Let's see, trhe question was, "Who likes the .35 Whelen?" ME! ME! ME! ME! ME!
Powders that work well in the Whelen are H-335, W-748 IMR and H-4895, IMR-4064, IMR-4320, and RL-15 just to name a few.
I currently have three rifles chambered to the Whelen, a Ruger 77RS, Remington 700 Classic and a custom rifle built on an Oberndorf Mauser.
I've been playing with H-335 lately, but all my loads are somewhat over any book maximim, so I won't pass them on. My apologies, but I don't want to be responsible for you blowing up your gun.
Now, with all that said, I do have a few gripes concerning the Ruger and Remington. Considering that Whelen and Howe designed the cartridge to shoot bullets of 250, 275 and 300 grains, why in bloody blue blazes did Remington and Ruger go with a 1 in 16" twist? The cartridge was designed for heavy game like moose, elk and the great bears. Elmer Keith at one time said that if he was restricted to one rifle for all North American hunting, it would be the .35 Whelen, and we all know of his penchant for using heavy for caliber bullets. YOu might get away with a 275 gr. bullet in a 1 in 16" barrel, but I doubt it.
My custom mauser came from an estate sale. The rifle fit me like it was made for me and the price was very reasonable, so I bought it. It has a 1 in 14" twist barrel. It is also the most accurate of the three, although the Ruger will place three 200 gr. and three 250 gr. factory loads all into a 1.25" group. I have a very nice FN Mauser action made in belgium that will be the basis of my next Whelen. This one will have the proper 1 in 12" twist barrel.
Rocky.So you like the .358 do you? Me too. I have five of them. At first, I could find one to save my life, then in a six month period, bang bang, bang, bang, bang, five in the safe. Two Ruger 77s, a first model Browning BLR, a Savage 99, and a Kodiak Mauser. The Browning and Savage all have the proper 1 in 12" twist while the Rugers and the Kodiak have that silly 1 in 16" twist.
The Kodiak is an interesting rifle. Shortly after the passage of the Gun Control Act of 1968, this outfit bought up a big bunch of the military Mausers and rebarreled them and stocked them with a rather ugly maple stock. I have only seen thre of these rifle. One was a .243 that I owned for a while. I gave to a friends son for his first deer hunt. That rifle was very accurate. The next one was chambered to the .308 Norma Magnum. it didn't come with a recoil pad and it hurt to shoot that one. Again, very accurate, if you could keep from flinching. I never saw another one until at a gun show a while back. Remembering how accurate the other two were I bought it, but this one still has the military trigger in it and I never could shoot a military two stage trigger worth a darn.
Timney's just up the road from me and I'll get around to ordering some triggers from them for some other rifle I have as well.
I have no desire for a .358 Norma mag. nor does the .35 Remington float my boat. I just sold the one I had about six months ago. Glad to be rid of it.
Now, if I could only draw an elk tag so I can use my Whelens.
Paul B.