I'm thinking of building a rifle chambered in .400 Whelen, and I see Pac-Nor deliver barrels. But does anyone know what version the deliver? I have tried to mail them a couple of times, but haven't got any replies. I'm going for the .400 Whelen Ackley version.

I have worked with Pac Nor before and they are great. Just pick up the phone and call for faster service.

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I have tried to mail them a couple of times, but haven't got any replies. I'm going for the .400 Whelen Ackley version.

I doubt there is a Ackley version. The confusion comes from the fact that most people were not aware that unlike the smaller Whelens the 400 used a .458 shoulder not the .411. As to a 40 deg vs a 17 deg angle you would never see the difference and it would have no impact on capacity.

I stole this from Michael Petrov's Article in Precision Shooting 2/01. I would be happy to email his entire articles if you are interested. Z-Hat uses a large portion of the story in his 411Hawk write up. http://www.z-hat.com/smashing_the_headspace_myth.htm

"""The biggest challenge I faced in learning about the .400 was to find and record chamber dimensions of the older original rifles. Although it was not a popular cartridge there have been several .400's made over the last 78 years. Most of the problems with this cartridge I have been able to trace to one factor. The. 30-06, .25 Whelen (.25-06), .35 Whelen and .38 Whelen all have a shoulder diameter of .441. "The ORIGINAL .400 Whelen shoulder is .458". When and how this information got lost to modern riflemen and writers I have no idea. Many 400's that were made in later years for which I have measurements have the .441" shoulder; this is also true of many resizing dies."""

I've built my own version called the 400PDK there have been several threads on it if you do a search. Yes it can give a little higher velocity than the Whelen but not really enough that anything you shoot would ever know the difference.

quote:

Originally posted by Lakelander:
I'm thinking of building a rifle chambered in .400 Whelen, and I see Pac-Nor deliver barrels. But does anyone know what version the deliver? I have tried to mail them a couple of times, but haven't got any replies. I'm going for the .400 Whelen Ackley version.

http://www.pac-nor.com/
Try the email link on their web page, they respond more quickly to email.

I built the .411 Hawk, no regrets.
If you are interested:

http://www.z-hat.com/411%20Hawk.htm

Thanks for your answers.

I'm avare of Mr. Petrovs articles, and I have also been in contact with him.

I believe there is an Ackley version, and I think ch4d has dies in stock.

See this thread:

http://forums.accuratereloadin...=969101245#969101245

I have talked to Mr. Davison of ch4d, and he can make the dies whatever dimension I want, but I would like to know what dimension Pac-Nor chambers in.

I have sent them another mail, and if I dont't get an answer I shall try to call them.

I already have a .35 Whelen and the .400 Whelen is in my view a true classic.

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I believe there is an Ackley version

There may well be. However, for my $ if I could find everything great. If I couldn't find an AI but could find the basic with the correct .458 shoulder I would be happy. Ackley "normally" used a .454 shoulder on the 06 case. A true 400 Whelen should be .458". Assumning the 400 AI is .458 and not .454 using a 40deg shoulder vs 17 deg of the parent moves the side shoulder corner forward by only .016" That is about the thickness of 4-5 sheets of copier paper.

Now I have got the info from Pac-Nor, thanks to Penny and Duggaboye.

Pac-Nor's dimensions:



The original .400 Whelen:

Hmm shoulder is forward from the original and .455 vs .458. Just checked the taper that gives you .455 at 1.96 gives you .456 at 1.865.

Here's another version:

So Lakelander which one will you build?

I will go for the version chambered by Pac-Nor. I've ordered dies from ch4d, I've used them before. It will be a couple of months before I get the barrel and maybe even longer before I get the dies.