During the very early 1920s, Leslie Simpson, who reputedly had more experience at hunting African game than any other American at the time, casually mentioned to Col. Townsend Whelen that the ideal cartridge for hunting most of the hoofed game on the Dark Continent would push a .35 caliber bullet weighing at least 250 grains to a muzzle velocity of 2,500 fps or perhaps a bit faster.

At the time, Whelen was commanding officer at Frankford Arsenal, and James V. Howe was foreman of the machine shop there. Whelen relayed Simpson’s message to Howe, and Howe eventually came up with two new cartridges: the .35 Whelen--which Howe named for the colonel while the latter was on a hunting trip--for standard-size actions and the belted .350 Griffin & Howe Magnum for magnum-length Mauser actions.

The .350 Magnum was loaded by the Western Cartridge Company, but the .35 Whelen remained a wildcat until it was domesticated by Remington in 1987.

Whelen’s favorite rifle in this caliber--and one he owned until his death in 1961--was a custom job built on the 1903 Springfield action by Howe in 1922. Among other nice things it had a trapdoor steel buttplate and a Howe-Whelen aperture sight on the bolt sleeve. The sight housing also contained a safety.

The rifle was originally in .400 Whelen (see sidebar) and later rebarreled to .35 Whelen. The colonel’s favorite loads for that rifle were 61.0 grains of IMR-4350 behind the Hornady 275-grain bullet and 60.0 grains of the same powder with the Barnes 300-grain bullet (neither bullet is now in production). Respective velocities were 2,375 and 2,350 fps.

As other cartridges of the same caliber go, the .35 Remington is 400 to 500 fps slower than the .35 Whelen, and the .358 Norma Magnum is 400 fps faster.

Remington continues to load the .35 Whelen with two bullets, a 200-grain pointed Core-Lokt at a velocity rating of 2,675 fps and a 250-grain pointed Core-Lokt at 2,400 fps. Federal offers a single option with the 225-grain Trophy Bonded Bear Claw at 2,600 fps.

Nosler offers three choices in its Custom lineup: the 225-grain Partition and Ballistic Tip at 2,775 fps and a 250-grain Partition at 2,550 fps.

Remington sells unprimed cases, and the .30-06 case can be necked up to .35 caliber. I prefer to size up cases in two steps using a .35 Whelen full-length resizing die--first with an expander button sized for the .338-06 installed in the die and then another trip over a .35 caliber button. Tapered expander buttons are available from Redding, Lyman and RCBS.