An innovator at heart, Whelen turned from his .38 to a wildcat of even larger bore. In Arms and The Man, June, 1922, he described a .400 Whelen. James V. Howe, then of Philadelphia, apparently built four test rifles--two on 1898 Mauser actions and two on 1903 Springfields. But the .400 got little attention, in part because early reports claimed inadequate shoulder for headspacing. I suspect other riflemen decided they didn't need 300-grain .411 bullets (initially used in the .405 Winchester) to kill game that fell to a .30-06. Petrov speculates that the .400 Whelen might have had a warmer reception had handloaders hewen to its original design.

You see, Whelen evidently fashioned his .40-caliber thunderclap by necking down unformed brass to shape a shoulder .458 in diameter. Common practice among the proletariat was to neck up .30-06 and .35 Whelen cases, which yield a .441 shoulder. I can't say that headspace is impossible to maintain with a .441 shoulder, but I can assure you that .458 is more than sufficient.

When he sent me the rifle for review, Nate included forty loaded cartridges. Pete Cardona of Quality Cartridges provided the brass and headstamped it .400 Whelen. Nate charged half of them with fifty-seven grains of IMR 3031, then capped them with 300-grain North Fork Bullets softpoints. The other half got 58.5 grains of RL-15 and 400-grain Woodleighs, softs and solids. At the Leupold & Stevens range in Beaverton, Oregon, Pat Mundy and Garth Kendig, intrigued by the rifle's classic profile and uncommon chambering, helped me zero with the K2.5.

My first trio of North Fork bullets left at 2,323 fps and reached the 100-yard mark at 2,087. Two more series almost duplicated those readings. Mean group size: 1.62 inches. The 400-grain Woodleighs clocked just under 2,100 fps at exit and broke paper traveling 1,875. Group sizes ranged from 1.02 to 1.96 inches, the average squeezing under 1.50. Nate tells me he reaches 2,450 fps with 300-grain bullets in front of 59.5 grains IMR 3031. 'But you won't appreciate bouncing that load off your clavicle!'

This lovely Springfield fit me well. It's much livelier than its classic profile and 91⁄2-pound heft suggest. The rifle steadies itself offhand, and that mass helps tame recoil.

'But this is the only rifle,' emphasizes Nate. Appropriately. Townsend Whelen was one of a kind.