Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 350 Remington Mag and H4895

Interesting. I've only shot black bear with my 350 Rem Mag. After a couple of poor results with the 200 gr. Hornady SP I thought that maybe that bullet/cartridge combination would work well on deer. It lacked the penetration on black bear that I was looking for.

It was you guys (the 24HCF collective) that put me up to it. Back around 2005, y'all got me cranked up on the idea of a 358 WIN. KYHillChick was looking for an appropriate St. Hubert's Day gift and there was this Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen in the Classifieds, and . . .

. . . I believe in starting with the cheapest bullet that will fill the bill and working up from there. That was the 200 grain REM PSPCL. I had a bunch of H4895. Blah, blah, blah. I took the rifle out for the KY Rifle Opener. The result was this:

Hubert D Buck Meets Mr Whelen

When I reported the results to this august body, y'all suggested that the problem might be bullet toughness. Before my next trip out, I switched to the 200 grain SPCL's, and the next decade went by without serious incident. So began the tenure of The Whelenizer.

One thing is for certain: Hubert D. Buck or "05B" as he came to be known, by the large volume of venison grind in our freezer, ended up the absolute most memorable buck our family ever had. You could always tell when 05B was in the Who Hash. It took a good 3 years before we used him all up. Walking around on 3 legs all that time gave the meat a distinctive flavor.

.350 RM is my go to hunting round...have had several since the early 1990s... At this point I only have a Model 600 18.5" and a custom Montana Rifle Company 22" left...

Bullets...the optimum bullet for the .350 is the Speer 220. With its flat nose it fits perfectly into Remington 600/660/SEVEN and 700 SA magazines which are limited to 2.800 LOA. The base of the bullet can be right at the base of the case neck and still make Max LOA. With 60 grains of 748 they run 2660 from a 22" barrel.

I have killed several deer with that bullet and a friend several black bear. Only one bullet recovered and that was on a bear that was standing at a bait barrel about 40 yards away. Bullet hit the shoulder, down through the lungs, heart, ribs and stopped in the fat to the chest just before breaking out of the hide... Perfect mushroom. It is a tough bullet.

Of the deer I have hit with the bullet they have: dropped in place (35 yards on a running deer), 30 yards (60 yards on a walking deer) and 80 yards (135 yards on a walking deer).... I believe my friend killed three black bear...all DRT.

Extensive articles on .35 bullets...

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

http://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/factoryloadpart1.html

https://www.marlinowners.com/forum/35-remington/

http://www.leverguns.com/articles/fryxell/35_remington.htm

Lee will make you a Factory Crimp Die if you send them a dummy round. Does an excellent job of putting a crimp anywhere you want it on a bullet.

If you are trying to form cases, have you considered 10 grains of Unique instead of expensive rifle powder. I use it with the Hornady 180 grain XTP handgun bullets for my grouse load...

Good luck in your quest...Bob

I am running 200 gr Barnes over TAC. It has proven to be outstanding on a few Black Bears. This is in a short action custom shop model 7 KS

This past weekend I managed to get out to the range and tryout some reloads on a recently purchased, second-hand but unfired Model Seven. Using the ratio method/formula Shaman posted above, I loaded two batches as follows:

46gr H4895, Speer 180gr SNFP - this load was 75% of max which should approximate a 35 Remington load

52gr H4895, Speer 180gr SNFP - this load was 85% of max which should approximate a 356 Win load

The range session also served to break-in the barrel and sight in the scope. The first picture below shows four rounds forming one ragged hole at 50 yards after dialing in the scope. The other two pictures show two, three shot groups at 100 yards. On the second pic, the first shot at 100 yards was low and left. The next four rounds were from the same string (after dialing in scope) with one flyer.







Towards the end of my range session, I fired off a round loaded at 85% and found the recoil to be noticeably greater then the 75% load and hit significantly higher. I didn't have the time or the desire to dial in the 85% load. I plan on trying the 75% load on an upcoming hog hunt in central Florida where shots are generally well inside 100 yards. In closing I will say that shooting full power loads in this rifle from a bench should leave a lasting impression.