Home Forums Lever Action Central Marlin 336 Lever Actions Favorite 35 Rem Loads

I've got a 1955 pre-Texan 35 with a 20" Ballard rifled barrel. I haven't had it long and just started reloading for it.

I usually have good luck reloading for a new caliber, simply by sticking to established components and procedures which have proven to work well for me. This 35 Remington broke my 'one load and done' magic.

I tried a Hunters Supply 190 grain cast RNFP over the basic 'start' load of H4895 for 1865 fps. That bullet is advertised as 358 and suitable for 35 Rem, but it was awful in my Ballard rifled 1955 Marlin. This rifle with plant three 200 grain FTX factory loads in 4 1/2 inches at 200 yards. With the Hunters Supply 190, rested 100 yard groups would be measured in feet, not inches.

I mic'ed a couple of these bullets and they were barely .358 and the base, tapering to about .356 at the front driving band. I've had great luck with Hunters Supply bullets in 44 Mag revolvers, so I'm not dogging on the maker. I do think these would make a good heavy bullet for the 357 mag.

I located a couple of boxes of new/old stock Sierra 200 grain #2800 'Pro Hunter' soft point bullets. Sierra's hunting bullets have always produced excellent accuracy for me and have been sure killers to boot. They are a tad harder than the 200 grain Remington CoreLokt, so I decided to run them a bit faster. For reasons I don't comprehend, the same people who 'get' Ruger-only 45 Colt loads or Tier Two 45-70 loads, get a case of the vapors when you talk about loading a 35 caliber Marlin 336 to 30-30 pressures. So if you're going to go Aunt Matilda on me, save your breath. I will read one of your posts and never see another one again.

I've found H4895 is ideal in medium capacity rifle cartridges; in fact that's the only rifle powder I stock. Quickload type programs indicate 40.5 grains of it should produce about 2195 fps at 41981 PSI. I started at 40.0 grain under the 200 grain Sierra SP, in Super X cases and got 2154 fps average with no pressure signs. This load is 1 1/2 grains over published, max loads for the 35 Remington. I recommend you do NOT use it. You might put your eye out or all your children could be born naked and toothless.

I had to adjust my sights a bit for this load and fired two shots between adjustments. Several times those shots were within an inch of each other at 100 yards. 200 yard trajectory was essentially equal to the Hornady 200 grain FTX factory load. The Sierra handload also outshot it, with three shots in 3 ½” at 200 yards. FWIW I measured the fired cases from the H4895/Sierra 35 Remington reloads. I had trimmed these to length before reloading them. If there was 0.002" of case stretch after firing, I could not detect it. Also absent was any indication of stretching at the web, the dreaded 'incipient head separation' line. This is all good juju. It tells me my sizing die is adjusted perfectly for this chamber (barely bumping the shoulder) and that I'm going to keep using the load. If I blow myself up, my wife has been requested to take pics of the smoking crater and post them here.

Finally- why. Performance of the 35 Sierra at 2200 fps has been tested in wetpack to 200 yards.



Credit to John Albert for his research on the 35 Remington
https://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/35rempart2.html

Have you tried any cast bullets in yours, Gunner?