For many years a wildcat, the .35 Whelen is simply the .30-06 case necked up to accept standard .358 inch diameter bullets. It appeared in 1922 and was named for gun writer Townsend Whelen, who contributed to its design. The idea was to provide a powerful medium bore cartridge that would work through standard (.30-06) length actions. In those days a magnum length bolt action for the .375 H&H was prohibitively expensive for all but the wealthiest shooters. The cartridge survived as a wildcat until 1987, when Remington legitimized it as a factory cartridge.

Interestingly, it was another Remington .35 medium bore, the .350 Remington Magnum, that sparked renewed interest in the .35 Whelen. The .35 Whelen had pretty much died out after the 1958 introduction of the .338 Win. Mag.

The .350 Rem. Mag. was introduced in 1964. It was based on a 7mm Remington Magnum case shortened enough to work through a short action rifle and necked-up to accept .358" bullets. The .350 Remington was the world's first true short magnum cartridge and it proved to be decades ahead of its time. It was temporarily discontinued in 1997, but reintroduced in 2003 after the later WSM and SAUM lines of short magnum cartridges sparked a lot of interest.

The .350's belted magnum case is 2.17 inches long, its shoulder angle is 25 degrees and the maximum overall cartridge length is 2.8 inches. These dimensions allowed Remington to chamber the new cartridge in their short action Model 600 and Model 660 bolt action carbines. The .350 Rem. Mag. cartridge made these the last word in a lightweight, handy, powerful rifle--if the shooter was willing to put up with the hefty recoil.

Unfortunately, not too many shooters were and the .350 Mag. carbines were discontinued after a few years. Jeff Cooper wrote a very favorable article about them after they were discontinued and they have become something of a cult classic. For several years after the carbines were discontinued, the cartridge was available in the M-700 bolt action rifle. Ruger has also chambered their M77 for the .350 Mag.

Back in 1964, I was selling guns and sporting goods and I special ordered for myself one of the very first Remington Model 600M carbines in .350 Mag. There was no reloading data on the new cartridge at that time, so I had to work up my own loads, starting with reduced .35 Whelen loads. It was a fast handling and accurate little rifle and the penetration of the 220 grain Speer bullet at a MV of about 2,500 fps was astonishing.

The short, fat .350 Mag. case had slightly greater capacity than the .35 Whelen case and should have been the final death blow to the older cartridge. However, it worked out the other way around. Every gun magazine reviewed the new cartridge when it was introduced and compared its performance to the .35 Whelen wildcat. Everyone said that it would not do a thing the older .35 Whelen couldn't do just as well, forgetting that the whole point of the .350 Magnum was to offer serious medium bore performance in a short action rifle. Somehow the result of all of this was to poison the .350 Mag. and resurrect interest in the .35 Whelen. There matters stood until 1987, when Remington announced that it would offer rifles and ammunition in .35 Whelen.

By 1988, the .35 Whelen was offered in the Remington Model 700 bolt action and 7600 pump action. In 1989, it was added to the 7400 autoloading rifle. Ruger chambered their Model 77 bolt action for the cartridge and H & R chambered their single shot rifle in .35 Whelen for a short time. However, the .35 Whelen never really caught on with mainstream shooters, probably due to its considerable recoil and a general lack of interest in medium bore cartridges by U.S. shooters. By 1996, the cartridge was no longer available in over the counter, factory made rifles. Remington will still build a .35 Whelen rifle (or a .350 Mag. rifle) in their Custom Shop on a special order basis.

The performance of the .35 Whelen and the .350 Rem. Mag. are similar. Maximum permissible pressure for the .35 Whelen is 52,000 cup; it is 53,000 cup for the .350 Mag. The Speer No. 13 Reloading Manual shows the following, in 22 inch rifle barrels:

• The top load listed for the .350 Mag. with the 180 grain bullet is 60.0 grains of BL-C(2) powder,and it gives a muzzle velocity (MV) of 2,942 fps.


• The top load listed for the .35 Whelen with the 180 grain bullet is 65.0 grains of H335 powder, and it gives a MV of 2,891 fps.


• A maximum load of 62 grains of #748 powder gives the 220 grain bullet 2,664 fps in the .350 Mag.


• A maximum load of 63 grains of #748 powder gives the 220 grain bullet 2,560 fps in the .35 Whelen.


• A maximum load of 57 grains of #748 powder gives the 250 grain bullet 2,484 fps in the .350 Mag.


• A maximum load of 57 grains of #748 powder gives the 250 grain bullet 2,350 fps in the .35 Whelen.

At present (2018), Remington has again discontinued their .350 Magnum factory load. The .350 Magnum is factory loaded only by Nosler (225 grain Partition at 2550 fps) among the major US ammunition manufacturers.

he .35 Whelen is factory loaded by Remington (200 grain Core-Lokt), Hornady (200 grain Interlock SP) and Nosler (200, 225 and 250 grain bullets). Both the .350 Mag. and .35 Whelen are offered by some of the smaller, specialty ammunition suppliers. Either cartridge will suffice for all North American big game animals at reasonable range, including moose and the great bears.

The Remington factory load for the .35 Whelen gives a 200 grain Core-Lokt Pointed Soft Point (PSP) bullet a MV of 2,675 fps and muzzle energy (ME) of 3,177 ft. lbs. At 200 yards velocity is 2,100 fps and the energy is 1,958 ft. lbs. These figures are for a 24 inch test barrel.

The trajectory of the Remington 200 grain PSP bullet in the .35 Whelen should look about like this: +2.8" at 100 yards, +3" at 125 yards, +1.0" at 200 yards and -3" at 254 yards. The maximum point blank range (+/- 3") is thus 254 yards.

The recently discontinued (again!) Remington factory load for the .350 Magnum, which used the same 200 grain Core-Lokt PSP bullet, claimed a MV of 2775 fps. The muzzle energy of this load is 3419 ft. lbs. The trajectory should look like this: +2.7" at 100 yards, +3" at 125 yards, +1.3" at 200 yards, -3" at 260 yards and -7.3" at 300 yards. The maximum point blank range (+/- 3") is thus 260 yards.

According to the eighth edition of the Nosler Reloading Guide handloaders for the .350 Mag. can drive the 225 grain Partition to a MV of 2535 fps with 55.0 grains of W748 powder and a MV of 2700 fps with 59.0 grains of W748. The 250 grain Partition can be driven to a MV of 2374 fps by 54.0 grains of W748 and 2571 fps by 58.0 grains of W748. These figures are from a 22" test barrel.

One interesting alternative for the reloader is to turn either cartridge into what Jack O'Connor described as an ideal brush and woods cartridge using reduced power handloads. In .35 caliber, O'Connor suggested a 225 grain flat point bullet at a MV of 2400-2450 fps. The .350 Mag. is probably the better choice for this, as its shorter case keeps the reduced power charge closer to the primer, but similar results can be had with the .35 Whelen.

In a .350 Mag. case, 51.0 grains of H322 powder will drive a 220 grain Speer flat point bullet at a MV of 2428 fps from a 22" rifle barrel. The Speer technicians used Remington cases and CCI 200 primers when developing this load. The trajectory is such that the bullet can be zeroed to strike dead on at 200 yards, giving a maximum point blank range of 234 yards. The recoil energy of this load is around 20 ft. lbs.