Tinker Dave, go to the ER Shaw website. They'll make you a custom 35 Whelen for under $850. With a barrel length up to 26 inches, sporter or varmint weight, and a Savage lefthand action. I shoot a .35 Whelen for deer, elk, and anything else large. It hammers deer with the Sierra bullet in 225gr. It loves this Gameking, and the Speer 250gr Hot core. Both go 1" or tighter at 100yds. The Sierra just lays a deer down. I have never recovered a bullet from the Whelen in a deer. They ALWAYS exit. The Sierra makes a silver dollar to baseball size exit wound through the hide out to 385 yds, too. It creates the kind of sucking chestwound that puts an animal on the ground in its tracks. I am retired Army, and have shot deer on Ft. Riley with it out to 300 yards and as close as 30 yds. On private land north of fort Riley, I have used it on beanfields out to 450yds. It is capable of shooting as flat as a 30-06 and delivers about 1000ftlbs more energy at the muzzle. It drops deer with the Sierra 225 grain Boattail so fast that if there are more than one, you will probably get a second one while they are trying to figure out what just happened to the first one. I have killed as many as three deer at the same time during the Kansas doe season in Area 8 in January. I did use a Shepherd P2 Scope with bullet drop and rangefinding system built in, and shot them at 285yds, 325yds and 386 yards lazed, so they didn't react to the sound of the shot. I have so far killed about 35 deer (mostly does) since I bought the rifle from Cabela's in 2005. I killed the last three on Jan. 6, 2012, north of Milford Lake, and haven't had the chance to hunt there since then, since I'm currently in Afghanistan. Enjoy the Whelen. Its a great caliber.