Any expieriance with the Whispers?

[Rocky Raab]

Well, lessee here...

(But first, I think the compliments were a bit overdone. I ain't that sharp.)

The Whisper line is the product of J.D. Jones' fertile mind. The original idea was to produce a nearly silent round for use in suppressed M-16 rifles by snipers.

So the thing had to fit in a standard M-16 magazine and cycle the action - besides the difficult ballistic chore.

Jones took the .221 Fireball case ( for its capacity, length and head diameter) and necked it up to .30 caliber. He reasoned that a very heavy and long .30-cal bullet would be extremely efficient in flight, even if launched sub-sonically.

So the original Whisper used the 240-gr Sierra MatchKing in the Fireball case. Overall length fit the M-16 magazine, and the case head size fit the M-16 bolt.

Brilliant.

Launched at 1100 fps, that sleek Matchking arched a bit, but held velocity like a miser clutching silver dollars.

There may be "black" teams out there using it as we speak.

As far as a hunting round goes (my opinion follows) there are better choices. The Whisper is an accurate little cuss, but there are better and easier ways to use .30-cal bullets from a single-shot handgun. The Contender/Encore guns handle rimmed rounds much better than rimless ones, too.

I'd enjoy playing with a Whisper, but if I were headed out to hunt deer, I'd change to my 7-30 Waters or my .30 Herrett barrel.