Just acquired a 35 Whelan in the Remington 700 BDL Classic. It was a "bargin" so now I have to work up a load. I am thinking about the Sierra 225 gr. What do y'all think??

I had good luck with RL-15 in my Ruger M-77 MkII. 0.5 grain under Alliant's max gave 2,550 fps and 1 MOA with 250 gr. Hornady and Nosler bullets. Barnes solids did not group with RL-15, IMR 4064 and 4320.

35 Whelen data is screwy because bullet makers have mild data and powdermakers have hot data. The Federal Trophy Bonded load is great. Remington ammo is good, but all factory ammo is underloaded by about 150 fps. Hope this helps, Okie John.

the 225 Sierra's leave large exit wounds on hogs.

gentlemen: Thanks for the info. Gives me a good starting point.

I just worked up the exact same load. Couple of things I learned:

1) Either anneal the brass, or seat deep (3.25) to make sure your neck tension is high enough. Seating .1 deeper reduced the ES by over 100 in my case.

2) Benchmark was clearly the fastest powder. I must have a slow lot of RL15 - it only gave me 2400 at the Sierra max charge of 55 gr. The most accurate and most consistent was 3031, with 2610 fps at max charge. (FED 210 / rem brass 22" barrel).

3) H322, 4064 and Varget reached about the same speeds in my gun (2600), but were a little less accurate or had a higher velocity spread.

HTH, Dutch.

The best powder for me has been RL 12, and the second best is BL-C2. I like the 225 sierras. I also like the 220 speer it just isn't as aerodynamic. For a good all around 250 I like the speer hot-core.