Hummer,
all you need to know about the .400 Brown-Whelen can be found in an article, on pages 220-223, by John Kronfeld in the book BIG BORE RIFLES & CARTRIDGES by Wolf Publishing Co, of 6471 Airpark Dr, Prescott, AZ. published in 1991.- fwiw, the cartridge is essentially nothing but a necked-up, blown-out & fire-formed 30.06 case, which is easy to reload with dies from Huntington.
two examples:
a 400 grain Barnes RN solid, in front of 59 grains of RL-15 yields 2,027FPS, in a Ruger Model 77 rifle produces groups, at 100yards, of 3/4 of an inch.
(.400 grain Barnes solids retail for 46.oo a hundred.)
and
a 375 grain NEI GC cast bullet (of wheelweights + 2% tin), in front of 54 grains of AAC-2520 yields 2051FPS, with groups of about 1 inch at 100 yards.
(sounds like a fine "woods" elk/moose KILLER to me & at less than 25 cents each.)
in short, either load in the .400B-W equals the well-regarded, for all game through cape buffalo & elephant, .450/.400 Nitro Express or .404 Jeffery Rimless Express. = about 4000FP of muzzle energy.
note: you don't even want to know what a box of .404 Jeffery 400grain factory solids costs these days!
(over 135.oo bucks for a box of twenty shells! = YIKES!)
finally, shot off the bench the Ruger 77 PUSHES rather than KICKS. =====> not too shabby for a blown-out & fire-formed 30.06 case.
(i fully expect that the re-bored/rechambered Browning BAR to be a mild kicker & fully capable of taking any game that this OF will ever try to take, anywhere.)
yours, sw
