A decade and a half ago or so, I bought a heavily-sporterized '03 Springfield for $90. It had a dark bore and many things wrong with stock and even the bolt. After fixing the stock (and finally painting it), putting Williams receiver sights on it and a bead-on-post front sight on it, and replacing the bolt, I finally decided that it needed a new barrel. (The bore was not just "dark"-- it was badly pitted, and threw wide patterns after 3 or 4 shots.) I had it rebarreled to .35 Whelen, for a lark, and found that, in at least one way, the Whelen is even easier to reload for than the .30-'06 that it used to be: In expanding the brass (done during sizing), the case shortens slightly, requiring no trimming. 
One less step!
I played with 220g Speer loads and 224g Sierra loads, and even 180g and 158g Hornady XTP .357 loads (which are great fun, BTW!). I got decent 100 yd accuracy from the Speer 220g flat-nosed loads, but never worked up a 250g load.
Well, moderator Johnny Guest so admired my .35 Whelen, that he did some swapping with fellow moderator JShirley, and came home from a deer hunt with a very nice Remington Custom 700 .35 Whelen with an old faded Weaver scope on it in Conetrol mounts. After topping it with a nice crisp VariX-III, he sighted it in for his new handload: a 250g Speer bullet over 52g of Reloader 15. I don't even bother to look that load up to see if he's over-juiced, because he mentions the prospective velocity (he hasn't chrono'd, I don't think) at about 2200. (Sounds like a yawner, right?) He said that he was getting as good as 1.25" at one hundred yards with that load. He then went hunting with our friends Rich Lucibella and Ashley Emerson.
If it weren't for the fact that I've known Johnny Guest for over a third of a century (damn, but we're both getting old...), I'd have called it false modesty when he said that he felt that he hit the hog too far back. The hog didn't seem to know the difference, dropping DRT at a (later lasered) distance of 122 yards. As it was, I'll take his word for it, and delight that the bullet did its job, through thick boar's hide. Johnny had figured around 300 lbs, Ashley speculated about 250 lbs. Ashley, being the experienced guide, wins out.
So here's my question: I have an IRON-SIGHTED Springfield. I'm not going to be taking shots over 200 yards, ever. I think I need to move up to the 250g load. But I think that Johnny Guest's loads are a little conservative. Who has a good 250gr load (or even a 275g load) that has a little more mustard on it, but still gives reasonable accuracy? Johnny Guest got decent accuracy with his [yawn] 2200fps load, but I'll just bet that someone out there has a nice 2400fps load for their 250g load.
Anyone? Anyone?
Oh. You want to see pictures of Johnny Guest's hog? Okay.... [ ]
Johnny said that it knocked a good 2-inch exit wound. . .
One less step! I played with 220g Speer loads and 224g Sierra loads, and even 180g and 158g Hornady XTP .357 loads (which are great fun, BTW!). I got decent 100 yd accuracy from the Speer 220g flat-nosed loads, but never worked up a 250g load.
Well, moderator Johnny Guest so admired my .35 Whelen, that he did some swapping with fellow moderator JShirley, and came home from a deer hunt with a very nice Remington Custom 700 .35 Whelen with an old faded Weaver scope on it in Conetrol mounts. After topping it with a nice crisp VariX-III, he sighted it in for his new handload: a 250g Speer bullet over 52g of Reloader 15. I don't even bother to look that load up to see if he's over-juiced, because he mentions the prospective velocity (he hasn't chrono'd, I don't think) at about 2200. (Sounds like a yawner, right?) He said that he was getting as good as 1.25" at one hundred yards with that load. He then went hunting with our friends Rich Lucibella and Ashley Emerson.
If it weren't for the fact that I've known Johnny Guest for over a third of a century (damn, but we're both getting old...), I'd have called it false modesty when he said that he felt that he hit the hog too far back. The hog didn't seem to know the difference, dropping DRT at a (later lasered) distance of 122 yards. As it was, I'll take his word for it, and delight that the bullet did its job, through thick boar's hide. Johnny had figured around 300 lbs, Ashley speculated about 250 lbs. Ashley, being the experienced guide, wins out.
So here's my question: I have an IRON-SIGHTED Springfield. I'm not going to be taking shots over 200 yards, ever. I think I need to move up to the 250g load. But I think that Johnny Guest's loads are a little conservative. Who has a good 250gr load (or even a 275g load) that has a little more mustard on it, but still gives reasonable accuracy? Johnny Guest got decent accuracy with his [yawn] 2200fps load, but I'll just bet that someone out there has a nice 2400fps load for their 250g load.
Anyone? Anyone?
Oh. You want to see pictures of Johnny Guest's hog? Okay.... [
]Johnny said that it knocked a good 2-inch exit wound. . .
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