Good morning,
Pouring rain here in Northeast Ontario today and I am stuck in the house, so I figured it was a good time to pass on this information I received from Barnes Bullets Customer Service.
I have owned at least one 35 Whelen for a couple decades but have not hunted with it too much, it was the Back-up moose rifle to my .338 Win Mag. The past couple of years I have successfully hunted central Ontario whitetailed deer with a Remington 7600 Carbine in 35 Whelen. I have been using handloaded Sierra 225gr Spitzer Boattail bullets (at app. 2450fps), they are accurate, but I have often found this cup and core design bullet to be fragile at close range higher impact velocity. The last 2 deer I have shot illustrate this point, both were taken at about 35 yards and the bullet expansion was dramatic. The first deer shot was frontal and the bullet was lost in the guts, the buck died on the spot. The second deer was broadside and ran about 30 yards, with a blood trail like it was dumped from a pail. Examination of the wound channels showed that the expansion was very rapid, excellent for deer hunting, but too fast (thereby limiting penetration) if I was to use the bullet on adult moose.
I have also been reading on the forums about bullet lead fragment contamination in wild game meat. After a long lifetime of eating wild game I am not concerned about myself (something has to kill me sometime), but do have a concern for my kids and grandson. So I started to research changing to solid copper bullets to both increase lethal penetration on larger game, and to eliminate the chance of my family ingesting lead from game meat.
My question was if my short barrelled 35 Whelen Carbine could launch a Barnes bullet fast enough to; adequately expand on game as small as a deer, and penetrate deep enough on an animal as big as an adult moose? So I sent an email off to the Barnes Bullets Co, and received the excellent detailed reply below.
In conclusion; I now have a box of the Barnes 225gr TSX bullets that I plan to load-up this summer to check the accuracy, in the hope of using them for deer this November, and maybe even moose in October if I am lucky to draw a tag.
I commend Barnes for their quick and complete answer to my question, it really helped in my decision to try their product.
WeakKnee
Barnes Response:
“Going lighter increases MV thus impact velocity which means more hydrostatic shock is dumped into the animal.
180 gr TTSX = 1900 fps
200 gr TTSX = 1800 fps
200 gr TSX = 1600 fps
225 gr TSX = 1600 fps
An impact velocity of ###X fps will cause enough bullet expansion to dump its hydrostatic shock into the animal. If 2x expansion is desired, similar to what you see in published ads, which we suggest, then add approximately 100-200 fps.
Thank You
Alan Griffith | Consumer Service
Barnes Bullets”
Pouring rain here in Northeast Ontario today and I am stuck in the house, so I figured it was a good time to pass on this information I received from Barnes Bullets Customer Service.
I have owned at least one 35 Whelen for a couple decades but have not hunted with it too much, it was the Back-up moose rifle to my .338 Win Mag. The past couple of years I have successfully hunted central Ontario whitetailed deer with a Remington 7600 Carbine in 35 Whelen. I have been using handloaded Sierra 225gr Spitzer Boattail bullets (at app. 2450fps), they are accurate, but I have often found this cup and core design bullet to be fragile at close range higher impact velocity. The last 2 deer I have shot illustrate this point, both were taken at about 35 yards and the bullet expansion was dramatic. The first deer shot was frontal and the bullet was lost in the guts, the buck died on the spot. The second deer was broadside and ran about 30 yards, with a blood trail like it was dumped from a pail. Examination of the wound channels showed that the expansion was very rapid, excellent for deer hunting, but too fast (thereby limiting penetration) if I was to use the bullet on adult moose.
I have also been reading on the forums about bullet lead fragment contamination in wild game meat. After a long lifetime of eating wild game I am not concerned about myself (something has to kill me sometime), but do have a concern for my kids and grandson. So I started to research changing to solid copper bullets to both increase lethal penetration on larger game, and to eliminate the chance of my family ingesting lead from game meat.
My question was if my short barrelled 35 Whelen Carbine could launch a Barnes bullet fast enough to; adequately expand on game as small as a deer, and penetrate deep enough on an animal as big as an adult moose? So I sent an email off to the Barnes Bullets Co, and received the excellent detailed reply below.
In conclusion; I now have a box of the Barnes 225gr TSX bullets that I plan to load-up this summer to check the accuracy, in the hope of using them for deer this November, and maybe even moose in October if I am lucky to draw a tag.
I commend Barnes for their quick and complete answer to my question, it really helped in my decision to try their product.
WeakKnee
Barnes Response:
“Going lighter increases MV thus impact velocity which means more hydrostatic shock is dumped into the animal.
180 gr TTSX = 1900 fps
200 gr TTSX = 1800 fps
200 gr TSX = 1600 fps
225 gr TSX = 1600 fps
An impact velocity of ###X fps will cause enough bullet expansion to dump its hydrostatic shock into the animal. If 2x expansion is desired, similar to what you see in published ads, which we suggest, then add approximately 100-200 fps.
Thank You
Alan Griffith | Consumer Service
Barnes Bullets”
