Townsend Whelen (March 6, 1877 – December 23, 1961), called "Townie" by his friends, was an American hunter, soldier, writer,

outdoorsman Outdoor recreation or outdoor activity refers to recreation done outside, most commonly in natural settings. The activities that encompass outdoor recreation vary depending on the physical environment they are being carried out in. These activiti ...

and

rifleman A rifleman is an infantry soldier armed with a rifled long gun. Although the rifleman role had its origin with 16th century hand cannoneers and 17th century musketeers, the term originated in the 18th century with the introduction of the ri ...

. Whelen was a colonel in the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

, and a prolific writer on guns and hunting, writing over two thousand magazine articles in his career. He was a contributing editor to ''

Sports Afield ''Sports Afield'' (SA) is an American outdoor magazine headquartered in Huntington Beach, California. Founded in 1887 by Claude King as a hunting and fishing magazine, it is the oldest published outdoor magazine in North America. The first issue, ...

'', ''

American Rifleman ''American Rifleman'' is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magazi ...

'', '' Field and Stream'', ''

Outdoor Life ''Outdoor Life'' is an outdoors magazine about camping, fishing, hunting, and survival. It is a sister magazine of ''Field & Stream''. Together with ''Sports Afield'', they are considered the Big Three of American outdoor publishing by Money ...

'', ''

Guns & Ammo ''Guns & Ammo'' is a magazine dedicated to firearms, hunting, competitive shooting, reloading, and other shooting-related activities in the United States. The magazine offers reviews on firearms, ammunition, optics and shooting gear. Also include ...

'', and other magazines, and author of ''Suggestions to Military Riflemen'', ''The American Rifle'', ''Telescopic Rifle Sights, The Hunting Rifle, Small Arms and Ballistics, Hunting Big Game (of which he was the editor), Amateur Gunsmithing'', and ''Why Not Load Your Own''. An autobiography, ''Mr. Rifleman'', was begun by Whelen, but finished by his family and published after his death. Whelen edited and wrote the introduction to WDM Bell's autobiography "Bell of Africa" and arranged an American publisher.Bell, Walter. ''Bell of Africa'', 1960 London, Neville Spearman An expert rifleman with few peers, Whelen could reportedly hit man-sized target at 200 yards using the bolt action, open-sighted

M1903 Springfield The M1903 Springfield, officially the United States Rifle, Caliber .30-06, Model 1903, is an American five-round magazine-fed, bolt-action service repeating rifle, used primarily during the first half of the 20th century. The M1903 was first ...

.30-06 service rifle, scoring six hits in ten seconds flat, and could do it on command. Colonel Whelen experimented with the service .30-06 Springfield cartridge while he was commanding officer of

Frankford Arsenal The Frankford Arsenal is a former United States Army ammunition plant located adjacent to the Bridesburg neighborhood of Northeast Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, north of the original course of Frankford Creek. History Opened in 1816 on of land p ...

in the early 1920s. Frankford Arsenal machine shop foreman

James Howe James Howe (born August 2, 1946) is an American children's writer who has written more than 79 juvenile and young adult fiction books. He is best known for the Bunnicula series about a vampire rabbit that sucks the juice out of vegetables. Bi ...

, who later formed the rifle-making firm of Griffin & Howe, assisted Whelen modifying the .30-06 case to fire bullets of different calibers. Whelen was particularly interested in creating a cartridge to fire heavier bullets from M1903 rifle actions available from the

Civilian Marksmanship Program The Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP) is a U.S. government-chartered program intended to promote firearm safety training and rifle practice for all qualified U.S. citizens with a specific emphasis on youth. Any U.S. citizen not otherwise legall ...

. Townsend Whelen's great passion was the great outdoors and hunting, and he undertook many expeditions into the wilderness of both North and South America, living off the land, hunting and exploring. Apart from his professional interest in the rifle as a military weapon and competitive target shooting, he also experimented with rifles and cartridges in survival and wilderness applications, using the different loads in his hunting rifles to take both small and large game while on long hunting excursions in the wilds. The comprehensive knowledge and experience reflected in Whelen's writing covered the black powder era at the end of the 1800s and spanned the transitional period into smokeless arms, resulting in the modern high velocity rifles of the 20th century.

Quotes

* "Only accurate rifles are interesting". * "The .30-06 is never a mistake".

Cartridges

* .25 Whelen *

.35 Whelen The .35 Whelen is a powerful medium-bore rifle cartridge that does not require a magnum action or a magnum bolt-face. The parent of this cartridge is the .30-06 Springfield, which is necked-up to accept a bullet diameter of . This cartridge is m ...

* .375 Whelen * .400 Whelen

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Whelen, Townsend 1877 births 1961 deaths American hunters Gun writers United States Army officers United States Distinguished Marksman

Quotes

Cartridges

See also

References