If you had to settle with ONE NONPREMIUM bullet weight for 35 Whelen for shooting targets and thin skinned critters out to 300m or so what would that bullet and weight be? The Idea is get the closes to optimum performance for me with buying the fewest boxes of different bullets, something that yields the best compromise between terminal and ballistic performance

I seem to recall reading somewhere that the Sierra 225 Game King was designed with the Whelen in mind.

225gr

Second the 225 gr Sierra Game King.
Shoots clover leafs / 100 meters in my gun if I do the job. (It´s a Ruger with 1-14 Shilen barrel by the way)

250 grain Nosler Partition.

The Whelen was designed originally with bullet weights of 250 gr. to 300 grains. My choice would be either the 250 gr. Speer Hot-core or the Hornady Spire Point, which ever shot the best in my rifle. In my three .35 Whelens, the Hornady was very slightly the more accurate so in my case, either bullet would do. Both shoot to the same POI.
I ran across some of the original two core Speer Grand Slams at a gun show, but haven't tried them yet. I might try them for elk, if I can ever draw a tag.
Paul B.

250 Partition for me too.......

My fav is the 250 A Frame but use a lot of 250 partitions for practice as they both shoot close to same POI.

My NONPREMIUM bullet (as requested by the original post) would be the Speer 250gr.

Barstooler

The two best non-premium bullets I have used in either the .358 Win. or the .35 Whelen are the 225gr Sierra & the 250gr Speer. The Sierra is usually very accurate, but seems a bit soft, in my experience. If elk & moose are on your agenda, the 250gr Hotcor is tough to beat.

quote:

If you had to settle with ONE NONPREMIUM bullet weight for 35 Whelen for shooting targets and thin skinned critters out to 300m or so what would that bullet and weight be?

Easy one....Hornady's interlock 200 grain.

You did say thin skinned didn't you? For elk and moose I'd like more weight!

I don't own a Whelen but IMO if you're shooting a .358 bullet and have a 250g available, why not shoot the 250g bullet?

If you want to shoot 225g bullets, then shoot a .338....

Just my humble opinion and in the end, as always, shoot what you like.

I would have to say either a speer 220 gr or a 250gr hornady interlock. I haven't used either on game though.

quote:

I ran across some of the original two core Speer Grand Slams at a gun show, but haven't tried them yet. I might try them for elk, if I can ever draw a tag.
Paul B.

Original Remington 250 SP ?

I thought the original 250 SP Remington factory round was Cor Lokt From Remington?

quote:

Originally posted by vapodog:

quote:

If you had to settle with ONE NONPREMIUM bullet weight for 35 Whelen for shooting targets and thin skinned critters out to 300m or so what would that bullet and weight be?

Easy one....Hornady's interlock 200 grain.
You did say thin skinned didn't you? For elk and moose I'd like more weight!

.

Even for meeses and elks at 2750fps., especially when you're stretching it to 300 yds. roger

why worry about NON-premium bullet?

I've discovered that loading Nosler Partitions and ONLY Nosler partitions in a particular rifle saves me more money that would be wasted in developing loads with "lesser"
bullets than I'll spend on partitions in the life of a particular rifle. it isn't only the cost of the bullets but the cost of primers, propellant, etc...

Developing loads with TWO bullets is invariably cheaper than attempting the same job with ten.

If your results aren't similar you are doing the math wrong.

35Whelen? 225grain partition, it'll do anything you have any reasonable expectation that the 35whelen can do.

RELOADING is sometimes about saving money, but usually winds up being shooting more for the same money
(costs usually expanding to consume the available budget)

But shooting the cheapest components isn't always sound financial management.

Frankly I use the premium bullets not because I have "money to burn" but specifically because I do not.
My "gun stuff" budget is extreemly limited and I want (literally) the most bang for my dollars.

AD

quote:

Originally posted by vinnyg:

quote:

I ran across some of the original two core Speer Grand Slams at a gun show, but haven't tried them yet. I might try them for elk, if I can ever draw a tag.
Paul B.

Original Remington 250 SP ?

I thought the original 250 SP Remington factory round was Cor Lokt From Remington?

The original Remington 250 gr. bullet was the round nose Core-lokt which was soon changed to the Sitzer Core-lokt. I still have two boxes of the round nose Remington loads.
The Speer Grand Slams I was talking about are the two core old style component bullets for reloading, not a bullet loaded by Remington.
Paul B.

In a Non Premium bullet I'd go with the Speer 250 grain. 300 yrds ( I think in yards ) is no problem for a .35 Whelen sighted 3 inches high at 100 Yards. It's an 8 inch drop.
Rich Elliott

[/QUOTE]I thought the original 250 SP Remington factory round was Cor Lokt From Remington?[/QUOTE]

The original Remington 250 gr. bullet was the round nose Core-lokt which was soon changed to the Sitzer Core-lokt. I still have two boxes of the round nose Remington loads.
The Speer Grand Slams I was talking about are the two core old style component bullets for reloading, not a bullet loaded by Remington.
Paul B.[/QUOTE]

PAUL B,
I still have a box and check out the PIC...
It says SP even though they are Round Nose.
I love these rounds, and it's ashame REM discontinued them.

250 Grain SP

Vin

225 gr. Swift A-Frames.

I have killed a bunch of deer & hogs with the 225 Sierra but have never had complete penetration on any game. The core is usually seperated from the jacket, that said most kills are either right there or in a few steps.

I'd sure want to try the Barnes 225-grain TSX. It might be a premium bullet, but it is cheaper than the Partition and should shoot pretty flat to 300 m.

250gr Hornady round nose...

Premium or non-premium?

I'd settle on 225 grains in a Nosler, and nothing else for killing stuff.

I might develop ONE plinking load to save costs to shoot more often, with hopefully the Speer 220 grainer.

My vote goes to 250gr. whether Hornady, Speer or bulk Remington Core-Lokt for hunting.

Load a 158gr cast lead .358" pistol bullet for low recoil plinking.

Well, I don't have my Whelen finished quite yet, but when I do get it done, I plan to feed it 250's in whatever flavor will shoot the best.
My personal philosophy on bullet weights and cartridges based on the '06 case are:
35 Whelen = 250 grains
338-06 = 210-225 grains
8mm-06 = 196-200 grains
30-06 = 180 grains (It's the most popular weight for a reason!!)
280 = 160 grains
270 = 140 grains (This is THE bullet for a 270, IMHO!!)
25-06 = 115-120 grains (or a 100 grain barnes TSX!!)
(I know I left out one or two, such as the 6.5-06 and the 375 and 400 Whelens, but those listed are the most common, and I am not familiar enough with the others to comment!!)
If you'll look at the ballistics tables, you'll find that these bullet weights give the best balance of velocity, energy, trajectory, etc. In at least a couple of cases, if you go to a much heavier bullet than I list above, energy both at the muzzle and downrange suffer due to too low a starting velocity. You can go a little (or even a lot)lighter in each case and still kill game, but why? If you need a lighter bullet than a 250 in a whelen, just shoot a 338-06, 8mm-06, or 30-06, etc.
To me, hunting with a 35 whelen with less than a 250 grain bullet, IF YOUR GUN WILL SHOOT IT (or a 220-225 if it just won't shoot the 250's), is just silly...if you want a lighter bullet, shoot the old standard 30-06, a 338-06, or one of the Whelen's other little brothers...
BUT, that's just my opinion, and it's probably not worth much!
Hope this helps!!
Jeremy

Krochus

I have never had a 35 Whelen, but I did have a 350Rem Mag that I liked to shoot, so I shot it quite a bit.

For just shooting and hunting smaller big game, out to 300 yards I would go with which ever 200gr bullet shot the most accurate in your rifle.

I shot a lot of 200gr Hornadays in my 350 RM and they shot good at 300 yards.

They will give better performance at that range on deer sized game.

On elk or bigger Alaskan game I would go up to a 250gr bullet.

If I was going to pick one nonpremium bullet for EVERYTHING, lower 48 and Alaska It would be either the Hornady or the Speer 250gr., which ever shot best in my rifle.

Both shot well in my little 350RM Model 7.

I like the .358" 225 gr. Woodleigh. Works well on elk.

Nosler 225 gr PT for general around use. I have used this bullet to take quite a few WT deer and a 250 lb Blk Bear.

JD338

quote:

PAUL B,
I still have a box and check out the PIC...
It says SP even though they are Round Nose.
I love these rounds, and it's ashame REM discontinued them.

Yeah. The spitzer stuff is marked Pointed Soft Point.