reynolds357
New member
The most powerful 06 length action cartridges are going to be based on a shortened 404 Jeffrey case.
I ordered essentially the same barrel, but with a .35 Whelen chamber and Savage threads.I went with the 358 norma. Ordered the barrel from shaw in a heavy mag contour ss. I had no idea that they are such a long lead time on delivery. 4 months plus. I guess I won't need to revisit this again until end of Feb.
Clean that barrel and take a really good look for tooling marks before you do anything with it. I didn't clean mine until it was already installed.
It is ROUGH and copper-fouls like mad. Just five rounds through that tube is enough to get wide, thick copper streaks the entire length of the bore. After 15-20 rounds, there are chunks of copper in the bore.
My barrel is stainless steel.BoogieMan said:Did you get SS or ChroMo? Have you heard of anyone else with issues similar to this? Did you call or email Shaw?
You may have to fire polish or use some bore lapping paste to smooth it out. I hope yours was the exception and not the rule.
I'm a big (theoretical) fan of the .400 Whelen. Built properly, with the blown out body, it is a great cartridge. But... it is difficult or expensive to get proper dies. It can be difficult or expensive to find a proper chamber reamer. Bullets are a little more spendy that the competition. And forming cases really requires .30-06 basic or even .400 Whelen basic brass, in order to avoid overly thin necks ... which is expensive and more expensive, respectively.Slamfire said:I decided the best, "most powerful" cartridge that would fit through a standard 30-06 was the 35 Whelen. A 35 Whelen Improved with its sharper shoulder might be an improvement, especially when it relates to ignition reliability. See Rechambering from 35 Whelen to 35 Whelen Ackley http://thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=568140 Whelen designed a 400 Whelen, I read glowing testimonials, but that cartridge seems to have fizzed out.
The 35 Whelen does not require a new bolt, will fit into a 30-06 magazine, has a reasonably flat trajectory, good sized bullet hole, hits hard.