There are a lot of good bullets for use in the .35 Rem. Below I've linked a thread from the Marlin Owners forum. There's a ton of info on cartridges like the .35, .444 and 45-70 there.

I no longer own a .35 as I have both a .356 and a couple .358s. A bullet that you may? want to focus on is the Speer 180gr JFN. It can be pushed to good velocities in the old .35 and punches way above it's weight class in performance on game. I've seen it loaded to 2800 FPS for a .358, so there's no chance of too much velocity out of the .35.

In some tests I've read it penetrates as well as it's big brother, the Speer 220gr JFN. That 220 is what Buffalo Bore loads in it's .35 Rem heavy load.

Good luck 👍

35 Remington Bullet Performance Part II: Handloads

.35 Remington Bullet Performance Using Commonly Available Reloading Components. Guys, this is part II of the Factory/Handload review that I promised. Reviewed are the Hornady, Sierra, and Remington 200 grain roundnose softpoints, the 180 and 220 grain Speer softpoints, the RCBS 200 FN, cast of...

www.marlinowners.com

 

All I can say is WOW. Thank you so much for the thread you pointed me to. Some of the bullets he tested are either not available (impossible to find) or not made anymore, but it gave me a HUGE head start on my research. I'm not sure if I have ever read or seen a more thorough research done on any particular caliber. Again...WOW.

I wonder how much a BHN of 22 will do versus his BHN of 12? I always figured with cast bullets....punch a hole all the way through and you're Golden!

Thank you so much for sharing that with me. It was hugely helpful!

 

i use 200gr RCBSfn gc in my win m94 35/30-30. i've killed 3 deer with it at 20-30 yards(2 doe) and 53 yards(4 pt). i use 2400/tuft of dacron going 1726fps. i use coww(12bhn) or lyman #2(15bhn) to make them.

the 2 bigger doe went about 20ish yards after the shot, while the 4 pt only went 10ish yards. i shot all them behind the shoulder(.360" hole), thru both lung and out the side(may have broke a rib bone or two) at around 1 - 1 1/4" hole. the back half of the lungs were mush all along the trail the bullet(1 - 1 1/2" hole).

i know i can do 1900-2000+fps with the right powder (rel7 or h4198 or h332), but why bother. 60+ yards is rare in the area i hunt. i shot a fat spike with the 444 marlin and 300gr SAECO fn gc with 2400/tuft of dacron (going a whopping 1624fps 15' from the muzzle) at 63 yards. he ran maybe 20ish yards after the shot(behind the shoulder, lyman #2). i and my oldest son have shot 15-17 deer with a bubba-ed up 30-40 krag and 165gr Ranch Dogs(coww) with h4198 and its going 1926fps. the furthest shot was made by my son and it was 173 yards(behind the shoulder). the other shots are 30-40yards and they are DRT. i bow to the Ranch Dog for being DRT, or the metplat, doesn't matter .

every deer i and my son have shot, doesn't matter the caliber, is a thru-n-thru boolit.

 

Update on the 35 Remington project. I was lucky and found a guy that had a goodly amount of brass that he picked up in a BIG estate sale purchase. I had gotten some 6mm Remington from him awhile back and thought it would be worth a shot at asking about the 35 Remington. Lo and behold, he had 300 +14. I bought them all.

Now that I had that hurdle out of the way, I started purchasing components. I have tons of LR primers and a few good powders including BLC-2, H335, IMR and H 4985. I hope not to use any of my BLC-2 as it is a favorite out of my .204 Ruger.

I purchased the following bullets. 180 gr. Hornady XTP HP, 180 gr. Cast Performance GCFP, 200 gr. Cast Performance GCFP. and 84 - 220 gr. Speer Hot-Cor (Coming). The cast bullets are pre-lubed with a GC and BHN of 20-22. The link that TnHunter shared was invaluable.

I got a 3 die set of the Lee Pacesetter's. I have a set in 9.3 X 62 that I have been happy with.

I was not overly familiar with the 35 Remington when I took on this project and when the brass came in the mail, that TINY shoulder scared me to death. I have ZERO once fired brass from his gun as the 45-50 rounds he has put through the gun are nowhere to be found. Only loaded ammo. I feel fairly confident with the Lee dies if I follow their instructions if my 9.3 is any indication. I plan on loading 5 rounds with each bullet to test fire and get an idea of accuracy. All of the brass has been de-primed and some might be new factory and others once fired. They are all very clean but some have slightly dirty primer pockets. 184 R-P, 51 FC, 74 mixed WW and WW Super X.

I have a bunch of personal stuff going on, but hope to get started soon. I hope it goes well. Wish me luck!

 

Finally got my first test loads done. I prepped a bunch of brass but settled on starting with the F-C. Sized, trimmed, chamfered, and cleaned.

From left to right.
180 gr. Hornady XTP - Hopefully around 1600 fps. Won't know until I chrony them.
180 gr. Cast Performance FP Heat Treated Gas Checked
200 gr. Cast Performance FP Heat Treated Gas Checked
220 gr. Speer Hot-Cor

I really like the Lee Factory Crimp die. It was easy to adjust to apply the crimp I desired. The 220 gr. Speer were seated fairly deep, but I used the suggested OAL from Speer.

 

Funny Cartridge. I just finished off 200 rounds (50 each of the above listed). Very thin neck which made bullet seating fun. Using Lee Pacesetter dies. Learned quick to set the seating die low and adjust depth with the bullet adjustment. I think I caused issues with 3-4 cases before I got that sorted out. It was worse with the 200 gr. gas-check lead. Hadn't loaded gas check bullets in a number of years. I think the height of the 200 gr. bullet caused a slight mis-alignment issue. Maybe fat fingers too. But, adjusting the die a little solved the problem.

Delivering those tomorrow and then heading to a session at my hometown skeet range. Hope to get in a few rounds and visiting family before heading home. 3/4 oz. 12 gauge or 410. Undecided as of yet.

 

I bought my current 35 Remington a month ago and it came with 87 factory loads. Going to shoot the 17 Hornady flex tips up for brass and play with cast bullets in it. Hope to luck into some brass myself so I don't have to shoot any more of the factory ammo up. Those are some good looking reloads. I like the cast bullets design.

 

I would highly recommend the Cast Performance Bullets from Midway. They miced out perfect and seemed to be high quality. Since they are gas checked and heat treated, I think you can get jacketed velocities.

I have 101 pieces of brass left and will load up the remaining Speer Hot-Cor in 220 gr since there are no more on the face of the planet. The other 67 will be mixed between the rest.

 

The Oct 2022 issue of Wolf's Handloader magazine has a "Pet Loads" discussion and loading table for the .35 Remington.

 

In my previous 35 Remington I took to loading the 220 Speer pretty hot using AA2520. I settled on 2100 fps which was not max but brass seemed it last well enough. Wish I hadn't traded that one off but it's replacement is in better shape, doesn't have Microgroove rifling, and hopefully a bore not as oversize. Pretty much going to use this rifle with cast only.

 

HELP needed!!!

Thanks to @tarbe, he gifted me some Reloader 7 powder.

I am finding some problems when doing research on the Speer 220 gr. Hot-Cor.

I am pretty sure that the Alliant data has a typo on their on-line page. It lists the MAX load for a 220 gr. Speer bullet at 24.5 gr. or REL7 with a velocity of 1536 fps. My 2020 print manual shows the same load with a velocity of 1936 fps??

My Lyman 48th (2002) has that bullet with a start load of 27 gr. of RX7 and a velocity of 1763. ????? My Lyman 50th does not have that bullet listed as it was discontinued 4-5 years ago.

With the Alliant Manual you are supposed to start at 10% below the load listed which means the start load should be @ around 22 gr. That is a full 5 grains less than the Lyman 48th start load.

Start load in the Lyman 50th for a 200 gr. Jacketed bullet in the 35 Remington is 28 gr. of REL7. That does extrapolate out to about 27 gr. start for a 20 gr. heavier bullet.

Not sure where to go here since the Alliant Data and Lyman are so far off.

There is also a thread on the Marlin Owners which suggests that REL7 is good well into the lower-mid 30 gr. range for 200gr. bullets. I am NOT seeking the kind of velocities he is but would like to be in the 1800+ fps. range with the 220 gr. Hot-Cor. Again...HELP.

Reloader 7 for 35 Remington load. | Marlin Firearms Forum (marlinowners.com)

 

With the Alliant Manual you are supposed to start at 10% below the load listed which means the start load should be @ around 22 gr. That is a full 5 grains less than the Lyman 48th start load.

Lot variations, supplier changes, and estimations on old data are a real thing

Now you know why I started using a Pressure Trace.😁

 

Speer #15 lists a maximum load with the 220-grain bullet as 24.5 grains Reloder 7 giving 1530 fps. That’s pretty close to the Alliant website data. However, Speer #11 shows a maximum load of 24.5 giving 1536 fps - exactly the same as the Alliant online data. Confused yet?



.

 

These days Speer hires Alliant (both Vista Outdoors companies) to pressure test their maximum loads after each development cycle to be sure they are within SAAMI spec limits with more recent lots of powder. But the test method involves just ten shots, so a few fps of change fits with random variation expectations from one lot to the next. 6 fps of variation is so close, I'm surprised they were lucky enough to be that consistent from one test to the next.

 

…6 fps of variation is so close, I'm surprised they were lucky enough to be that consistent from one test to the next.

Maybe not so surprising when you take into account the differences in barrel length (as listed anyway). Wonder why the online data seems to match the older Speer data and not the new data - perhaps they didn't pay for it.

Alliant data: 20” barrel, 1536 fps
Speer #11: 20” barrel, 1536 fps
Speer #15: 24” barrel, 1530 fps



.

 

Maybe not so surprising when you take into account the differences in barrel length (as listed anyway). Wonder why the online data seems to match the older Speer data and not the new data - perhaps they didn't pay for it.

Alliant data: 20” barrel, 1536 fps
Speer #11: 20” barrel, 1536 fps
Speer #15: 24” barrel, 1530 fps

I think the gun explains it. 20" is the length of the SAAMI standard pressure and velocity (P&V) barrels for the 35 Remington, so I believe those two 1536 fps numbers are for Alliant's universal receiver with that barrel, which has a minimum chamber (within half a thousandth of an inch) and which would have been used to test Speer's top load (unless they simply adopted Alliant's top load). That data in #11 is also what is in my copy of #14. If that barrel length changed in #15 (I don't have a copy), then I expect the velocity came from a 24" production gun of some kind, as the P&V barrels are not made in 24" for the 350 Remington. A looser chamber than the SAAMI P&V guns have could account for the velocity loss, despite the longer tube.

 

Well...I tossed out my using REL7 for the 220 gr. Speer. I found a load using Pro-Varmint out of the newest Speer manual that will get me above 1700 fps. which will work. I generally do a bit of research prior to settling on a start load. After it was determined what the chamber size was and seating depth for the particular bullets I had, I was just wanting to get some SAFE loads made for the remaining bullets and brass I have on hand with powders I have an "abundance" of. Since this was my first foray with REL7, I did my due diligence and will NOT be using it. I have plenty of other calibers it will work out nicely for that does have corresponding data.

Thanks for all the input. I appreciate it.

I did find a load for 180 gr. bullets that should work out but only will be loading ~30-35 rounds of it.

 

Final loads. Thank God! 104 total. I'll be selling the extra bullets and dies here in the trading post if anyone is intersted.

 

RCBS makes a 208 grain bullet mold designed specifically for the .35 remington. It uses gas checks. I have shot hundreds of these and maintain about a 2" group with iron sights at 100 yards. For a lever gun with iron sights, that's pretty good.

 

The few deer I shot with the 220 Speer ran a ways, and the wound channels were narrow. Seemed to be a tough bullet for small east Texas whitetails.

 

Hey guys does anyone know if I can fire form some other brass to make 35 Remington?

 

Allen,

There are no other SAAMI standard cases with the exact same head dimensions as 35 Remington. A number of folks have reported forming 35 Rem from 308 Win. The 35 Rem has a maximum rim diameter of 0.460" with a tolerance of -0.010", whereas the 308 is 0.472"-0.010". The diameter of the 35 Rem extractor groove is 0.400"-0.020", whereas the 308 Win is 0.409"-0.020". The 35 Rem body diameter at 0.2" forward of the bottom of the head is 0.4574"-0.008", while the 308 Win diameter at 0.2" forward of the bottom of the head is 0.4703"-0.008".

So, if you go out with your calipers, you can find 308 cases with extractor grooves that are already 0.0390"-0.400", and then you won't have to touch that part. This post describes the rest. If you buy 308 Win brass that isn't too hard (try Hornady or Federal), you may then be able to lube the case and push it through Lee's 0.457" bullet sizing die to get the wide spot in front of the head narrowed down. Once you've done that, run a neck expander into the case neck to bring it up enough to seat your bullets, then run the whole thing into your 35 Rem sizing die, well lubed, as mentioned. Considering that neck expansion will shrink the case a little, you may want to save your initial trim until after resizing and then run it into the sizing die a second time, just to be sure.