I am looking at loading some lighter bullets in my .35 Whelen, I am considering the 180 gr. FP Speer and the 200 gr. Hornady Interlok RN. Your experience with these bullets on whitetails is being sought, I know that the 180 gr. Speer is designed for the .35 Remington so I plan to keep that in mind and keep velocity to that level in my Whelen. Recent shoulder surgery and the need for a lighter recoiling load is the reason for considering these bullets.

Sure, if you keep the velocity at the 21/2200 fps level then you can use bullets made for the 35 Rem; I do that in my 350 Rem Mags. (I think I have 4)
The standard 200s open up fast and kill deer. As they were designed to do.

I have used the 180 grain Barnes X with success on deer in the Whelen. They will not break up at higher velocity.

Years back I loaded .358 158gr pistol bullets to a fps that matched my 225 hunting loads. Light recoil, cheaper to load and no change in zero for my scope. Just having fun. Optik1

Cutting Edge Bullets 160 grain .358 Maximus bullet might work for you.

quote:

Originally posted by Gunswizard:
I am looking at loading some lighter bullets in my .35 Whelen, I am considering the 180 gr. FP Speer and the 200 gr. Hornady Interlok RN. Your experience with these bullets on whitetails is being sought, I know that the 180 gr. Speer is designed for the .35 Remington so I plan to keep that in mind and keep velocity to that level in my Whelen. Recent shoulder surgery and the need for a lighter recoiling load is the reason for considering these bullets.

I've used the Hornady 200 grain spire point on hogs. They worked, not much else needs to said.

I had more issues with 35 cal. bullets being too soft in my 358 Sav mod 99F, on Mule Deer, that was in the mid 70s. I had two 250 gr Speers blow up, one on a neck shot, the other on a flank shot to off shoulder, both died within a reasonable distance after the hit but the bullets did not perform properly...I then went to the then new 225 gr partition when they came out and all was well...then I traded the gun off, hopefully that problem has been addressed since that time. I wonder however if some of those bullets I had were old enough to have been designed for the 35 Remington,dunno??