Who else likes the .35 Whelen?

[Hawkeye6]

Originally posted by Rocky Raab
As much as I admire old Townsend, if I were going to have a .35-cal rifle today, it'd probably be (no surprise here for those who know me) a 358 Win.

I just LOVE that 308 case and anything made from it.

I'd likely stoke it with 200-gr bullets, but the 225s would be my second choice. I suspect that I'd shoot a lot more of what I call my "punkin buster" load, though. It's a 158-gr JHP pistol bullet over about 21.0 of 4198. A complete hoot to shoot. In the Whelen, I'd bump that to about 23.0 grains.

Rocky:

The .358 Winchester sounds good to, being based on the .308.

I guess one of the things that struck me about the .35 Whelen is that its based on the verable .30'06.

Both cartridges lend themselves to working up pistol bullet loads as "punkin busters" (as you put it -- nice turn of phrase!).

Speaking of "plinking" loads -- I've got a pretty nice one for a .308 using (IIRC at 0400!) a 110 gr half-jacketed bullet. The neat thing aobut it is that it zeros in pretty much spot-on at ~50 yards with the same scope settings as my regular hunting loads zero'd for 200. Makes that .308 just a bit more flexible for small game.

Hawkeye