.358 Winchester compared to .35 Whelen

[Slooshark1]

I currently own a Remington Model 700 in .35 Whelen and I've just ordered a .358 Winchester Ruger Model 77 Hawkeye. The .35 Whelen has a 1 in 16" rifling twist. All of Remington's .35 Whelens have a 1 in 16" twist.

The Ruger .358 Winchester has a 1 in 12" twist. Why wouldn't they have made it the same as the Whelen? Are there any advantages or disadvantages to this?

 

[Rembo]

none.....I have had Whelens with 16" and 14" twist and 350Mags with both 12" and 14" twists...they all shoot 200's to 250's very well...a non issue.

 

[Whelen B]

Like Rembo I've got 35s with a 12, 14, and 16 twist and they all worked well with 200s, 225s, and 250s.

So I agree it's a non issue.

When building a custom 35Whelen I ordered a 14" twist barrel as it seemed the best all round twist to me at the time (several decades ago). In practice however it has been no better or worse than my 16s and my 12 using 200 to 250s.

Theoretically 300gr plus will do better with the faster 12" twist. However i have a friend who fired some 300gr Barnes original RNs downrange at 2200MV from his 1 in 16 Remington 673/350RM. Accuracy was excellent and he says they were flying stabilized. 300gr or more are not a usually used staple for a 358Win anyway.