The origin of the .35 Whelen has long been debated despite the fact that in two of his books, Colonel Whelen named James V. Howe as its developer.
Remington forever legitimized the .35 Whelen when it began loading it in 1988. Eventually, Big Green would offer it in the Model 700 as well as its slide-action and semiautomatic rifles.
Prior to that, however, the .35 was one of our most popular wildcats. For about as long as it has been around, its origin has been debated. Some are convinced it was James V. Howe who created it, and others argue with equal fervor that it was Col. Townsend Whelen.
The argument rages on despite the fact that Whelen long ago settled it in two of his books. In the .35 Whelen section of “Why Not Load Your Own?” (1957), he writes, “This cartridge was developed by James V. Howe in 1922 and named for the writer.”
Page 271 of “The Hunting Rifle,” which was published during the early 1940s, reads in part, “In 1922, Mr. James V. Howe and the writer developed the .400 Whelen cartridge. This cartridge was constructed by taking the .30-’06 case before it had been necked at all and necking it down to .40 caliber. About the time we completed development of this cartridge, I went on a long hunting trip in the Northwest, and when I returned, Mr. Howe showed me another cartridge that he had developed. The .30-’06 case was necked to .35 caliber to use existing .35-caliber bullets. Mr. Howe asked my permission to call this cartridge the .35 Whelen, but he alone deserves credit for its development.”
There is little evidence that Col. Townsend Whelen ever hunted with the .35 Whelen.
Whelen was known for his modesty, but he was equally renowned for his painstakingly accurate reporting. Had he been involved in the creation of the cartridge, he would have written so.
I have two different printings of Whelen’s “The Hunting Rifle.” Almost two pages of one are devoted to the .35 Whelen, but in the later printing, the cartridge is hardly mentioned. The earlier book also has a photo of the .35 Whelen alongside a couple of other wildcats: the .276 Dubiel Magnum and the .22-3000 Lovell. That photo is absent in the later book.
As a colonel in the U.S. Army, Whelen was commanding officer of Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia where James V. Howe was in charge of the machine shop tool room. In addition to his gunsmithing skills, Howe was an accomplished stockmaker.
After leaving Frankford in 1923, he got together with Seymour Griffin and formed Griffin & Howe, a shop that became widely known for building fine custom rifles. The partnership did not work out, and after about six months, Howe moved on to Hoffman Arms Company in Cleveland, Ohio, where he stayed for a long time.
Even though Col. Whelen staked no claim to the .35 Whelen, we still owe him partial credit for its existence. During the 1920s, American Leslie Simpson was considered to be an authority on hunting the African continent. Among other things, he, along with novelist Steward Edward White and a couple of others, was said to have taken more than 50 lions during a control shoot lasting three weeks.
For the past 25 years, this custom rifle on a Whitworth Model 98 Mauser square-bridge action has been the author’s favorite in .35 Whelen. Its 22-inch Apex barrel was made by the late Sam May, and its 1:12-inch twist handles bullets as long as the 310-grain Woodleigh. Butch Searcy did the barreled action, and it was stocked by E.C. Bishop & Son of Warsaw, Missouri.
Remington forever legitimized the .35 Whelen when it began loading it in 1988. Eventually, Big Green would offer it in the Model 700 as well as its slide-action and semiautomatic rifles.
Prior to that, however, the .35 was one of our most popular wildcats. For about as long as it has been around, its origin has been debated. Some are convinced it was James V. Howe who created it, and others argue with equal fervor that it was Col. Townsend Whelen.
The argument rages on despite the fact that Whelen long ago settled it in two of his books. In the .35 Whelen section of “Why Not Load Your Own?” (1957), he writes, “This cartridge was developed by James V. Howe in 1922 and named for the writer.”
Page 271 of “The Hunting Rifle,” which was published during the early 1940s, reads in part, “In 1922, Mr. James V. Howe and the writer developed the .400 Whelen cartridge. This cartridge was constructed by taking the .30-’06 case before it had been necked at all and necking it down to .40 caliber. About the time we completed development of this cartridge, I went on a long hunting trip in the Northwest, and when I returned, Mr. Howe showed me another cartridge that he had developed. The .30-’06 case was necked to .35 caliber to use existing .35-caliber bullets. Mr. Howe asked my permission to call this cartridge the .35 Whelen, but he alone deserves credit for its development.”
There is little evidence that Col. Townsend Whelen ever hunted with the .35 Whelen.
Whelen was known for his modesty, but he was equally renowned for his painstakingly accurate reporting. Had he been involved in the creation of the cartridge, he would have written so.
I have two different printings of Whelen’s “The Hunting Rifle.” Almost two pages of one are devoted to the .35 Whelen, but in the later printing, the cartridge is hardly mentioned. The earlier book also has a photo of the .35 Whelen alongside a couple of other wildcats: the .276 Dubiel Magnum and the .22-3000 Lovell. That photo is absent in the later book.
As a colonel in the U.S. Army, Whelen was commanding officer of Frankford Arsenal in Philadelphia where James V. Howe was in charge of the machine shop tool room. In addition to his gunsmithing skills, Howe was an accomplished stockmaker.
After leaving Frankford in 1923, he got together with Seymour Griffin and formed Griffin & Howe, a shop that became widely known for building fine custom rifles. The partnership did not work out, and after about six months, Howe moved on to Hoffman Arms Company in Cleveland, Ohio, where he stayed for a long time.
Even though Col. Whelen staked no claim to the .35 Whelen, we still owe him partial credit for its existence. During the 1920s, American Leslie Simpson was considered to be an authority on hunting the African continent. Among other things, he, along with novelist Steward Edward White and a couple of others, was said to have taken more than 50 lions during a control shoot lasting three weeks.
For the past 25 years, this custom rifle on a Whitworth Model 98 Mauser square-bridge action has been the author’s favorite in .35 Whelen. Its 22-inch Apex barrel was made by the late Sam May, and its 1:12-inch twist handles bullets as long as the 310-grain Woodleigh. Butch Searcy did the barreled action, and it was stocked by E.C. Bishop & Son of Warsaw, Missouri.
