 3 shots. One big hole, .6" exactly in the middle of a 2" bull.
Maybe a fluke. Will see in the future.
Now to clean and plan load development.
I am super pleased with the starting performance.

I think you got a good one!

I am done with the basic testing and development. I am hesitant to give this info as it seems to good to be true, but it IS!
5 - 100 yd 3 shot groups ave .6". One group was a single hole exactly .415" across.
So I measured velocity of 6 shots to finish the available brass. 2454FPS ave, std dev 2FPS, Ext spread 4 FPS. These are the lowest values I have every achieved. You are right to be skeptical, I would be except I saw it!
Load data:
51.0 grains 3031
Sierra 225 gr Game King
3.285 OAL
Win LR primers
Hornady brass (annealed)

I tried 52 and 53 grs of 3031 but the groups opened up to app 1" and max vel ave was 2570. I choose the accuracy over the 100fps gain.

I may do a little tweeking for the heck of it and I have Nosler 225 gr on order.
So I think this is the end of this build thread.
For $700 I have a rifle much better than I can shoot.

Good shooting. If I landed on a load like that I'd stop too!