I have a friend back east that had his Ruger #1 rebarreled with a 1 in 10" twist barrel for the .35 Whelen. He said accuracy was OK, and he used it for a moose hunt in Newfoundland. He got a moose using, IIRC Remington factory ammo.
I, for one, can't see the reasoning why Remington and Ruger used a 1 in 16" twist in their rifles. IIRC, Whelen and Howe used a 1 in 12" twist, and my next Whelen will have a 1 in 12" twist. But then, I only shoot 250 gr. bullets or heavier in mine, and the 1 in 16" doesn't cut it.
Paul B.

I haven't had any trouble with my Ruger with any bullet weight I have tried. I have shot from 200-250gr bullets all with acceptable accuracy. It really likes the hornady 250gr RN and Speer 250gr SP.

okie john...



So much for theories . 1.25 MOA isn't too shabby with a Whelen.

Borealis Bob, it's actually my project, and it turned out as pretty much as planned. I told my gunsmith I wanted a twist faster than 1:16, as I would not shoot anything over 250 grains and would probably try some 300-gr. bullets. I figured either 1:12 or 1:14 would do, and I had no preference on the twist, but I did not tell him that.

This guy has been around forever and I trust his judgement, but I know nothing about 1:10 .358" barrels, hence my question. I didn't even know anybody made one, and I was kind of surprised to find one on my rifle. I have only shot it a few times, but it does about 1.25 MOA with Remington 250-gr. factory ammo. That's nothing spectacular, but it will do for my purposes, as I'm not a benchrest shooter. For the short term, I plan to work up one load with a 250-gr. bullet, then load several hundred rounds of it and go shooting. If it shoots well, I'll probably forget about the twist.

Paul B, I think Remington used 1:16 because they thought folks would shoot 200 and 225 gr. bullets for deer and plink with pistol bullets. Remington 250-gr. factory ammo did about 2,350 fps in my Ruger 35 Whelen, which is also 1:16. They did 3-4 MOA, as did Nosler and Hornady 250-gr. bullets going that slow. But when I ran them at 2,550 fps, the groups shrank to around 1 MOA. Groups were best with the Hornady 250 RN. I'm beginning to think that the key to accurate 250-gr. loads in a 1:16 barrel may be speed.

Thanks everyone for the information, and if you hear anything else, please let me know. I'll post back as I get to the range with this one.

Okie John

While I would certainly weigh the consensus heavily in choosing a barrel twist, I'm not convinced we know all that much about guns. I say get a couple brands each of 200, 225 and 250g bullets, and see what you come up with. All we know is that they will spin faster in proportion to their speed compared to a longer twisted barrel. At Whelen speeds, I wouldn't think you'd get anywhere near overrotation ("hyperstability" it's called? There's a misnomer for you.)
If you're not trying to benchrest or shoot prariedogs at 300, you might find something special about that gun. Only one way to find out.

okie john,

180's are much more comfortable than 250 gr! The Hornady single shot pistol bullets at 180 gr shoot fairly decent, but I don't know how they perform on game. I shot up my supply in a .357 Mag, so I switched to 250 gr Beartooth in the .357 and reverted back to 200 gr Hornady's in the Whelen.

Paul, I like 180's in a 30-06. In return for the extra weight, cost and hassle of a medium-bore rifle, I want bullets that start at 250 grs.

Okie John

I guess a good part of my gripe comes from the fact that the .35 Whelen was meant to be used with the heavier bullets, 250, 275 and possibly 300 gr. The 1 in 16" is just barely usable with 250 gr. bullets unless you speed them up above factory specs.
Look at what Winchester did with the .358 Win. and .338 Win. Mag.; they dropped all the heavier bullets. No 250 gr. bullet for the .358 and the 250 and 300 gr. bullets are long gone for the .338 Mag.in Winchester ammo. The only way to get those bullet weights now is to handload or go to a different brand of cartridge.
Methinks Remington and Ruger figure the same thing will happen to the heavier bullets in the Whelen as well.
Supposedly, Remington still sell the 250 gr. load, but every damn gun shop I've hit here in town says they can't get them. Hell! it's a bitch to even find then in 200 gr. loads, they just don't want to bother. One store does carry them in the premium Federal brand, but I refuse to pay the $35 a box they want. I can handload a better load anyway.
My custom Mauser in .35 Whelen has a 1 in 14" twist, but it just barely stabizes a 270 gr. bullet, so my next one will be in 1 in 12", thank you very much.
FWIW, when Winchester brought out the .358, the twist was 1 in 12". My Savage 99 and browning BLR in .358 have 1 in 12" twists. So why did Ruger go with a 1 in 16" twist in there rifles?
Paul B.

Okie, the Whelen does push you around a little. Proper posture at the bench and a Past shoulder recoil pad work wonders to improve the experience.

As far as the twist, some speculate that faster twist barrels spin the bullets faster so that they are less easily deflected by grass or twigs. I don't put much stock in it. However, I think that you won't find any accuracy problems due to the twist unless you use quite poor quality bullets. HTH, Dutch.

I have the Remington 700 Classic in .35 Whelen. It will shoot a number of different loads, both handloads and factory in 1 MOA or less with both 225 and 250 grain bullets. It also does about 1 1/4 inch with the Remington 200 grain loads. The Remington Whelens are usually extremely accurate in my experience.

duckster

I couldn't agree more.

WN

After trying several IMR powders in my 700 Classic .35 Whelen, a poster on huntamerica (it was before AR) put me wise to RL-15 in the Whelen. The barrel is 22" and has 1-16" twist. I worked up to 58.5 grains with a 250 Nosler Partition. It gives 2,525 fps average and usually under 1" moa if I do my part. Several sub 1/2" moa have been shot. This is one grain less than the load Finn Agaard worked up in his Handloader Dec. 1997 article. The load has accounted for two 5x5 elk and a couple of moose. I'm sticking with it.
Rich Elliott