35 Whelen vs 35 whelen ackley

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tkleedehn

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Hello everyone,

I’m sure there has been past discussions in this forum about this very question.

I’ve put my name in to get my hands on the new lipseys 35 whelen. My plan for it is to be used as a guide gun/hunting. I currently use a 350RM and it’s been great, but I’m excited for something new.

Am I crazy to think about getting it ackley improved? I’d like to hear some thoughts!
 
I would not bother. I’ve had a few standard Whelens over the years. Currently have one I built on a savage action with a Shilen pre-fit barrel. I looked at the benefits and it just wasn’t worth it for the extra dies and effort. With good load development, you are within 100fps difference.

As far as head spacing, a standard Whelen shoulders are just fine. Save your money and get a set of Hornady head space gauges and you’ll be happier. Plus, you can find standard 35 Whelen dies everywhere.

Either way, great round. Enjoy!
 
I agree with fuzzy, 35 Whelen vs the AI might get you 100fps difference but most likely less. Spend that money on components and optic!
 
Yup, as stated above, not worthwhile. There were no headspace problems with ammunition sized in properly adjusted dies on any of the three .35 Whelen rifles I've owned. I did have one box of defective Factory Remington .35W ammunition that had the shoulder too shallow and set too far back, but that would have been a problem when fired in an Ackley Improved chambered rifle too. There is negligible gain in velocity by Improving the Whelen chamber. Most published gains in velocity are actually because pressures were higher too. You can gain more than 100 fps over typical factory loads by using modern powders loaded to modern bolt action pressures in standard cases/chambers. Look up Speer's CFE223 data.
 
hoytcanon said:
Don't bother with doing the AI... it is not worth it.
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Very few cartridges seem to have benefited from the AI treatment. 280AI being the most notable one to garner lasting praise.

I read years ago PO Ackley was asked why the 308 was never AI’d and he stated that it was already an efficient cartridge as is and there was no need to mess with it.
 
The only reason this is even a conversation on this rifle is the fact that I like new toys. I’m sure some guys would scream if I did that to that rifle. For me it’s the perfect Yukon hunting rifle ever built. Sometimes you have to poke out to 400 yards and everything in between. 100fps is decent difference at 400 yards. I spend close to 100 days a year hunting and my .350RM is getting pretty beat up.
 
tkleedehn said:
Hello everyone,

I’m sure there has been past discussions in this forum about this very question.

I’ve put my name in to get my hands on the new lipseys 35 whelen. My plan for it is to be used as a guide gun/hunting. I currently use a 350RM and it’s been great, but I’m excited for something new.

Am I crazy to think about getting it ackley improved? I’d like to hear some thoughts!
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What rifle is your 350 REM mag chambered in ? 🤷‍♂️
 
The AI version will give you 3-4 grain extra capacity. If you use the well accepted John Barsness 4:1 rule which is about 5% based on 72 vs 76 grain capacity difference. Or 1.25% velocity gain. If you were getting 2700fps with the regular Whelen you would get an extra 33.75 fps with the AI.
 
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I think theadvantage of the AI is getting a sharper shoulder to headspace for a 35whelen?
I kept my 350 RM out of the 2 preferring the 200 ttsx at 2950 fps. Usually get some kind of animal every year with it, I just love the performance!
My bud took a 4 pt muley with it at 400 yards this year with it. Nice expansion and complete pass through!
 
ShrtRnd said:
Very few cartridges seem to have benefited from the AI treatment. 280AI being the most notable one to garner lasting praise.

I read years ago PO Ackley was asked why the 308 was never AI’d and he stated that it was already an efficient cartridge as is and there was no need to mess with it.
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right.

speakin to my BIL , he had a .223 ackleyed..... i said, dont think its worth it--- he rekons it gives flatter, noticable differenc for 200m head shots on Kangaroos (permit/commercial harvester).... it was christmas, i didnt want to Argue. LOL

it came up because i aske about the 22-250 brass stretching- an how ackley would help being little to no taper :)
 
islandhunter said:
I think theadvantage of the AI is getting a sharper shoulder to headspace for a 35whelen?
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The headspace "issue" with the 35 Whelen is a myth. There is no issue esp if proper resizing is done on the cases.

I've had a few 35Whelens over the years as well as a couple 35Remingtons that have less shoulder. Neither had any headspace issues.
 
I know that care was taken in the design of the 30-06 case to make sure that it feeds and extracts well under adverse conditions. I have no experience with AI cases but would they feed as well as the original case?

I would imagine that would be a far bigger concern than 30-100 fps in that style of rifle.
 
remington jim said:
What rifle is your 350 REM mag chambered in ? 🤷‍♂️
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I've had two 350 RM's. One a Rem 600 which I sent to my brother in Alaska years back, then other built on a 98 Mauser action. The Mauser works very well for this, as the extra box length allows longer coal's, which really makes a difference in this cartridge. I can push 250 gr bullets to around 2615 average, which is faster than my 35 Whelen was, and only about 30-40 fps slower than the improved Whelen I had was capable of. Both of my Whelens were also built on 98 Mausers, though they both had 24 inch barrels while my 350 only has a 21 inch, if memory serves. It's a powerful, efficient cartridge, one of my favorite 35's (and I've owned a few). - dan
 
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SuperCub said:
The headspace "issue" with the 35 Whelen is a myth. There is no issue esp if proper resizing is done on the cases.

I've had a few 35Whelens over the years as well as a couple 35Remingtons that have less shoulder. Neither had any headspace issues.
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True. 400 Whelen is a little diceier, simply because you have a very small shoulder to work with when fire forming brass. Once it is set though, it is no more an issue than working with any bottle neck case. - dan
 
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