Ruger Hawkeye .35Whelen expected accuracy?

WhelanLad

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Fellas, first of all let me give you a bit of a insight into Me an the .35Whelen....

It started a few years ago, several things started actually.
I bought the Wood stocked, blued Ruger Hawkeye Model, .35Whelen . For hunting Big Game Deer species here in Aus.
I bought the two boxes of Remington Corelokt 250gr Factory ammo, to begin with but pretty soon purchased a Full Lee reloading kit, to get started with that side of things as at $80 per 20 rounds, it wouldn't get shot much.

Well I never really wasted to much of that Factory stuff, trying to group the Rifle, an the 250s off the bench werent Comfy back then.

Once i got reloading i never really experimented with projectiles, or powder... I went straight out with 225gr Woodleigh RN, ADIs 2208 powder an my Remington Cases, Federal primers....

I basically made enough rounds to keep me goin -30 an after i got down to 10 i would reload the rest back up. (lets be honest, i never saved every single of my 40)
When i first loaded, i started at Min of 51gr an made 5 of each up to 56gr..... I never shot the Max load up until a few months ago just to see what they did.
I settled just under an thats where I loaded every other single round for the Whelen...........

Begining with the 50 Prjectiles, after wasting a handful "load developing" then wasting a few sighting, Im now at the end of my 50 Woodleigh projectiles, an have about 20 Rounds loaded.

This Gun sees some use, typically gets carried alot but not shot so often... In the last 3 years it was shot a bit keepin the dog food up to satifactory levels, my pooch loved Venision...

Since buying the 300 WSM a bolt, The Whelen has seen fairly limited use, but slowly im thinking about Winter an how id love to get it back into its glory days..........

So, Im going to start shooting the Whelen in the next few weeks, i feel like i will be able to tolerate the Recoil now since becoming friends with the WSM, An would like to know what kind of Accuracy i should be expecting from this Stock Ruger Hawkeye in 35?

My targets from devloping loads, is surely nothing to brag about, an as i said i never spent much time punch paper unless it was knocked or needed sighting.

The barrel is free floating, i find the trigger fine for stalking an shouldnt be an issue for accuracy..

I will update this thread but for now just interested in your opinions. i cant see it being a moa rifle an would like to have a rough idea before i do go expecting too much.

In purchasing some more gear for this Cal , im sacrificing some ammo on smaller calibres for a while, which is fine... i do love that whelen.

Well, a long winded story, hope someone gets my drift!

Whats the Expected Accuracy for the Ruger Hawkeye .35Whelen??
Cheers
WhelanLad
few photos
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Nice pics. I don't see why you shouldn't expect moa accuracy. I had a 7600 for years that was very consistent and often 3/4 moa. My load was rp cases, wlp, 59g RL 15, topped with a 250g Speer hot-cor. This is a close to max load, and over max in many manuals. It worked great in my rifle, and brass life was good. It also put nice big holes right thru elk. Recoil was stout, but not terrible.

It maybe to hot for your rifle, and temperatures. If you try it work up to it, on a hot summer day we saw 2620fps on the chrony, but usually more like 2520-2550. I too went to the 300 wsm, and have been very impressed with the rifle/cartridge.
 
Excelent choice for do it all hunting rifle. The 35 Whelen excels on large game with quality 250gr bullets and RL15 powder (same as Norma203). Yes, handloaded Rugers should shoot well under 1.5 moa.
 
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