35 Calibur Specifcally the 35 Whelen
Heavy round nose bullets hit hard and penetrate in a straight line.
Nonsense, a RN full metal jacket will penetrate, a soft nose RN bullet run beyond its designed speed will blow up.
Nonesense? Did you read anything I said? A heavy round nose bullet, especially in .358 is built to design the modest velocities that a .35 Whelen generates. Have you never used one? Try a 220 grain round nose Hornady in a .30-06 and see what happens. Of course FMJ's penetrate, but who in the heck is talking about FMJ's here? A 200 grain RN is not a good idea, but I said HEAVY - like 250 grains like the .35 Whelen was intended to shoot. That bullet at 2500-2700 fps will penetrate well and mushroom well and will be good for anything that walks in North America.
Isn't that what I just said?
I have decades of experience reloading, shooting, and hunting with the 35 Whelen. Fox is correct, 200gr bullets designed for the 35 Rem are to be avoided. However, the 200gr Hornady Interlock RN performs very well at 35 Whelen velocities. The are also easily obtained. I've never shot a bear with one, but I would expect great performance.
I've had the best success with the 225gr partition. It is an excellent moose round and performs well on deer. Unfortunately Nosler bullets are becoming a little pricey.
What part number are you looking at for the 200gr RN that is good for the Whelen? They only have 1 RN .358 bullet, my assumption was that this would be setup for the 35 Rem, just like any 150gr .308 RN or FP bullet would be for the 30-30.
The problem with the 35 cal bullets is that the cartridges are not all slow, medium or high velocity, they are all over the map.
I want a 35 Whelen, load it down with pistol bullets, run 35 Rem velocities for deer at close range and be able to load up long heavy bullets for longer range and heavier game.
Nosler bullets are very expensive![]()
The regular Hornady 200gr RN Interlock. P/N 3515. You can shoot these to 2700fps for deer size game without a problem.
The SP-RP version is likely an even better choice P/N: 3510 although I've never tried them.