pistol bullets in a 35 whelen/358 winchester/35 remington

Pat Brennan

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
148   0   0
Location
BC
Something that has always interested me is using pistol bullets in a 35 whelen (or 358 winchester/35 remington, I guess) for plinking and a small game (grouse) load. Anybody had much experience with that and what sort of accuracy were you gettting out of those loads?
 
I have been using pistol bullets in my .35's for many years, both Trail Boss and H4895 loads, accuracy is usually excellent. Shot quiet a few hares and grouse with them. Try 14.0 grains of TB with 158 HC's.
 
I am going to build a 358 STA as I have a good supply of 38 special lead I picked up at a gunshow a while back. Love the 35 calibers!!! So versatile
 
There should be some other threads on this, I answered some previous ones.....

Absolutely and some good shooting. The load I am using for deer in my Browning BLR 358Win lever is a 158gr XTP with 40grs of RL7 for 2500fps and .40 moa all day long .... Very accurate, easy to load and a hammer on deer with the XTPs.
 
Yup, full house loads with 158 gr jsp or jhp pistol bullets in my early BLR .358 were very accurate and would turn large crows into red mist and black fearhers at 100 yards. Max loads with the 125 gr bullets would often vapourize en route. Never got around to grouse loads but a great option in BC and anywhere else you are allowed to take grouse with a rifle.
 
I load 8gr of 700x behind 158's in my Whelen. Velocity is just over 1200 fps. One must be VERY careful not to double charge when using these fast powders. I have also loaded 170's ahead of Rl7 or 4198. It is also important to use neck sized brass only for very low-pressure loads. If full length sized brass is used, there is a tendency for the headspace dimension to shrink up when the cartridge is fired and the case expands laterally. I segregate brass for light loads.
This is the one great advantage that 35 caliber cartridges have. This and the fact that they are just great cartridges.
 
Copper plated 158 grain pistol bullets in my .35 remington bolt action, loaded both pointy end out and pointy end in, doesn't matter they both hit like a hammer, the beauty of a .35 is the ability to drive it from 850-2200 feet per second, but as noted above, I partially size only when using light loads, and just enough of the neck to hold the bullet. Trailboss and H4895 have both worked well but I have some IMR 4198 data for reduced loads I need to try
 
I load up my BLR 358 Win with 158 gr Hornady XTP bullets and a max load of R7. The latest Speer manual listed a top Velocity of 2850 fps. With the BLR, I chronographed 3 loads at 3007, 2985, 2994 fps. These loads vaporize pumpkins.... and gophers;)
 
The .35 Rem is very accurate with pistol slugs. My wife & a friend of hers regularly use a .35 Rem loaded with 158 gr Hornady XTP to beat me & the other ladies husband at lever gun Silhouette matches.

The only downfall with a Marlin lever gun is that they are too short to feed through the magazine, you have to top-load one at a time. I can see where a box mag fed Browning wouldn't have this problem.
 
Back
Top Bottom