Over the years, the .35 Remington has been chambered in a variety of rifles by most firearms manufacturers, and continues in popularity today in the Marlin Model 336 lever-action and Henry Side Gate Lever Action. It is also a popular cartridge for single-shot hunting pistols like the Thompson/Center Contender and the Remington XP-100. For hunters looking for a medium-power rifle with moderate recoil, for short to medium ranges, the .35 Remington is popular alongside the .30-30 Winchester. It has a small but loyal following in the northeast and areas of the southern United States.
The cartridge uses a medium to heavy bullet and has moderate recoil based on a moderate pressure level of 33,500 CUP as set by SAAMI. The normal factory load consists of a 200 grain round-nosed bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2080 feet per second. This 200 grain bullet is nearly 18% heavier than the .30-30's 170 grain bullet, and has a 16% larger frontal area. This gives it a substantial increase in power over the .30-30, especially when used on larger game species.
Remington helped promote the advantage in power that the .35 Remington had over the .30-30 through a series of advertising campaigns in the early 1900s. One of their advertisements even publicized the ability of the .35 Remington to penetrate a 5/16″ steel plate, which the .30-30 Winchester could not do.
The .35 Remington is considered a fine round for deer, elk, black bear, and other medium and large game as long as ranges are reasonable. Hornady currently produces a .35 Remington load in their LEVERevolution line that features a rubber-tipped spitzer bullet which is safe to use in lever action or pump guns with tubular magazines.
The 350 Legend was released in 2019 and created solely by Winchester Repeating Arms Ammunition division, known now as simply Winchester Ammunition. The 350 Legend is a legend in its own right because it is one of the few cartridges that has no parent cartridge. It does have the same diameter as the .223 Remington cartridge but that is where the similarities of the two rounds start and end. This straight-walled cartridge was developed for hunting where states had strict regulations on straight-walled deer hunting rounds. The 350 Legend is a product of the Ammunition industry responding to ridiculous government regulation and overreach. Without oddball laws on hunting with necked cartridges, straight-walled cartridges like the 350 Legend cartridge would likely not exist. The performance of the round was designed to deliver high lethal terminal energy on deer at ranges out to 200 yards. The 350 Legend sits in an area of its own where at 200 yards it outpaces 300 Blackout, 30-30 Winchester, and 223 Remington in energy on target. The closest comparison for foot-pounds on target for the Legend is the 300 Blackout round which comes in at 790 ft-lbs at 200-yards. The 350 Legend clocks in at 903 ft-lbs at 200-yards. As you can see it’s no slouch and the .350 legend doesn’t just barely edge out the 300 blackout round either.
