Tell me about .35 Remington

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TruthTellers

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I was given about 50 cases of it along with a Lee casting pot by my uncle. Not familiar with the cartridge and if I've seen it in a list next to .35 Whelen and .357 Maximum, I would have completely overlooked it given the power of .35 Whelen and versatility of .357 Max.

Strengths and weaknesses of .35 Rem? Why did it get popular? Why is it no longer popular?

EDIT: 50 cases of individual brass, not boxes of ammo. If I was given thousands of either brass or loaded ammo for free, hell yes I'd be buying a .35 Remington rifle to shoot it.
 
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I've owned a Marlin 336 in 35 Rem for about 40 years. Similar ballistics to a 30-30, but throws a larger bullet (180, 200, or 220 grain) with a little more punch at the distant end. Great rifle for shots less than 200 yards. Works great in the piney woods and creek bottom of south Louisiana and Mississippi.
If you have no use for the 35 cases, I would be willing to trade.
 
It was great round. The key seemed to be the ideal knock em down deer power coupled with bullets that worked. It had a reputation and following. Those guys are old or dying off and the current generation has moved on to new things and new guns. Also 44mag works great out to 100. As posted the 30/30 35 stuff was great out to 200 and pretty much the practical limit for iron sites. The Marlin would take a scope for best of both worlds and again 35 gain had the edge.

If I had 50 cases (even boxes, I assume a case is a 20 round box), I would buy a Marlin. what is a case? 200 rounds x 50 = 10,000 rounds. There is a market for those cases.

For a brief period this was very popular in TC contender. I opted for the 30/30, but; the 35 was more appropriate match of bore to barrel in the contender.
 
Growing up in WV i knew several deer hunters who used .35 Remington rifles. Two used Remington model 8/81 rifles. Others used Remington pump action model 14/141 rifles.

IMO: As a deer rifle the .35 Remington is in a class above the .30-30 and .32 Special.
 
New rifles so chambered are still sold, so it retains some popularity. Advantages: relatively low recoil so made sense in light rifles; relatively inexpensive rifles amd ammo; decent killing power (in the .30-30 class but the barrel had a bigger hole in it so...).

It was a poor choice for the T/C Contender, too easy for aggressive reloaders to load it too hot and stretch frames. T/C told me that they replaced more frames used with the .35 R than any other. I should know, I did it too after several thousand rounds. With loads closer to factory level it did work great, I shot it successfully in IHMSA competition and for hunting. Even shot an Alaskan moose with it. Still own two .35s.


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In the '50's and '60's, in the hills and woods of central Missouri, the marlin 336 in .35 Remington was a premier deer rifle. The ace hardware store always had one stocked on the shelf. The only rifle more coveted was a savage 99. Matter of fact, every year around deer season, a service station in town raffled off a savage 99. For every 10 gallons of gas purchased, you got one raffle ticket. Sadly, I can't imagine doing that today.
 
I used a 35 for a decade or so. Both my brothers still have theirs. I moved on to a 270 to extend my range for deer hunting, but nothing I ever hunted with killed deer better than that 35 Remington. Always there was a generous blood trail, and rarely did the trail go very far. I shot 200 gr Corelokt rounds till I started reloading.

That 336 lever can be worked pretty fast. Many years ago, with witnesses, I killed 3 running deer in about 10 seconds. My Dad was not pleased...
 
Strengths and weaknesses of .35 Rem?
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One issue I had with the 35 Rem.
My T/C Contender shooting a stout hand load more often than not. I would notice my 35 brass after three re-loadings such brass was turned into junk. {Shoulder & neck splitting galore.} In time as access to re-loadable 35 brass dwindled I sold the 35 barrel and purchased a 30-30 barrel. Shot that barrel for awhile got bored and eventually sold the T/C frame and barrels altogether.

Why did it get popular?
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Original rifles shooting the cartridge were a Semi auto & a pump. Having a heavier bullet in a short brass with reasonable shot range accuracy had some appeal with the shooting sports people back in the day whom I suspect were bored with the usual lever actions & bolt rifles offerings in their time.


Why is it no longer popular?
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That is Remington's fault.
Advertising more modern cartridges and the rifles for. As in all things in life "The old has to make room for the new." ~~ >sooner or later<
 
I had one for a short time in a Marlin 336 lever action. I bought it hoping to do a lot of pig hunting, put an Aimpoint red dot on it for low light use. It was quite a fun rifle to shoot, my pig hunting adventures never really materialized so I eventually sold it.

It's a truly under rated cartridge IMO, suitable for elk and moose if used within its limits. I wouldn't say it's no longer popular due to poor marketing. Hunters have been trending away from the types of rifles that the .35 Rem has traditionally been chambered in, so demand for the cartridge waned but remains popular enough to keep ammunition being produced as well as a few rifles.
 
Why did it get popular?
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According to one of my books the .35 Remington was introduced in 1908. Back in those days, and lasting up to WWII, Remington had a line of cartridges for their rifles to directly compete with Winchester.

The .25, .30. and .32 Rem were direct rimless counterparts to Winchester's .25-35, .30-30, and .32 Special. The cases were different, but the calibers, bullet weights and velocities were essentially the same. The Remington rounds had the advantage of being able to use pointed bullets, due to the design of the Remington rifle magazines.

The "stand alone" round was the .35 Remington, because Winchester didn't have a round to match it, directly. And, despite its paper ballistics, it hits deer like the hammer of Thor.

After WWII, the .35 was chambered by Remington in it new series of rifles, for a while, but was eventually dropped due to slow sales.

What kept the .35 Remington alive for a few decades was Marlin. For some time the only new .35 Remington rifle you could get was a 336 Marlin.

Later, interest in the .35 Rem increased, due to people shooting it out of T/C Contenders. IT's a good round, more power than the .357 Maximun by a significant amount, but not as powerful as the larger .35s (.358 Win, .35 Whelen, .350 Rem Mag, etc)

The rounds biggest "drawback" is that it is made using the original turn of the century Remington case, which uses a smaller (.460") size rim than the now standard .473" rim derived from the Mauser x57 case.

If I had 50 cases (even boxes, I assume a case is a 20 round box), I would buy a Marlin. what is a case? 200 rounds x 50 = 10,000 rounds.
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Pretty sure the OP is talking about 50 (or so) individual pieces of brass, not cases of rounds. Generally speaking, in the US a "box" of rifle rounds is 20, and a "case" is 1000 rnds in whatever box sizes are used. Some rounds do use a 500 count case, but usually its 1,000. Other nations do it slightly differently.
 
The 35 remington ammo is still produced and available, but they are released in small batches. Since I don't reload(yet), if I don't buy it when I see it, I have to go without or travel to find it. I inherited my grandfather's Remington Gamemaster 141 when I was 14 years old. I'll be 40 this year. I bagged my 1st buck with it at age 15. From what I understand, they were pretty popular here in Pennsylvania back in the day...maybe still now. They are often described as a brush gun. A couple years ago my teenage son was gifted a Marlin 336 in 35 Remington and we both currently use it for PA white tail deer season. 200 grain Corelokts are what my Remington prefers. Sometimes we use the Hornady Lever-evolution, but IMO, it kicks way harder in the same weight.
 
I remember my buddy's grandfather he was in his 80s back in 1978. He used a old pump in 35 Rem. I loaded for it and it was accurate for iron sights. The 200 gr. pill would do real fine for deer in the woods. Its a fine cartridge. You need to realize that the company's keep up grading to get $$$ new sails. That's what its all about. That 200gr. slug will knock em down hard. Don't under estimate it.
 
With my Marlin 336 in 35 Remington I have had nine one shot kills in a row in the Virginia woods. All were heart-lung shots and the longest run was 100 yards with most down much sooner. For an old cartridge this 35 still has a lot going for it.
 
The cartridge was designed to be used in the compact pump action 14 and 141 rifles along with several other cartridges in the same power class as 30-30. But those rifles never really caught on. Most people wanting that type of rifle much preferred Marlin and Winchester lever actions. 30-30 was the king of that class of cartridges and the 35 had a hard time bumping 30-30 out in lever actions.

Remington has offered limited runs of 35 in some bolt guns over the years as well as the 7600 pump rifle. The 35 Rem just wasn't really a fit with those action types and never caught on. But there is a good bit of collector interest in those rifles. The round was pretty popular in some of the single shot pistols at one time.

Marlin used to chamber their 336 in 35REM. The last time I looked they didn't anymore. At least back during the 1960's and 70's many shooters swore it was a better round than 30-30. Over time that has been debunked. The 170 gr 30-30 rounds will out penetrate 200 gr 35 rounds and 30-30 is typically more accurate. At the end of the day they both do exactly the same thing and the 35 has been slowly fading from popularity since the late 1970's.
 
I like the 35 Remington. It's good short range (200ish yd) deer and hog rifle.
What happened to it? It pretty much lost popularity as the lever actions lost popularity. 30 years ago, a good lever action cost $200 and a good bolt rifle cost $500. Now the economy line of bolt actions rule the entry level hunting world.
 
Marlin used to chamber their 336 in 35REM. The last time I looked they didn't anymore.
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They were making it last year. I bought a brand scat new one. Beautiful rifle. The only thing I have found it likes to eat are those dang jelly tip bullets. It prints them 1" at 100. Round and flat nose 2 to 3".
I like shooting it best in my Contender. It may be low end for rifle power, but it's one hot pistol.
 
At least back during the 1960's and 70's many shooters swore it was a better round than 30-30. Over time that has been debunked.
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Many still do swear its a better round, and despite anyone's "debunking" will still swear it's a better round. Doesn't matter to them if a certain other bullet penetrates deeper, or that another caliber is on the average more accurate. What matters is they see deer knocked down with more seeming authority by the .35, and that's enough.
 
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