I got my first 35 when I was in my early 20's, somewhere around 1991. I bought a Remington BDL 35 Whelen. I always liked oddball cartridges compared to what everyone else was shooting so I bought one. I worked for a wholesale sporting goods company as a salesman on the road. I had read about it in one of the outdoor magazines and figured I'd get one.
I only shot 200gr Remington Core-lokts out of it and it would put 3 in a little .600 cloverleaf at 100 yds. It was very accurate for that large a calvert and I knew I had to hunt with it. I had a 1.5-5 Burris scope with a dot in it and started carrying it over everything else I had in the gun cabinet.
I remember my first kills with it. We were doing a deer drive and deer started coming right towards me in a field about 100yds away. The first one I hit flipped on a frontal cheat shot and the second stopped broadside. I punched her behind the shoulder and down she went. As the hunting group gathered around my deer in the field, my Great Uncle said " I've never seen anything like it and he's hogging all the deer" lol. He was watching from an ajoining field.
I killed probably 20 or so more deer from 15yds to about 225-250yds. I only had one deer run and to this day I don't know how. It broke both shoulders at about 225 yds and literally devasted everything up front.
As the years went on I found an older Marlin 35 and bought a Ruger Hawkeye All-Weather 358. I never got a chance to shoot anything with those and through a divorce, lost all but a few guns. I wish I still had the Whelen.
All that being said and after the divorce I went another route. I built a 338-06 and a Ruger Hawkeye All-Weather 338 Federal. I caught the end of Nosler producing the 180gr. .338 ballistic tips and loaded those in the 338-06. I killed my best 6 pointer to date on my first hunt with it and it was a broadside 50 yd shot. It hit right behind the shoulder and punched a 50 cent piece hole out the other side. The lungs were jelly and it even blew up the too of the heart. The deer went about 30yds and piled up. The devastation inside to the vitals was pretty perfect.
Any of the 35's would have probably given me the same outcome, but the added speed and bullet choices turned me to the .338's. They have a shock value on deer sized game and the 358 at certain speeds pack more. They are both great where I hunt.
The difference I think is this and a lot of people on this board will agree I think. If you aren't reading, reloading, shooting, working in the gun sales field....Your going to be shooting a 243, 270, 308, 30-06, because dad hunted with one, grandad had a 270 that he killed everything with, all my buddies hunt with a 7mm mag..etc. The manufacturers make what sells numbers and makes them the most money. That being said the 30-30 in my lifetime probably still accounts for more game taken in the lower 48 than any other. I personally have never killed with one. My Great Uncle moved the the lumber yards when he was about 18 in Saskatchewan and killed a documented 50+ moose and 25+ Grizzlies using a 30-30 a long time ago.
