.35 Whelen project beginning

[cmshoot]

I bought a .35 Whelen here on GON several years ago. It was built on an Interarms Mark X "Mauser" action. Custom wood stock with a rollover cheekpiece and schnabel forend, also a barrel band front sling mount.

Anyways, I decided to strip it down to the action and start all over with it.

I am going to have a 24" Hart barrel, 1:14" twist, half-octagon/half-round installed, after the action is trued.

Picked up an unfinished cherry stock from eBay's. I have some rosewood for a contrasting forend tip and grip cap. Gonna have it checkered to a pattern similar to a pre-'64 Winchester Model70 with a satin oil-rubbed finish and Pachmayr Decelerator pad.

When done, all metal will be done in a black satin Cerakote. In appearance it will be similar to the satin matte finish that Browning puts on their Stalker rifles.

I'll post before and after pics.

 

[germag]

That's going to be a sweet rifle! Post progress pics too.....

 

[georgiaboy]

That's a big chunk of lead. I've never owned one but it's a classy caliber choice to me.

 

[GAHUNTER60]

I'm a big fan of the Interarms Mark X action (made by Zastava). I own one in .375 H&H. It is beautiful and very accurate.

I assume the rifle you bought was one rebarreled (or rebored) to .35 Whelen, since Interarm didn't offer one in that caliber from the factory. Of course, rebarreling to .35 Whelen is one of the simplist coversions you can do from a .30-'06, as usually the magazine and feed rails for the '06 work on the Whelen case just fine.

Did the one you bought not shoot well? Just curious as to why the need to rebarrel from a caliber to the same caliber.

 

[cmshoot]

Yep, mine is Zastava-made, as well.

The story that I got when I bought the rifle was that is was originally built in the late 1970's for a doctor who used it several times in Africa as his "light rifle". So, I was assuming from the get-go that it was not a .35 Whelen originally.

It shot well, but the styling and such wasn't what I really wanted. I wanted a more classic American-style stock and I didn't like the barrel-band sling swivel. Offhand, I like to shoot with a taught hasty sling, and this can cause problems with a sling attached to the barrel.

Basically, I'm building into the style of rifle that I wanted in the first place, couldn't find, and settled on something else.