Lots of great options to get another .400 Whelen going!

Great news that dpcd has a Petrov reamer in hand to go with the Douglas barrels he offers. A Douglas #4, or one of dpcd's custom contours, is another one-stop shop!

The CH4D dies that Waterrat has offered work perfectly with the Petrov spec chamber and if you can do your own barrel work, Fred Zeglin with 4D Reamer Rentals has a Petrov spec reamer for rent.

FWIW, I plunked a 350gr home swaged, bonded core soft point through a ~160lb blacktail Friday (2350fpsMV over 62gr IMR8208). Even though I hit him right through the ball joints of both shoulders, there was only about a baseball sized area of damage on each side. Exit hole through the hide was a good 1 1/2" but it left hardly any blood shot meat. Range was somewhere around 275 yards so I had to hold a little high but nailed him good and he fell right where he stood. After whining about the recoil of the .400, I took the shot from prone over my pack and didn't notice a thing.

PWS, congratulations on that blacktail. It has been years since I made venison.
Milehigh, Tom can accommodate you, I am sure.

I found very similar performance on a caribou at 250 yards with a 400 grain Woodleigh.

Congrats PWS . for Kodiak, I would consider the 400 a perfect deer rifle. !

Years ago I built a 416PDK basically a shoulder forward 400 Whelen in 416. My buddy lives in Alaska and uses a 340 Woodeigh for everything and loves it. I keep meaning to resize a couple to 411 and see how they work in my 400PDK.

RIP,

Question specific to one of your set ups....

How much did you have to hog out the featherweight stock to fit? Do you think doing the same, to a walnut FWT stock would leave too little wood up front? I've got a spare New Haven custom shop FWT stock that I'm considering. I've also got a spare Safari stock (at least I think it was supposed to end up on a safari, no front stud cut out and much thicker pad than the other custom shop stocks) that could work.

MileHighShooter,

That is a Shilen #4 sporter in the featherweight stock. Mine is tupperware and plenty of room to spare.
Having owned a walnut-stocked, factory Winchester M70 Featherweight in 270 WCF,
I think it would work fine.
The Shilen #5 went into the skinny Ruger Hawkeye walnut stock just fine.

Rip
.

Great! I think that is the direction I'll go on the stock. Love the FWT stocks

RIP; that's good to know the #5 fits the factory Ruger barrel channel . ! Thanks !

More pronounced steps? Not sure what you mean; it is a copy of the original Mauser barrel. Make sure you aren't looking at the picture of the Earl of Marlborough, which does have smaller steps as it's a much smaller barrel.

quote:

Originally posted by Cold Trigger Finger:
RIP; that's good to know the #5 fits the factory Ruger barrel channel . ! Thanks !

I did not say that.
You would have to open up the barrel channel,
but there is plenty of wood for a #5 sporter contour on a Ruger Hawkeye stock.

Rip
.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
More pronounced steps? Not sure what you mean; it is a copy of the original Mauser barrel. Make sure you aren't looking at the picture of the Earl of Marlborough, which does have smaller steps as it's a much smaller barrel.

I was thinking like some of the military barrels, I guess I think they look VERY stepped? On that 1903 I really had to look close, where some military you can see the steps a mile away.

Well crap! I done went and confused myself. Picking up a Husky 640 last night off layaway, I spied a bubba'd 1903 for $150. Now I have a 1903 AND M70 that I to use

Those of you who have drawn the Speer 350-grain .416 bullet to .411 using the Lee .410-bush trough sizer -- what press are you using? I lubed one with Imperial Sizing Die Wax and could not get it through the die using my Lee Classic Turret. Wish I still had my old RCBS Rockchucker, darn it.

Bill,

I had to do it in a couple of steps on my Rockchucker. I screwed the dies out so that it was using the end of the stroke to push the bullet into the die and then turned it down just enough to finish pushing the bullet through the die at the end of the stroke. It was a royal pain the butt. I couldn't get enough leverage to do it in one pass so it was screw it out for the first push and back in for the final push. For every bullet. I'm afraid you'll end up tearing that Lee turret to pieces trying to draw bullets. Save yourself the headache and buy some .410 or .411 bullets. The Speers are a pretty tough bullet from what I've been told and are designed to work at 416 Rigby/Remington/Weatherby velocities.

Mart, I just did it by putting the die and ram in my bench vise. Still a lot of work, though. It must be a tough bullet!
I am tempted to cook up a few loads with Trail Boss and a cast 315-grain flatpoint, just for giggles.

I have an Accurate Molds block that will throw a 320 grain and a 400 grain bullet, one of each. Mine likes both bullets but doesn't feed the 320 very well. No issues with feeding on the longer 400 grain bullet.

TB and the 315 should make a great load. Soft recoil and still have some thump. It would make a great close range deer load.

I started doing it in stages on my Rockchucker. Then set up to do it with a hydraulic jack.

1-ton arbor press at Harbor Freight for $55 on sale.
You'll figure it out like I did after roughone suggested I get a little arbor press for bullet sizing.

You will be pushing the bullets nose-first downward through the die.
I got a Dillon plate to screw the sizing die into, upside down.
It replaces that clover-leaf iron plate thing in the picture above.
Just set that under the press ram so the die spits the bullets into a little tray placed between the feet of the press base.
Use a water-soluble Lube like RCBS Case Lube-2 and the bullets come out squeaky clean after a water rinse.
No mess in lubing, just lube the bullets by rolling them on a Lyman lube pad saturated with the RCBS Case Lube-2.

You can put a cheater pipe on that little press handle, and push them through with two fingers.

To allow for the spring-back of jacketed bullets you might have to go as low as .409" if you want to end up at .411" from .416".
But .410" might work fine.
It depends on the bullets being sized.
I make .408" bullets out of .416" bullets, with multiple step-downs,
and there I do allow a full .002" for spring-back when sizing the .416/350-gr TTSX to either .411, .410, or .408.
Depends on the bullet you are sizing, of course, maybe the lube also?
I am beginning to think that a powder-coat-painted Linotype bullet of .461" diameter,
using only the paint as lube,
that passes through a .460" diameter sizer springs back to .461" diameter,
and the paint just gets shinier.

But even if your .410"-sized bullet springs back to .4110",.4115", or even .4120"
any of those might be a great shooter.

SAAMI .458 WinMag spec is for a .459" maximum bullet diameter in a .458" minimum groove diameter.

Rip
.

Quicker than my press set up.

Rip, a Harbor Freight arbor press popped into my head, too. Unfortunately, the local HF won't open until next year, and I didn't want to drive 65 miles to Las Cruces for one. So I will probably "gut it out" with the bench vise for the time being.

Bill & Snellstrom

What OAL can you guys use in the 1903s? I know the Win 70 can be loaded Berry length. I'm thinking pretty hard on using that Springfield in my pic above. 1, like Snellstrom said, its what the Col would've used, and 2, I don't need a 5th 30-06

Unless I was going to alter the box I would go 3.34.

Just got my 400 Whelen back from Mr. McGee. Turned out really great. Built on a Winchester 70. Shilen #3 contour barrel, NECG sights. Weighs 7 lbs 10 oz as pictured. Balances at the front action screw. Can’t wait to shoot it. If considering one, I’d certainly have Rusty put it together.

That is a great looking Whelen! Welcome to the club...

Yahoo! Rusty whooped out another one!
He did both of mine.
One on a Ruger Hawkeye, straight 400 Whelen-Petrov of 2003,
with a Shilen #5 chrome-moly 23.6” barrel, walnut stock, 7#14oz dry weight.
The other was on a Winchester M70 Classic Stainless,
with a Shilen #4 stainless, 25” barrel, in the factory Tupperware synthetic featherweight stock,
chambered to 400 Whelen-Petrov-Berry of 2013, with 3.6” box,
same dry weight of 7#14oz.

Your #3 Shilen is mighty light!
How does it shoot?

Rip ...

The 400Whelen is cute and skinny, sort of the Twiggy of the rifle ladies.

I think I'd go with a 416 Ruger.

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
How does it shoot?
Rip ...

Don’t know yet. My kids(a one year old and a three year old) are keeping me too busy right now. Maybe in a few weeks I’ll have time to get it out.

quote:

Originally posted by 416Tanzan:
The 400Whelen is cute and skinny, sort of the Twiggy of the rifle ladies.

I think I'd go with a 416 Ruger.

lame...

Ya this growing up thing is weird. I've had 1 brand new rifle for a month now and another for over a week . Got loads made up for them . And I haven't been to the range yet. Used to be I'de go straight from picking a gun up to the closest place I could find just to shoot it.
I'm telling myself it's because I'm more methodical now. ???

Methodical? In my case just plain OLD! Not sure how soon after cataract surgery I should be fooling with the .400 -- which I still haven't shot.

+Templar+,

How long is your barrel and what is the muzzle diameter?
Are you planning to re-stock it for iron sights or use that Ultimate Shadow stock for scope-sight shooting?

Rip ...

quote:

Originally posted by RIP:
+Templar+,

How long is your barrel and what is the muzzle diameter?
Are you planning to re-stock it for iron sights or use that Ultimate Shadow stock for scope-sight shooting?

Rip ...

Barrel is 24”, .625” at the muzzle. Someday a plan to restock it, but the sights are for back-up only. I have 1.5-5x20 scope I am going to put on it.

Elmer Elmer really liked the 400 Whelan .I will have to look up which books have the most info on it .
I think his were mostly 1917 endfields and Remington actions .He liked it alot better than the 35 Whelan that's for sure .

dgr416
There is without a doubt more information on this 28 page thread than was ever in print anywhere.
If you go back and read from the beginning we've solved all the conundrums and BS stories of headspace problems and not enough shoulder to action type, barrel makers and dies.

I chose the 1903 Springfield action for my build because Whelen used a Springfield for his 400. The 1917 Enfield would be cool too as would a pre war Winchester. No matter how you get in the game the 400 Whelen is a very cool cartridge.

quote:

No matter how you get in the game the 400 Whelen is a very cool cartridge.

Yes, the 400 Whelen is a cool cartridge.

If fact, I'm pretty sure that there would not be any problem getting a buffalo license written in Tanzania for a 400 Whelen. It has the diameter, and many decent handholds with a 350gn or 400gn bullet produce well over 4000 foot-pounds of muzzle-energy, should anyone be concerned. If it were available over the counter, it would get consideration from me. Thread-posters are welcome to lobby Ruger. But there are not a lot of good buffalo bullets available. I'm sort of partial to monolithics, and neither GSC nor Barnes makes a nice .411" buffalo bullet, requiring some of the swaging mentioned earlier in the thread.

So practically speaking . . . I suspect that the Ruger Hawkeye African is going to remain primarily a 416 affair for this niche of diameter. A person could do worse.

I've read since I was a child how the 450/400 was the premier Cape Buff medicine and handy on jumbos and anything else dangerous.
The 400 Whelen is all that and more depending on who is loading what...

quote:

Originally posted by Gerard:
http://www.gscustomusa.com/411317HV276.html

Outstanding in its field for sure, the 400 Whelen Game Field Dominator Bullet:




Rip ...