Home Forums Lever Action Central Lever Actions - General .35 Rem - pointy bullets

Good morning. I recently purchased some older bulk reloading components which included a box of Rem .358, 150-gr PSP bullets. Are these pointed bullets safe for loading in a rifle with a tubular magazine? My main purpose will be for a T/C Contender chambered in .35 Rem but I thought they'd be fun to plink with in a lever gun too. Thanks and be well.

Not recommended to load them in a tubular mag. You could use them but just put one in the mag tube and one in the chamber.

Remington loaded that bullet in 35 Rem ammo for decades. It should have a small meplat, fine for tube magazines.


The bullet looks like this, right?

This load is not recommended for most rifles with tubed magazines. However when Remington produced this caliber it was made for their model 14 and later model 141 which had a spiral magazine tube that allowed the use of pointed bullets in their tube magazines as the nose of the bullet did not touch the primer of the next cartridge with the spiral tube. Cant say I ever heard of one of these rounds detonated in the magazine of straight tube though. An interesting study was done on this bullet and though light in weight, it penatrated as deep or deeper at 100 yards than any 200 grain round nose soft point. This study of the 35 Remington performance can be found on the Marlin site.

It would be right above worrying about the GDP of the Republic of Nauru for me.

this

The only "pointed" bullet that are safe in lever guns, besides the Hornady gummy tips, are the Speer 180 and 220 grain flat points. They look more pointed than other 35 lever gun bullets, but the very point is flattened to make them safe. I have the 220 grain ones for my 35-30, which is just a tad bit slower than the .35 Rem. If I can find some I may try the 180gr Speer to see how they group, but for now I have plenty of bullets to go through.

I have about 20 pounds of them and over the years I've loaded them in .35 rem, .350 mag, 35 whelen, .358 win, and 9x57 mauser just for plinking loads. I think they would do fine as deer hunting bullets, but there are better options.

I've used them in a Marlin 336 tubular mag with no issues.

I would use them in a Marlin or any lever action. Look at the speer hot cors in 30cal, the point is no different than this rem bullet.

It's all good until it isn't...

I'm with WStrayer on this!!

Is it worth the risk?

I was looking for a copper bullet in .358" and could not find any to use in a tubular magazine. Being a machinist, I took some 225 grain TSX's and put them in the lathe and turned them into 206 grain flat tip hollow points. These are tough bullets and at 35 Rem velocities I don't think they would expand very well, probably act like a solid.

I wonder if the reason those bullets penetrated so deep is because they were designed for the velocities of 35 whelen and the like, so expansion might be something to research. I would be concerned that they might be a little small on the tip for a tube mag. But you should be able to line one up to see if it is too close to call.

Remington makes/made, arguably the best 35 rem bullet in the 200gr core-lokt, but they can be hard to find in production outside of the pandemic. Those were safe for tube mags.

My modified TSX bullet measures .238" at the tip. A spent primer I measured is .2165". Safe to shoot in a tubular magazine. I will use these for varmints or shooting paper.

Try these. They are accurate in my Marlin but I missed a hog a couple of years ago so can't attest to their performance but the are a quality bullet. I may try them again in March.

https://makerbullets.com/proddetail.php?prod=358200LVR

I have about 25 rounds of 35 Rem loaded with 200 grain Maker .358 Lever-Rex bullets. They group within 2" at 100 yards and I am going to try them out on a pig hunt this spring. Well made bullets and great costumer service.