Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General .35 Caliber 220-grain Speer bullet

I wanted to ask to ask for help in expressing a thought on bullet performance. On another board I have posted about bullet performance on deer. �Deer� can mean different things I suppose but in my part of Texas it means 80- to 170--pounds on the hoof with the majority of mature bucks I have shot weighing less than 160-pounds.
From my point of view the discussion centered around lever action cartridges and I was commenting on a fellow posters use of the Buffalo Bore 35 Remington ammunition which uses the 220-grain Speer Hot Core bullet.
I have used the 220-grain Speer bullet in the 356 and 358 Winchester cartridges to take our white tail deer and local pigs which weigh considerably less than 200-pounds on the hoof. I load this bullet to a muzzle velocity between 2,250 and 2,300 fps. I have hunted with the 220-grain bullet loaded to a velocity as high as 2,350 fps. In my hunting area it is unusual to be able to see a game animal further than 80 yards. My experience has been that deer and pigs hit with a well placed shot (crossing the body cavity and damaging at least one lung) using the 220-grain Speer bullet at these velocities will run or trot some 30- to 100-yards. I believe from their reaction to the shot that the animals are dead on their feet but have not yet run out of oxygen and the lights have not flickered out.
Switching to the .35 caliber 200-grain jacketed bullets - Sierra, Hornady and Remington - driven between 2,400 and 2,500 fps, the animals generally drop in their tracks or move less than 30-yards.
My explanation for this is the 220-grain Speer bullet is designed for tougher animals and the bullet is not expanding on our light critters or has not expanded very much by the time the bullet exits - I have never recovered a 220-grain Speer bullet from an animal. We process our own game so I have seen all of the entrance and exit holes and have cut along the bullet path through the lungs on a few of them to look at the damage. On several deer where bones were not broken and where a shoulder was not involved, the 220-grain Speer bullet does not appear to have expanded at all.
As a young man my father showed me pictures of gelatin blocks and explained that bullets expand quickly upon entering an animal. Reading the Expanding Bullet chapter in MD�s new book reinforces these thoughts. My difficulty is in describing my thoughts without putting the �Bad Word� on a good bullet. In my opinion the 220-Speer bullet is not failing to expand, my target medium is not offering enough resistance for the bullet to work as I expect or desire it to.
Can anyone here report on the use of the 220-grain Speer bullet for deer from the 35 Remington?

In my opinion, the BEST deer bullet for the 35 Remington is Speer 180 grain flat tip. This transforms the 35 into ballistic twin of the 300 Savage out to approx. 175 yards or so. Rapid expansion makes for quick kills.

In contrast, the heavy jacketed Speer 220 grain is probably a better choice for moose and other game with large and heavy bones. I say probably because I have no actual experience shooting moose with my 35 Remington rifle. The only moose I've ever taken was with .308 carbine and 180 grain core-lokt ammo. It took two solid chest hits to down the animal. Canadian moose are tough!

Sherwood

link to an interesting article that may be of use; author reviews various .35 bullets....

http://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/35rempart2.html

Older thread but interesting link.

Maybe bullet is designed more for 350 mag/ 35 whelen speeds and the lack of velocity is why they arent opening up?

Got to say that this is an awesome picture, congrats to whoever took it.

The 220 gr Speer bullets look to have opened well in that test. The 200 gr Core Lokt looks great and the 180 gr Speer looks to be a great deer bullet.

Exhaustive testing of various .35 bullets in this link:

http://35cal.com/35bullet_study/35bullet_study1.html

Good reads, guys. Bookmarking both of these links.

I have also had good luck with the Speer 180 gr in a .35 Rem for 135-180 pound Mississippi Whitetails. The closest moose is about a 1000 miles away in Minnesota. There are some elk a couple hundred miles away in a state park in Tennessee, but they keep a pretty close eye on them.

Michael

I hope to "test" a 220 out of my .356 this fall on either a moose or blk bear in Newfoundland.

I shot one 130+/- lbs. whitetail doe with the 220 grain Speer FP from a 356 Winchester, my rechambered Marlin 336SD that was a 35 Remington. The bullet passed though with very little, if any, expansion. The 180 grain Speer FP has been a much quicker killer on "average" whitetails for me and is my preferred bullet in the 35 Rem and 356 Win rifles with tubular magazines; Marlin 336s, Remington 141s, and Savage 170s.

That has been my experience with the 180 Speer FP as well. Just knocks the snot out of deer!

i have shot four deer with the speer 220gr bullet from a 35 whelen, they all dropped in there tracks all deer were within 150 probably 125yards. so the extra velocity did the trick.

Ed

I shot one Moose calf ( approx 400 lbs) with a .356 Winchester loaded with the Speer 220 FP. It was exactly 250 long steps away. I think I recall the bullet was going about 2350-2400 at the muzzle. The 3 bullets shot broadside all exited, one through liver and diaphragm, one through the lungs and one in the hump. Hump was last and dropped it. There was reasonable expansion, but not a wide wound channel in the liver and lungs. I believe it would be a quicker expanding bullet at closer range or if shot faster from a Whelen. Seems a bit "tough" for deer from this one time "test"

This has been my experience on our light framed West Texas deer and our lighter pigs. The 356 and 358 do not have the velocity to use this bullet to its full potential.

The 200-grain cast and jacketed bullets will put a deer on the ground quicker. The 200-grain bulk Remington bullet and the 200-grain RCBS cast bullet do well in the Winchesters with the RCBS bullet seemingly made for the Winchester rifle.