New Marlin 35 Rem. range report

[86er]

I got this rifle on Friday from a forum member. It is a bastard rifle. The stock, lever and lower tang are straight and additions to what was once a pistol grip configuration. The etched #'s on the bolt do not match the serial # on the receiver. The fore-end wood is from yet another 30-30. This is all okay with me because it is as advertised when I bought it and the price was fair. The fore-end was not fitted right and wouldn't go on all the way. I free-floated it so it slides right on and does not contact the barrel at all. On Saturday I sighted in the open sights and then put a red dot/green dot on it and sighted in. The accuracy was impressive - about 1 1/2" 3 shot groups at 100 yds with factory Federal 200 gr loads. I tried it last night hog hunting but the scope made it impossible to see through. I had two hogs at 20 yds and both lived another day because the scope didn't work the way it should've. Last night I reloaded a couple hundred rounds with 36.5g of H4895 ignited by a CCI 250M in RP cases with a 200 gr Remington Core-Lokt bullet. This load is about half way between minimum and maximum. The reason I went somewhat mild is because I also shoot this ammo in my 1909 vintage Rem Model 8. Anyway, today Ricky gave me a Weaver K-4 El Paso scope and we sighted it in. The handloads were as accurate as the Federal factory ammo. The bore sigher saved a lot of rounds, as the first shot at 25 yards was literally a perfect bullseye. We went to 50 yds and tweeked the elevation. Then I tried it at 100 yds. It's now sighted in so it hits 1.5" high at 50 yds and 1" high at 100 yds. When I got home it was dark and I realized I should've took a photo of one of the targets. Instead, I threw a bullseye out in the yard, backed the truck up 100 yards and hit the high beams. I was resting my left hand on the rear view mirror and I shot quickly to minimize the disturbance to the neighbors. Nonetheless, it still punch a 5 shot group that is a hair under 2". This gun should serve it's niche nicely. We have the chance to shoot a lot of hogs from 25 yds to 50 yds. That is the same range as my bear baits. The 30-30 I was using was inconsistent on both. The 35 has proven 100% one shot dead bears on our ME hunts for years. Recently, I've seen it work well on hogs, more consistently at close range that a lot of other, faster and lighter bullets. I don't mean to open a can or worms. My observations have been that the 35 had a slight edge for this type of application over the 30-30 and many other cartridges. It gives me a little added confidence which is most important. I think this'll work out great.

[El Chivo]

I ended up with 36.0 H4895 as my accuracy load and as a bonus, it's still pleasant to shoot. Sounds like a nice load to go out into the field with.

[Warhawk]

Hey Joe, Glad it's working out for you. I wasn't aware that the bolt and receiver didn't match. I had a real beater 30-30 straight grip and snagged the 35 for the conversion project. It's really an easy parts swap to convert one of these, as long as you have all the parts you need, that's the hard part.

[AJMD429]

Instead, I threw a bullseye out in the yard, backed the truck up 100 yards and hit the high beams. I was resting my left hand on the rear view mirror and I shot quickly to minimize the disturbance to the neighbors.

If you can live where your neighbors aren't all that upset with shooting in general, much less at night, it sounds like a right nice place to live.

What was the 'dot' scope doing that made it 'impossible to see through'...? Usually, mine are among the easiest to see through in 'iffy' light, unless I go to a big-bell like a 3x50 or something (as in the Leupold my son kind of absconded with since it was attached to the gun I gave him after he killed his first deer with it... ).

Oh yeah - one more thing...

The etched #'s on the bolt do not match the serial # on the receiver.

This may be a dumb question, but does that mean you had to check headspace before using the gun, and would it matter if it were a 'rimmed' vs. 'rimless' cartridge...?

[Old Savage]

Interesting comparison 30-30 to 35 Rem.

[jlchucker]

Looks to me like you made yourself up a good one! A user's rifle. The 35 Remington, in my experience, is a really easy one to work up an accurate load in. My first try loading for this caliber, several years ago, got me groups similar to yours. One thing about the 35 is that once you get an accurate load with a coreloct you can count on good game performance. The 2 or 300 fps difference between your accuracy load and some hotrod load won't make any difference at all to whatever game you choose to shoot with it. If you want to surprise yourself again, you might try a cast bullet--the RCBS 200 gr. flatpoint, sized to fit your gun, should easily do as well as those jacketed bullets and Hornaday ammo you've been using.

[papabear]

Hay Joe as you know my 35 Marlin help me get my bear with one shot in Maine and my Aoudad and my little buck in Texas also quite a few deer here in new york I think your going to be very happy with your chose of fire arm
Bill

[dr walker]

Looks like you got it shooting well enough to try it out on some moving targets.

[Dave]

That gun is on. The 35 is definitely a thumper.

[stretch]

Nice shootin'!

And it's DEFINITELY a nice rifle....

-Stretch

[madman4570]

Great hunting rifle/great price ------got to like that, and great shooting! Yep, that will work!
Love the .35 Rem.