The photographs of the Whelen in the ad had looked great, so I was really anxious to see it... And sure enough, the rifle was exactly what I had hoped it would be.
I love quality wood stock rifles for their look and feel. The only problem is that wood stocks are not as well suited for hunting as are synthetic stocks; not if you hunt like I do. After a couple of seasons my wood stock rifles are chipped and scratched... Miles of cross country hunting in thick difficult terrain does that. Even worse, the temperature and moisture extremes I put my rifles through make it hard for most wood stocks, even pillar bedded and free floated ones, to hold zero. I speak from experience.
So it is, that even though my new Whelen was absolutely lovely, I decided to remove the stock and instead drop the action and barrel into a Bell and Carlson black synthetic stock. I free floated and bedded the action, and just like that I had a new, not as pretty, 35 Whelen. I topped it with a Nikon Monarch 3 2.5-10x50 scope and headed to the range.
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| 35 Whelen Remington SF action in Bell and Carlson Stock |
To my surprise, and unlike my other Whelen, this one booted me fairly hard each time I fired a 225 grain TSX Barnes down the tube (max charge). The light weight of the action and straight stock created a bit more recoil than I had expected. But, what was I to expect when pushing 225 grain projectiles down the bore at just under 2700 fps.
The rifle has completed its first hunting season and so far the elk cutlets from the spike elk I dropped taste just fine. And, after harsh temperature and moisture extremes (snow and sleet soaked action versus warm truck versus hot dry days in the field) the rifle holds zero perfectly.
If I have a beef, it's the recoil, but then I am getting a bit on in years and heavy hard kicking calibers like the 338 win mag just aren't my thing anymore. In the end, this Whelen delivers devastating down range performance on elk size critters out to 300 yards with recoil similar to calibers such as the 30-06. In my case the straight stock and light weight make for stout recoil, especially when shooting prone.
I will be trying a few different load work ups this year and will let you know how that turns out.
Merry Christmas and may you keep venison on the table this coming year.
