I have a Remington 700 in 35 Whelen, can I reem out the chamber to a 300 Wby and have a .35 wildcat? What will not work? I have two Whelens and want to beef one up. Any suggestions? Optik1

A 700 bolt would need to be altered to handle the WBY case you would need to open it up as well as change the extractor. I seriously doubt the current throat and neck from your Whelen would be in the correct spot. So rechamber neck and throat.

Probably easier to simply go with a 358Norma or 358STA. You would still need to open the bolt but with the Norma you might not need to recut the neck and throat. Plus the Wby will have a double radius which I've found a royal pain to neck up.

35 Whelens are neat rifles, that hold their value. Why not just sell it and buy a 300 Win Mag?

Time and Money ahead...

Thanks to both of you. I just have had a jones for a fast 35 for quite a while. Guess I will save my money and buy what I want. As for the Whelen it would be a sin to alter it, it is in a beautiful CDL. Tom

I would go for one of the Improved versions of the Whelen.

quote:

Originally posted by Chiefen:
I would go for one of the Improved versions of the Whelen.

Damn good advice,,Ackley,Gibbs or Brown Whelen!!

I had the same itch a few years ago and played with a 358 Norma Mag. After spending a lot of range time with both, out to 300 yards the only place I could tell a difference between it and my 35 Whelen was in my shoulder.

quote:

Originally posted by SFRanger7GP:
I had the same itch a few years ago and played with a 358 Norma Mag. After spending a lot of range time with both, out to 300 yards the only place I could tell a difference between it and my 35 Whelen was in my shoulder.

I use the 280 Swift almost exclusily for hunting these days,,for plinking and the like a Sierra 225 over a moderate charge of H-4895 is a fun shooter.

358 Norma Mag. Or a 358 STA. One is basically 338 Win Mag length, the other is 375 h&h length. Both good cartridges, the NM has the slight advantage of being factory ammo. - dan

quote:

Originally posted by dan belisle:
358 Norma Mag.

+1

I would not waste my time with an improved version of any caliber makes no sense whatsoever to gain only 200fps, most people never shoot over 200yds anyway. There would be no significant gain by doing this other than just having to work the brass and waste your time fireforming cases when you could be one pull of the ram and your done. If you want more speed just step up the ladder to the next caliber. Just my 2

quote:

Originally posted by MuskegMan:

quote:

Originally posted by dan belisle:
358 Norma Mag.

+1

+2

yep.. nothing wrong with a 358 norma.. but try sierra gameking 225gr

The 358 Norma or the 35/338 has an edge over the 35 Whelen, but thats a lot of money to pay for an edge!

In the real world of safe and sane shooters your looking at 100 to 150 FPS and you can through a rock that fast..

quote:

Originally posted by jeffeosso:
yep.. nothing wrong with a 358 norma.. but try sierra gameking 225gr

Yup, the 225 Gamekings are a stellar performer. I shoot those out of my 35 Whelen and they just seem to defy gravity. Amazingly accurate too! I'd leave your gun alone and enjoy it.

I had a 35 Brown Whelen (a blown out 35 Whelen with a shorter necke than the 35 Whelen or the 35 Whelen IMP)

It duplicated the 358 Norma for all practical purposes and was the best of the IMP versions..Only downside I could see was you had to size them up to 9.3 or 375 then down to 35 for fire forming, and you had to fireform..Once a case was done they lasted forever..It was a neat caliber..

But today if I wanted a 35 Wildcat, which I don't, I would opt for a 35 on a 9.3x62 case. I did that recently with a 375 and nearly duplicated the 375 H&H with 300 gr. bullets at 2500 FPS with max loads.

Today I just take the wonderful 9.3x62 and be done with it.

I built a couple of Brown-Whelens about thirty years ago. They did a lot of things but one thing they didn't do was match a 358 Norma. In fact, they didn't do a lot more than the standard 35 Whelen when loaded to th same pressures. About 60 fps.
Regards, Bill