Just bought a brand new Remington cdl and will get a new RCBS loading kit this week. I haven't had much loading experience, it's been about ten years and only for a short while then. Anyway I was wondering what powders would be good to go with this caliber and 225 gr. xxxshocks and partitions. Naturally looking for velocity and good accuracy. I will work up the loads but need a good starting point. I would like to get 2700 fps out of this rifle,bullet combo or better if it's safe in my rifle. Any help would be appreciated thanks.

You can get vel.up to 2700fps as you desire in the 180 gr bullet and 2600fps in the 200gr. I find that in the 225gr listing in this one book i,m looking at shows 2500fps for the 225gr bullet. It also states a couple of the popular powders for the 35 whelen are IMR 4895,IMR4320,Imr4064. Hope i helped some. van

Re 15 has proven to be a very good powder in the Whelen. My top safe load with the 250 gr bullet goes right at 2500 fps in my 22" barreled tang Ruger and a bit over 2600 fps in my 25" barreled pre-war J.P. Sauer Mauser. Very flexible powder in the Whelen.

quote:

Originally posted by Boxhead:
Re 15 has proven to be a very good powder in the Whelen. My top safe load with the 250 gr bullet goes right at 2500 fps in my 22" barreled tang Ruger and a bit over 2600 fps in my 25" barreled pre-war J.P. Sauer Mauser. Very flexible powder in the Whelen.

FWIW, If I had a Whelen, RE15 would be my first choice for a powder. Jay

According to Sierra Edition V 57.8 gr of VihtaVuori N140 will give you 2700 FPS out of a 26 " barrel. That's a MAX load.

With that big of a bore on that case... if you are searching for max velocity....

play with non traditional ( in recent years)... IMR 4198, H 4198, RL 7 and RL 10.....Even H 322, will give you some stellar velocities and accuracies..

H 335 does so also, but its muzzle flash stops me from using it...

Some of the AA powders, like 2230 C... or 2460 etc, will also do some fast velocities with pretty fair accuracy...

I always use plain old Large Rifle primers...

I'll make it clear, I have not done this in a Whelan, only in a 8 x 57 and a 338/06.... But based on there being more data available in a Whelan than a 338/06.... I have always used Whelan data for load development in the 338/06.. I just take beginning Whelan loads and drop them by 10% and then work up...

Also like a 444 Marlin, big capacity, big bore opening.. faster powders actually give the faster velocities...

Any powder than is fast and works well in a 223 is a good powder for the Whelan, or the 338/06 or the 8mm Mauser for that matter...but many guys will argue with ya on it.. because it is definitely the road less traveled.... but not based on results.. it is based on a lot of guys don't experiment that much... because they are worried they are going to blow themselves and their rifles up....but you'd be surprised on how far a little common sense would carry ya!

good luck.. and remember to work up any load.. even those in the load manuals.. because all firearms are an entity unto themselves....

cheers
seafire

raybass,

You will find loading the 35 Whelen very straight forward and with few hitches. Reloader 15, IMO, is the very best powder with 225 grain and 250 grain bullets. I like it over the IMR series due to being less temperature sensitive. I live in Florida and there is a differance.

If your CDL is like mine, you will be able to load to an OAL of 3.500". This is up a lot from the SAMMI spec of 3.34". The rifle has a long throat and magazine. This goves a little extra room for powder. Check this out in your rifle.

With 225 Nosler BT (most accurate bullet in 35 caliber I have found) start at 56 grains of Reloader 15 and work your way up from there. In my CDL I max out at 62.0 grains of relaoder 15. This is a very compressed load and may even take a little shaking to settle the powder into the case. You will get over 2700 fps with this load.

With Barnes TSX, my rifle maxes out 1 grain lower with a top velocity of 2680 fps 15 ft. from the muzzle. Though, in this rifle I don't like this bullet due to the driving bands being exposed and I am concerned about dirt collecting in the grooves and barrel wear.

Please use caution while reloading and work up loads slowly in your rifle.

About the healthyest RL15 load I'm aware of with 225 gr. bullets is 56.5 gr. Unless you have some documentation I'm not aware of 62.o gr. of RL is more than just a little over MAX

Raybass
1}IMR 4320...2}Varget... Fed 210 Primer
AK

Jay Johnson

Look at Allients own loading for this cartridge. They list 59.5 grains for a 250 grain bullet. Do you think we can safely add more powder with 25 grains less bullet weight?
http://www.alliantpowder.com/reloaders/RecipeDetail.asp...id=1088&bulletid=324

And yes, these loads are over book loads. We all know that SAMMI specs for the pressure for the 35 Whelen is set lower then other modern cartridges. But we are talking about reloading into modern bolt rifles, not 1903 Springfields. The loads in modern rifles can be safely increased from most books in the 35 Whelen catridge. Just work up slowly in your specific rifle. and use prudent reloading practices.

Sierra Infinity Suite software lists loads for 225gr bullets using 54.4gr IMR4895, 54.4gr 4064, and 54.4gr Rl5 giving 2600fps in a 26 inch barrel. I have used 4064 with very good results but lately I have been migrating to RL powders in most of my loads. I am in the process of moving up to 250gr NP for my 35Whelen and intend to use the RL powders. I only use Barnes data when loading their bullets as they tend to have different pressure spikes than traditional plated bullets. Hope this helps.

Buy a Barnes and Nosler reloading book and read them.

Don't get your recipes off the internet until you get some practical reloading experience under your belt.

Ditto what onefunzr2 said. I suggest also getting the Hornady book. (I seem to refer to my Nosler and Hornady manuals the most. I don't use Barnes bullets.)

RL-15 is my powder of choice for my .35 Whelen and 9.3x62.

-Bob F.

I have the best accuracy with the 225 gr. Sierra and 58 gr. or RL 15. I have not worked with the Partitions or any 250 gr. slugs yet.

Hey fella's thanks for the advice and yes I will follow the manuals for a while. RE-15 sounds like a good starting point. I have some powder that is about ten years old should I throw it away or use it? It still looks good and is dry. I have loaded before but it's been awhile. There is alot of room in the mag box with a factory cart. in it but I haven't measured the box yet. I did pick up a rock chucker kit, still building the bench right now but that will be finished soon. I will get some more loading manuals but for now I have the speer manual that came with the kit.

Ray a good source for reloading books at a very reasonable price.

Abebooks

Thanks Jay checked it out and it's going to get me some more manuals faster.

another vote for rl-15.

Whew, those barnes bullets are high. Bigbullet thanks again RL-15 will be the first powder I'll try max load in the speer manual is 60 gr. for a 225gr. speer bullet but I'll start at the bottom and work up. Thanks again guys for helping.