Pennsylvania Game News -November 2008 - 63

THE AUTHOR’S Marlin 336 .35 Rem. with a Lyman All American 21/2 x scope with a 50-yard zero and handloaded cartridges dropped two to three inches at 100 yards. The Hornady LEVERevolution ammo was three inches flatter with similar grouping. Model 170 pump, Winchester Model 70 bolt action, as well as a few others. Even though the .35 Remington outlived its relatives, it received a boost in 1948, when Marlin reworked its Model 36 lever action into the improved Model 336. Ever since then, this has been a bread and butter combination that is still in demand. Today, the only firearms still chambered in the .35 Remington are the Marlin M336 series, along with a few single-shot pistols, such as the Thompson Center Encore. I find that with apertures my Marlin will easily cut inside of two inches at 100 yards, and with a scope I have seen several others shoot 1-inch groups. As far as factory ballistics go, the old standard round throws a 200-grain round-nose bullet at around 2,000 fps, and with a zero of 100 yards it will drop around 11 inches at 200 yards. In a lightweight carbine (20-inch barrel) as in the Marlin 336, this is a very effective 150-yard deer and black bear cartridge (farther out, the round-nose bullet sheds velocity and drops quickly). Today, with the development of new powders and bullet designs, a couple of factory loads have well exceeded the old standard. Hornady now has a 200-grain polymer-tipped spire point bullet that travels at around 2,230 fps, and due to the higher bullet B.C. drops less than eight inches at 200 yards and, therefore, retains more energy to become a 200-yard cartridge. Buffalo Bore, a new ammunition company, loads a 220-grain jacketed flatnose bullet that they advertise at 2,200 fps that has Fun Game answers: MOORHEN, SNIPE only an 8.4-inch drop at 200 yards (100 yard zero). For those bear hunters who want a bit more than the factory round noses these are just the ticket. Handloaders have it just as good when combining new powders, such as Benchmark, R12, H332 and others with better ballistically built bullets, such as Speer’s 180- and 220-grain semi-spitzer flatnose bullets. These can reach close to 2,400 fps and 2,200 fps respectively, which puts them nipping at the heels of .358 Winchester ballistics. Even though the .35 Remington has a .358 diameter and can certainly digest .38/ .357 pistol bullets (pistol and rifle has a 1 in 16-inch twist), they should be limited for light target/plinking work, because they are designed for pistol velocities and tend to expand too quick at rifle velocities and will, therefore, not penetrate deep enough on big game for clean kills. The other extreme is the .358 cal, 250-grain bullets that are too heavily constructed to perform at velocities less than 2,000 fps; those bullets should be left to rounds such as the .35 Whelen and .350 Rem. Magnum. For more than 100 years the .35 Remington has been one of the most underrated, yet quietly popular effective woods cartridges fired out of a handy lightweight carbine. But now, with the availability of powders and bullets, it will certainly earn a greater following than being “the other .30-30.” 63 NOVEMBER 2008

Pennsylvania Game News -November 2008

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