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Old 08-24-2014, 12:36 PM
greenejc greenejc is offline
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Default Reloading the .35 Whelen

I have had a Remington 700 CDL in .35 Whelen for several years, now. I bought it after I retired from the Army at Ft. Riley, Kansas. I use a load of 60.5gr. of RL15 in a Remington case with Remington 9 1/2 primers behind the 225gr Sierra bullet. This produces 1/2" three shot groups at 100yds and sometimes much tighter groups. It chronographs at 2725 average for 5 shots, 10 feet from the muzzle, and drops Whitetails in their tracks out to 400yds. I have never recovered a bullet, and have killed at least 30 deer with it.
My other load is a 250gr Speer in front of 59.5gr of RL15, at about 2650, up t0 60gr at 2685 fps average 5 shots. Groups hold around 1 inch at 100yds. Same brass (Remington) and same primers. The 250gr bullet has a little too heavy jacket to expand properly in deer, which I found out the hard way. However, the Sierra leaves an exit would that ranges from silver dollar sized up to baseball sized,depending on how far away the animal is when hit. The ballistics of the Sierra are the same as a Remington 180gr Corelokt 30-06 factory round, and the pressure seems to be lower than the factory 30-06. Check out the footpounds of energy though, on both of the .35 loads I use. The high end on the Speer is about 4000fplbs and the Sierra is around 3700. Both will spin a deer around when hit. I hope to get a chance to try them on elk in Colorado this Fall, when I get back from Afghanistan. Almost forgot. Both loads are over 2000ftlbs at 400yds. Compare that with a .300 win mag.
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