Field testing cartridges is rarely productive anymore. By the time a factory round is marketed it has been so thoroughly tested that field shooting is superfluous. You needn’t kill animals to prove it can kill animals.
Still, a lot of people think differently, and I was thinking of them as the first bull walked stiffly into the timber. He slid along my crosswire like a pin pouch on a clothesline and disappeared. A couple of cows came out on the ridge then and followed him. I tugged my sling-keeper once more and got into the scope just as a second bull stalked into view. I didn’t shoot him either. Nor the third bull, nor the fourth.
A dandy way to test cartridges, I mumbled to myself.
The .35 Whelen I carried that day was a delightfully accurate rifle, and the bulls were 250 yards away. Had it not been opening morning I'd have shot. Opening morning is too soon for spikes. A young animal would look better a few days later; in the meantime my .35 might find a big bull.
The .35 Whelen was developed about 1922. Some sources claim James V. Howe of Griffin and Howe designed the case, naming it after Colonel Townsend Whelen, well-known hunter and firearms authority. Others maintain that Whelen requested from Howe a set of reamers made to Whelen's specifications. When the cartridge was announced, Whelen was commanding officer at Frankfort Arsenal and Howe was a toolmaker there. No doubt both men worked on this .35, which followed the .400 Whelen.
Like the .400, it is a simple cartridge -- a .30-06 Springfield necked up to 35 caliber with no other changes. It answered the need for a powerful short-range big game round that shot flatter than Winchester's .405, could be chambered in a readily-obtained bolt rifle and could be made from cheap, available components. Surplus Springfield and Mauser actions needed no work at all for the conversion; many barrels pitted by the potassium chlorate primers of the day were rebored to .35 Whelen.
Whelen cases can be made by running .30-06 cases through a .35 Whelen die equipped with a tapered expander plug. The Whelen shares the ought six's 17.5-degree shoulder. Converted .30-06 cases come from the Whelen die at about 2.475 inches (.01 shorter than those of the government round), so trimming isn't necessary. Water capacity to the base of the .35’s neck depends on case wall thickness but averages 58.5 grains. Headspacing is on the shoulder, which looks insufficient but isn't.
For a long time anyone wanting to shoot a .35 Whelen had to hand-load. Then in 1988 Remington chambered its 700 Classic rifle for the cartridge and offered two factory loads: a 250-grain bullet at an advertised 2,400 fps and a 200-grain at 2,675. (My rifle shoots them at 2,370 and 2,554 from a 22-inch barrel.)
Though the 250-grain is a blunt bullet and the 200-grain pointed, the superior sectional density of the heavy slug makes it arguably the best choice in this medium-bore cartridge. Its greater momentum helps penetration and mitigates the air-damming effect of its round nose. In fact, velocity differences between the light and heavy bullets remain almost constant from the muzzle to 500 yards.
Before commoners had chronographs, cataloged bullet velocities went unchallenged. Now manufacturers are generally more modest with their listings, though rarely will you exceed factory claims with factory ammunition. Even Whelen, a dedicated experimenter and top-flight technician, must have overdosed on optimism when he reported a muzzle velocity of 2,834 fps with a 200-grain bullet and 2,635 with a 250-grain from his brand-new .35. Handloads can surpass the performance of Remington's factory ammunition -- but hardly by that much in a barrel of average length and standard throat dimensions.
Besides, there's nothing wrong with Remington's heavy-bullet load! In my rifle it shoots into a minute of angle consistently. Sighted for 200 yards, it hits just 3 inches high at 100 yards and a trifle more than a foot low at 300 yards. A .270 with a 130-grain bullet or a .30 magnum with a 180-grain will print about 6 inches low at 300 with the same 200-yard zero: a head of lettuce higher than the .35. That's not much difference, especially when you consider that most elk are killed at under 200 yards and very few beyond 250.
At its introduction the .35 Whelen was reasonably well accepted by shooters. But with no factory loadings, it never wooed the weekend hunter. It was more cartridge than you needed for deer, and it kicked harder than a .30-06. When Winchester's Model 70 became available in .300 and .375 H&H, the Whelen lost some supporters who had previously considered it tops for moose, elk and big bears. The .35 Winchester and .35 Newton were discontinued in 1936 when the Model 70 appeared, giving bullet companies little incentive to make better .358 spitzers. The sedate .35 Remington hung on, but mostly in lever rifles with tube magazines that required blunt bullets. After World War II, Weatherby's new line of belted cases seduced shooters. Wildcatting flourished -- but the goal was high velocity, and .35s were considered stodgy.
In 1955 Winchester announced a new medium-bore cartridge for its snappy Model 70 Featherweight. The .358 Winchester was to the .308 what the.35 Whelen had been to the .30-06. Except for the neck, dimensions on the .358 and .308 Winchester cases are identical. At 20 degrees, the shoulder of each is slightly steeper than that on the .30-06 or Whelen. Case length is .479 inch shorter.
Taking advantage of the .358’s compact dimensions, Winchester chambered it in the new Model 88 lever rifle in 1956. Savage also offered the round briefly in its 99. But most other rifle-makers shunned the .358. It was too compact. While ballistically it equaled the respected .348 Winchester, it didn't look that powerful. Besides, the .348 had already joined other "woods cartridges" in the soup line. Powerful scopes and tales of long shooting were hiking demand for racier cartridges with fast-stepping bullets.
Another bad omen for the .358 was the almost concurrent introduction of a short belted magnum line at Winchester, beginning with the .458 in 1956. The .338 debuted in 1958, the .264 a year later. All were big news. Winchester promoted them well but failed to prop up the .358. It was offered in the Model 70 for only a year and was dropped from Model 88 chamberings in 1962. Since then no Winchester rifle has been made for it. Mannlicher-Shoenauer built a few .358 rifles in the late 1950s, Ruger produced a few hundred on its model 77 action during the 1970s, and Savage reintroduced the round in its new 99A in 1976. Browning's Model 81 BLR was for a time the only commercially-manufactured rifle offered in .358. (Ruger has since brought it back in the 77).
Winchester still loads .358 ammunition, but only with a 200-grain bullet that's listed at 2,490 fps. A larger case gives the .35 Whelen its edge. Handloads to maximum safe pressures will show the same 100-odd-fps difference you'll see between factory-assembled .358 Winchester and .35 Whelen ammunition and between the parent .308 and .30-06 rounds.
Heavy bullets in these .35s require medium-burning powders: IMR 4895, 4064, 4320; Hodgdon BLC2, H335, H380; Winchester 748; Accurate Arms 2230,2460, 2520; Hercules RL12, RL 15. Faster powders work better with light (200-grain) bullets in the .358. The most useful are IMR 3031, Hodgdon H322 and Hercules RL7. Heavy bullets in the Whelen's bigger case call for powders on the slow end of medium. However, the big bore means you can pour more coarse stick powder into that hull than it can hold before you reach redline pressures, so IMR 4350, Accurate Arms 3100, Hercules RL19 and the like don't work as well as slightly faster powders.
For a long time bullet makers gave little thought to .35s. Then, in 1959, Norma of Sweden announced its .358 Magnum, an efficient powerhouse on the same belted case promoted in other forms by Winchester (though head dimensions differ slightly). The big Norma round gave its 250-grain bullet 2,800 fps -- compared to 2,700 for same-weight bullets in Winchester's new .338. But the .338 was a Winchester, and here in the United States it had a two-year head start on its Swedish competition. This .358 needed strong, heavy spitzer bullets, but it didn't last long enough to prompt their manufacture.
In 1965 Remington introduced a shorter belted .35. The .350 Remington Magnum was designed for and chambered in the company's 600 carbine. It and the later 660 were discontinued in 1971, but the .350 Magnum was given a second chance in Remington's
Model 700 rifles. It was dropped from the 700 in 1974. Ruger made a short run of .350 Remington Magnums in its Model 77 in the mid-1970s. (Remington later went retro with a Model 673, a Model 7 configured to evoke images of the 600, and introduced in 2003). Efficient and underrated, the .350 can duplicate .35 Whelen performance in short-action rifles. Remington still offers a 200-grain loading at an advertised 2775 fps.
Looking to the woods hunter who’d been left with no replacement for the stately Model 71 or slick-feeding Model 88, Winchester began in 1980 to beef up its Model 94. Available early in 1983, the 94 XTR Angle Eject came in two brand-new chamberings: .307 and .356 Winchester. Ballistically, these mirrored the .308 and .358 Winchester rounds, but the cases are rimmed and have thicker walls. Bullets are blunt, to keep things peaceful in the magazine tube, and deep-seated to work through the action. Both cartridges trail their rimless counterparts ballistically, but just by a trifle. The .356 is a useful replacement for the.348 and .358 Winchester cartridges.
It wasn't until Remington's 1988 venture with the .35 Whelen that bulletmakers got serious about .358 bullets for powerful rounds. I expected Remington's bluff-nosed 250-grain Core-Lokt to perform well, and it did, in game and at the target. Remington has since upstaged that bullet with a 250-grain Core-Lokt spitzer. It is one of the best bullets ever for the Whelen. Other offerings from bullet-makers have followed, shelving the old saw that .35s don’t present enough bullet choices
Among traditional softpoints, you’ll find Speer's 250-grain spitzer, with a ballistic coefficient of .446, and Hornady's dependable 250-grain round-nose. Sierra offers a 200-grain round-nose, as well as a 225-grain spitzer boatail (GameKing) that seems ideal for the .358 Winchester and extends point-blank range for both rounds. Nosler now catalogs a 225-grain Partition with a ballistic coefficient of .430. (Nosler has since added a 250-grain pointed Partition with a C of .446, and a 225-grain AccuBond, C .421. Hornady lists a pointed 250-grain Interlock. Norma’s one .358 Magnum load features a 250-grain Oryx, an excellent bullet for elk. Federal loads its own 225-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw in its .35 Whelen ammo. Barnes sells 200- and 225-grain Triple Shock bullets. And Swift makes 225- and 250-grain A-Frames).
If you want a powerful elk round that combines great reach with deep-driving bullets for oblique shots up close, the .358 Norma Magnum is hard to beat. In popular domestic rifles, alas, you won’t find it. But you might not need that much muscle. Astute elk hunters have found that case size and chronograph readings matter less than bullet upset and penetration. The .35 Whelen and Winchester’s .356 and .358 may look anemic -- but sometimes the quiet guy is the one with the haymaker punch.