.35 Rem. vs. 30-30

As both calibers are essentially woods calibers very popular in the east, a whitetail deer or black bear probably won't know the difference between the two.

But, and it's a big but, if you go to the various Marlin 336 forums, you'll find that many, many people have problems with light hits on .35 Remington handloads. I just had a brand new spring installed in my 336 and still had a light hit on carefully assembled loads. The cartridge headspaces on that wrinkle they call a shoulder. The cartridge remains popular inspite of itself.

My recommendation is: if you only use factory ammo, either caliber will do. If you plan to reload, go with the .30-30.
 
Reloading for the 35 Rem.

I would like to add my 0.02$, maybe shed some light on the handloads issue.

First, I would rather carry a 35 Rem into the bush, I feel more confident in it's ability to wack a deer or black bear. Next would be a 30-30 with 170's in bear country, or the 125 Federal for deer. The 125 Federal is quite a killer.

Shoulder setback is a concern with the 35 Rem, it will cause misfires. Light loads are an issue, after firing the shoulder will be set back and one thing reloading dies can't do is push the shoulder forward. I use the Hornady tool to check the shoulder setback of my reloads. I like to have a thou or 2 "clearance", avoiding "difficult to chamber" ammunition. I've had no issues since.
 
I remember having this discussion around 1950. Hasn't changed.

The problem I have with the .35 Remington is that its small shoulder doesn't provide adequate case support all the time, and misfires are fairly common. Other than that, as folks have said, hunting success depends a lot less on the bullet and paper figures than on putting that bullet in the right place.

I once had a discussion with an old timer in PA. He told me he got his deer (both the legal ones and maybe a few others) with a .22 Hornet. I said that seemed a little light, and asked him at what range he generally shot the deer.

His reply: "I sneaks up ahint 'em about ten feet and shoots 'em tween the ears."

That guy didn't care much about ballistic tables.

Jim
 
irony: zombie thread about zombie cartridges.... cool.... both cartridges are 100+ years old, but like this thread refuse to die. Thanks to an extra 50-75 yards or so of useable range from FTX bullets both are less obsolete than ever. Trust either to work.... few million dead deer can't be wrong...
 
A few inputs om the 35Rem:
Practically the only factory ammo you can find these days is the 200gr RNSP.
Reloading can allow for different bullets and bullet weights.

When reloading the 35Rem, you have to be careful seating the bullets because of the small shoulder like James K posted. It is easy to crush the case. I like to NSO this number whenever I can. Inside neck lubing is a big deal with 35 Rem.

Back in the teens thru the 30s Remington made the models 8/81 autoloaders and the slide action 14/141s. 35 Rem was the most popular round for these rifles. It would cost well over a grand to mfg these rifles today with all the machine work. They are works of art and among my favotite of the "Classics".

Today most associate the 35Rem with the Marlin 336.
 
model 14 in .35 Rem



I reloaded for my model 14 back in the day with 180 Speer bullets and it never took more than one shot to kill deer in upstate NY. Never used factory ammo to hunt, so I can't comment on their effectiveness.
 
.35s are...different....

I grew up deer hunting with my father, relatives and friends in the Adirondacks of northern New York, in the early 1970s. We didn't often hunt the "southern zone" (designated by the game laws, it was shotgun slug only for deer there).

The rifles carried by our party members were fairly typical for the area, mostly Winchester or Marlins of varying vintages, mostly in .30-30 or .32 Special. Exceptions existed, Art carried a old Remington pump, (either model 14 or 141, I can no longer remember) that didn't have a shred of bluing left on it, anywhere. Caliber .30 Remington. Hiram carried a borrowed rifle, nearly always, although once in a while he had his own, until after deer season, when it would get sold. Often he used my uncle Jim's Savage 99 .300 Savage (Uncle Jim couldn't manage the woods any more).

My Dad carried a Winchester 94 .32 Special (because he got it virtually new and dirt cheap from a cousin's estate. Bob had a Winchester 64 rifle (.30-30). Uncle Lester carried a Marlin .30-30 for years, until he fell on it, and broke the stock off. The gun he replaced it with was another Marlin, but in .35 Remington. And I've seen others use the .35 too. For a long time, the only real reason the .35 Remington survived on the market was because of the Marlin rifle it came in.

The other Remington rounds in that family faded into the obscure/obsolete category. The .25, .30, & .32 Remington, by the 1970s were in that group that if you had one, and found some store that still had ammo, you bought it all, even if that meant you had to short something else for a while. Because there was no way to know when, if ever you would find ammo for it again.

(at 15, I was a beginning handloader, the only one in the group). Well, back to the .35...

It is my experience that the .35 Remington (and the other .35s too) have an effect on game that is not well reflected in the ballistics on paper.

On paper, the .35 Rem is not tremendously better than the .30-30. My personal experience is that deer do not know this. A good hit with everything knocks them down. A good hit with a .35 (or bigger) knocks them over! I won't try to explain exactly why this happens, but I've seen it happen, more than once.

Between the .30-30 and the .35 Rem, the difference in energy and bullet size doesn't seem that much on paper, but the difference in the way the deer react (that I have personally seen) has been considerable.

Your experience might be just the opposite, but mine tells me that if the choice is a .30-30 or a .35 for deep woods deer, take the .35!

and just FYI, what I carried back then (and sometimes still do) was a Remington 600 in .308 Win.
It worked just fine, too! :D
 
I dont have a ton of experience with either, so my opinion doesnt mean much. I went with a .35 because I like the thought of the bigger bullet with basically the same ballistics. I plan to take mine for deer this year, and hopefully black bear in the future.

My 336 is a pretty sweet gun though...

Sorry for the crappy cell phone pic...
 

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As a young pup I had both and usually used the 30-30 on deer because it shot abit flatter. For anything larger than deer I had my 444. Weird, the 35 is the one I miss the most.
 
35 Rem / 30-30win

I do think heavier bullets are better killers, and I think of both as 175
yard guns or less so bullet drop wouldn't be a concern for me.
If I need to shoot farther I'll grab something else from the safe. ;)
 
95 win in 30-03 220g RN, the best lever deer combo ever devised ;) well that's what grandpa thought anyway.

Sorry Sorry back on topic...30-30. I guarantee it's killed more dear than the 35. But that's speculation on my part. Thanks to Hornady the 30-30 has entered the modern age with the mono-flex bullets.

Its funny how little respect the old 30-30 gets nowadays by the younger guys who shoot deer with 223's?:eek: 223 was designed to blow up bushy tailed limb rats.

In reality it's a toss up. Both are excellent well proven cartridges.

Boomer
 
.35 rem/.30-.30

Ford/Chevy

The winner of the battle depends on who you're talking to.

The article ratshooter posted shows the .30-30 with the slightest advantage in pretty much every way.

But... I was raised on a .35, so thats what I prefer. To each his own

In a recent survey, 100 out of 100 dead deer said they couldn't tell the difference.
 
30-30.....I prefer 170 gr
1)The ballistics charts don't lie......
2)better choice of ammo.....
3)way easier to find ammo.....
 
why does anyone even argue this at all? We all know the 30-30 is the superior cartridge in all aspects.

Ive shot the calibers side by side. THe 35 remington just sucks. At 50 yards the 200 grain slug simply could not go more then half way through an 8 inch thick oak stump i cut that morning. the 150 grain core lokt from a 30-30 went THROUGH the stump.
 
To answer Mr. Eatman, the dominant .35 Remington loads in my Oehler Ballistic Explorer Ammo Library are 200 grain bullets with B.C.s of .193 and .194 at 2080 fps. The software says they are ±3" to 188 yards. The best listed is Hornady's 200 grain, B.C. of .300, at 2225 fps, ±3" to 213 yards.

The most commons .30-30 loads are 170 grain bullets, with B.C.s ranging from .250 to .314, at 2200 fps, ±3" from 205 yards to 212 yards. Hornady's 160 grain Evolution load seems best at 2400 fps, ±3" to 231 yards.

My range session comparing software predictions to actual holes in targets at measured ranges was a wash: any real differences would have taken many more rounds and much more precise measurements to noodle out.

On paper, at least, the critters will not likely notice the differences.
 
why does anyone even argue this at all? We all know the 30-30 is the superior cartridge in all aspects.

Ive shot the calibers side by side. THe 35 remington just sucks. At 50 yards the 200 grain slug simply could not go more then half way through an 8 inch thick oak stump i cut that morning. the 150 grain core lokt from a 30-30 went THROUGH the stump.
Click to expand...

Then how in the world did I shoot a 200 pound whitetail with my .35 at 175 yards last season with the bullet passing through both shoulders and dropping the deer where he stood? The .35 will do everything the .30-30 will and vice-versa.

I realize people have their favorite cartridges but that doesn't mean that all others are inferior.
 
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