MeekAndMild
New member
I found solitar's thread from last year about the 35 remington but it didn't address my question. Basically the question is, given the choice between the 35 rem and the 308 which is the most humane to use for southern whitetails considering the following factors?
1) Shooting condition is heavy brush, cutover timber land with incredibly thick undergorwth or small clearings up to 80 yards.
2) Minimum size of deer harvested in our area usually weigh 90 + pounds. A 90 pounder is a yearling and the larger bucks are generally tougher to kill. I don't have a clear idea of exactly how big the bigger ones are as they are rarer, but over 140 pounds.
3) Rifle shooting skill level is marginal. I can shoot 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards from a bench rest, but offhand sitting they are more like 4 inches.
4) A real sissy when it comes to rifle recoil tolerence. If I could use a pistol life would be a lot easier.
OK, this is the story. After a lifetime of never quite having it all together to take a shot I shot my first buck today, a +/-90 pound spike, quartering front shot with the .35 Rem 200 grain Remington core lokt. The bullet passed just in front of the left shoulder blade and just in back of the right one, passed through both lungs and severed a lot of blood vessels just under the backbone. At 60 yards it hit about 1.5 inches higher than my aim point, which was acceptable considering gun was sighted in for 100 yards. The deer tumbled over and passed nearly immediately. But the bullet didn't expand and the worry is that if shot placement had been worse he would have run off and not died immediately.
Does the 35 have the knockdown power needed or should I switch to the 308 if I expect to harvest anything bigger?
1) Shooting condition is heavy brush, cutover timber land with incredibly thick undergorwth or small clearings up to 80 yards.
2) Minimum size of deer harvested in our area usually weigh 90 + pounds. A 90 pounder is a yearling and the larger bucks are generally tougher to kill. I don't have a clear idea of exactly how big the bigger ones are as they are rarer, but over 140 pounds.
3) Rifle shooting skill level is marginal. I can shoot 3/4 inch groups at 100 yards from a bench rest, but offhand sitting they are more like 4 inches.
4) A real sissy when it comes to rifle recoil tolerence. If I could use a pistol life would be a lot easier.
OK, this is the story. After a lifetime of never quite having it all together to take a shot I shot my first buck today, a +/-90 pound spike, quartering front shot with the .35 Rem 200 grain Remington core lokt. The bullet passed just in front of the left shoulder blade and just in back of the right one, passed through both lungs and severed a lot of blood vessels just under the backbone. At 60 yards it hit about 1.5 inches higher than my aim point, which was acceptable considering gun was sighted in for 100 yards. The deer tumbled over and passed nearly immediately. But the bullet didn't expand and the worry is that if shot placement had been worse he would have run off and not died immediately.
Does the 35 have the knockdown power needed or should I switch to the 308 if I expect to harvest anything bigger?