Comment On The .350 Rem Mag From Whelen Brown

I recently sent an email to Whelen Brown inquiring about the suitability of the Remington 200 grain Corelokt factory load available for the .350 Rem mag and he thoughts on using this load on baited black bear hunts. I will post his comments below along with a link to his website. I have followed Whelen's comments and articles concerning rifles and loads for some time. He has quite a following on the Internet and whenever I am searching for information on .35 cal rifles and loads, his website always pops up on Google for the first several pages. In the short couple of emails I have had with Whelen, he does NOT consider himself an expert. He is just a hobbyist and someone who likes to hunt and shoot with a fondness for .35 cal rifles, including but not limited to the .350 Mag and the .35 Whelen. In any event, when I want to look up something about the .35's I always go to his website first.

LINK To Whelen Northwoods Website

Here is an excerpt from the email I sent and Whelen's reply:

My inquiry to Whelen:

On Fri, 5/13/11, DAN WAFER wrote:

From: DAN WAFER
Subject: .350 Rem mag with 200 grain factory Remington corelokt for bear?
To: whelenbrown@yahoo.com
Received: Friday, May 13, 2011, 5:14 PM

Dear Sir: I have followed your website for some time and wanted to pick your brain on the suitability of the .350 Rem mag using the standard Rem 200 grain corelokt for black bear (even BIG blackies in the 400 plus pound range over bait).

Have you used this load or any articles or stories from folks that have used it successfully. Also I assume the actual bullet is identical to the 200 grainer used in the .35 Whelen as loaded by Remington.

Dan Wafer

http://gunsandoptics.blogspot.com/

Whelen's Response:

Hi Dan

At last count I own five different 350 RemMag rifles - I'm a fan.  I am aware of the one and only factory load you mention and even have a fav reload to duplicate it using IMR3031. I buy bulk 200gr PSP corelokts to reload. But to date I have not killed anything with that load myself. But I am aware of some like Jon Sundra (link below) who have published/claimed very good results with it on big black bears. I think I would use it myself if 250s and 225s were not available to me.

The 350RemMag factory box usually reads PSP "corelokt" - so presumably that's what is loaded. It's a well made bullet IMO for bears and bigger game in general. Not much lead is exposed at the tip and the corelokt feature is designed to hold cup and core together. However as to the 35 Whelen using the same bullet, in their 200gr loads I have some doubts. This is because I have noticed no explicit mention of "corelokt" on some 35 Whelen 200gr factory boxes in the store. I forget whether I examined the bullet tips to see if they looked "non corelokt" or not - it's been a while. The corelokt is better IMO - especially when out the door velocity is almost 2800fps. So over bait terminal velocity could be close to that - a test of any conventional bullet I think. A really BIG bear has lots of fat which can be hard on a bullet upon entry.

Bears are not all equally easy to kill because they range so much in size. Around here they average in the 200 lbs area but go over 700 lbs (one live trapped and weighed 20kms from my house about four years ago) in exceptional specimens. I do not subscribe to the common view which says it's easy to kill a bear (sometimes it can be I agree) and so just grab any deer rifle and ammo for the job. As a practical consideration I often pull the trigger near the edge of dark so I prefer to not encourage runners by choosing any ole rifle/cartridge. Many bears have died quickly with lesser deer rifles no doubt. But I choose to shoot what is ideally suited to the occasion. 

Lastly I have used conventional cup and core 250s (Speer, Hornady) at around 2450MV almost exclusively for bears over bait. I reload and they have NEVER given any grief - one shot where it counts - no tracking needed. Exit wounds are the norm and IMO best. I favour slower moving heavier bullets myself over bait. That said I would use factory 200 Corelokts in a heartbeat if that was my only option. It should get the job done pretty well IMO. Incidentally lots of Maine black bear hunters use the little 35Rem with 200 RN corelokts with success. I've had my 35Rem Marlin out with that bullet at 2100MV but never pulled the trigger on a bear with it yet. If a 600 lb specimen showed up I might wish I had brought my 350RemMag or 35Whelen with 250s. Nonetheless I think it would work if I thread the needle right.

Sundra's article refers to killing several big blackies (Vancouver Island and Alaska) with factory 350 RemMag 200gr corelokts (Alaska kill is not typical and tells little about actual bullet performance) here - http://www.glacierguidesinc.com/docs/An%20Almost%20Nice%20Bear.pdf

These are my thoughts since u asked.

Thanks for writing - good luck hunting.

"Don't Miss Meals"

Whelen B.