(Editor’s Note; The following originally appeared in The Fouling Shot #23, December 1979. and was written by Frank Marshall)
The ability of medium bore bullets of 200 grains and more to penetrate heavy brush without deflecting have greatly influenced the thinking of hunters who have used such cartridges under severe conditions. If there is no snow to aid tracking, a buck that doesn’t fall within sight in brushy country is a lost animal. Several friends have tracked bucks solidly hit with 150-grain or 180-grain .308 Win. or .30-’06 loads, only to find a gut pile and drag marks leading to somebody else’s pickup, and now use .35 caliber rifles.
In my opinion, rifles under .30 caliber having velocities over 2400 f.p.s. are good for only one game in the Easterner’s total gunnery spectrum: varmints. The high velocity, light bullet is out of place for most hunting east of the Great Plains. Your .270 Win. or .25-’06 is a fine mule deer or antelope rifle in the open country of Wyoming or Montana, but is a poor choice for typical deer woods in Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Michigan. The best cartridge for deer hunting in close cover is probably the .35 Remington with a 200-grain bullet. Such a rifle beats a .30-30 or-.30-’06 hands down.
One could argue convincingly on the merits of the .30-’06, but the truth is that the 180-grain bullets in that caliber, and the similar 308 Win. are intended for bigger game. The 150-grain loads are best suited for open country. When used at short ranges they ruin too much meat and are not good brush buckers. The best .30 caliber woods load is probably the .300 Savage with its 180-grain bullet at 2300 f.p.s.
Of all the popular American hunting rifle cartridges made, you can count on one hand the number of good woods cartridges. The firearms industry has sold hunters bill of goods on the utility of high-velocity, meat grinding varmint rifles for deer. The real woods cartridges are looked on today as poor cousins to the elite, “whiz-bang” cartridges. This idiocy is widespread. One survey published in the American Rifleman several years ago counted as many 7mm Magnum rifles among several hundred eastern deer hunters as .35 Remingtons! The most popular rifles were .30-’06s with the .30-30 coming in a strong second. The .30-30 with 170-grain bullet isn’t a terrible rifle for woods hunting, but is not as sure a killer as the .35 Rem. or .38-55.
The ability of medium bore bullets of 200 grains and more to penetrate heavy brush without deflecting have greatly influenced the thinking of hunters who have used such cartridges under severe conditions. If there is no snow to aid tracking, a buck that doesn’t fall within sight in brushy country is a lost animal. Several friends have tracked bucks solidly hit with 150-grain or 180-grain .308 Win. or .30-’06 loads, only to find a gut pile and drag marks leading to somebody else’s pickup, and now use .35 caliber rifles.
In my opinion, rifles under .30 caliber having velocities over 2400 f.p.s. are good for only one game in the Easterner’s total gunnery spectrum: varmints. The high velocity, light bullet is out of place for most hunting east of the Great Plains. Your .270 Win. or .25-’06 is a fine mule deer or antelope rifle in the open country of Wyoming or Montana, but is a poor choice for typical deer woods in Pennsylvania, West Virginia or Michigan. The best cartridge for deer hunting in close cover is probably the .35 Remington with a 200-grain bullet. Such a rifle beats a .30-30 or-.30-’06 hands down.
One could argue convincingly on the merits of the .30-’06, but the truth is that the 180-grain bullets in that caliber, and the similar 308 Win. are intended for bigger game. The 150-grain loads are best suited for open country. When used at short ranges they ruin too much meat and are not good brush buckers. The best .30 caliber woods load is probably the .300 Savage with its 180-grain bullet at 2300 f.p.s.
Of all the popular American hunting rifle cartridges made, you can count on one hand the number of good woods cartridges. The firearms industry has sold hunters bill of goods on the utility of high-velocity, meat grinding varmint rifles for deer. The real woods cartridges are looked on today as poor cousins to the elite, “whiz-bang” cartridges. This idiocy is widespread. One survey published in the American Rifleman several years ago counted as many 7mm Magnum rifles among several hundred eastern deer hunters as .35 Remingtons! The most popular rifles were .30-’06s with the .30-30 coming in a strong second. The .30-30 with 170-grain bullet isn’t a terrible rifle for woods hunting, but is not as sure a killer as the .35 Rem. or .38-55.
Of the rounds available today, the .35 Rem. and .358 Win. are top choices. The most promising offering for the woods hunter is the new .375 Win. It is a modern, high pressure cartridge which takes up where the .38-55 left off, having a fast 12” twist and higher velocity of 2200 f.p.s. with 200-grain bullets and 1900 f.p.s. with 250 grain bullets. Because of its 16” twist, the .38-55 was never a good brush bucker, though its big bullet killed well and left a good blood trail. The .375 Win. will prove better than the .38-55 ever was, since it gives much more power with excellent bullet stability, well-designed bullets and moderate recoil.
The .444 Marlin could have filled the role now taken by the .375 Win., but as factory loaded it is a poor brush gun. It uses the same 240-grain bullet used in the .44 Mag. revolver cartridge, and when loaded to rifle velocities, penetration is poor, and brush bucking non-existent. The rifling twist of the .44 is too slow to use a bullet heavy enough to do any good. The cast bullet shooter is left in the cold, since the Micro-Groove barrels give good results only with light loads. A few exceptions pop up occasionally, as Andy Barniskis noted in Fouling Shot 21, but poor cast load performance above 1400 f.p.s. in Marlin rifles has been true in my experience.
I have heard of a custom .444 Marlin built on a Remington 788 action with 14” twist, cut-rifled barrel with deep grooves, assembled by an Arizona gun maker. Ed Harris tells me the owner is quite pleased with it, and that with 350-grain cast bullets it gives ballistics very much like the old .405 Winchester. If Marlin had gone this route originally, the .375-Win. would have never
The .444 Marlin could have filled the role now taken by the .375 Win., but as factory loaded it is a poor brush gun. It uses the same 240-grain bullet used in the .44 Mag. revolver cartridge, and when loaded to rifle velocities, penetration is poor, and brush bucking non-existent. The rifling twist of the .44 is too slow to use a bullet heavy enough to do any good. The cast bullet shooter is left in the cold, since the Micro-Groove barrels give good results only with light loads. A few exceptions pop up occasionally, as Andy Barniskis noted in Fouling Shot 21, but poor cast load performance above 1400 f.p.s. in Marlin rifles has been true in my experience.
I have heard of a custom .444 Marlin built on a Remington 788 action with 14” twist, cut-rifled barrel with deep grooves, assembled by an Arizona gun maker. Ed Harris tells me the owner is quite pleased with it, and that with 350-grain cast bullets it gives ballistics very much like the old .405 Winchester. If Marlin had gone this route originally, the .375-Win. would have never
reled for the .444. Richard Hoch could supply a suitable mold. At 1800 f.p.s., a cast bullet of this size would be hard to beat for any American game at ranges up to about 150 yards. My choice for such a bullet would be much like the blunt-nosed Lyman #311440, but scaled up to .430” diameter. We could always hope Remington or Marlin would bring out a fast-twist .444, but that seems unlikely. Remington got stung on the .44 Mag. Model 788, which never sold well, and Marlin already has plans to bring out a rifle for the .375 Win.
I can hear the handgun advocates saying, why not use the .44 Magnum in the rifle? It has the same problems the .444 did. Existing bullets in .44 caliber are designed for 1300-1500 f.p.s. handgun velocities, and they won’t penetrate and hold together at 1800 f.p.s. in a rifle. Even hard-cast Keith bullets in .357 and .44 Mag., in normal handgun loads, shed their noses and fracture when fired from rifle-length barrels.
The fact the .45-70 still survives today is testimony to the fact that plenty of us are running the ridges who do not swallow the sweet syrup of Madison Ave. on high velocity bullets. As the old prophets expounded: “You don’t know if you haven’t been to the mountain and seen!” The medium and the big bores work. The fringe benefit for cast bullet shooters is that they will do it just as well with lead loads, too! A moderately soft, heavy bullet of wheel weights with some tin added at around 1800 f.p.s. is just about ideal for woods hunting.
The .35 cal. makes the most sense because of the possibilities in rifles and bullets. The .358 Win. is the closest U.S. equivalent to the fine old 9x57 Mauser or 9mm Mannlicher cartridges. The 250-grain load at around 2200 f.p.s. is about ideal (the 200-grain bullet is not, unless loaded down to .35 Rem. levels).
I can hear the handgun advocates saying, why not use the .44 Magnum in the rifle? It has the same problems the .444 did. Existing bullets in .44 caliber are designed for 1300-1500 f.p.s. handgun velocities, and they won’t penetrate and hold together at 1800 f.p.s. in a rifle. Even hard-cast Keith bullets in .357 and .44 Mag., in normal handgun loads, shed their noses and fracture when fired from rifle-length barrels.
The fact the .45-70 still survives today is testimony to the fact that plenty of us are running the ridges who do not swallow the sweet syrup of Madison Ave. on high velocity bullets. As the old prophets expounded: “You don’t know if you haven’t been to the mountain and seen!” The medium and the big bores work. The fringe benefit for cast bullet shooters is that they will do it just as well with lead loads, too! A moderately soft, heavy bullet of wheel weights with some tin added at around 1800 f.p.s. is just about ideal for woods hunting.
The .35 cal. makes the most sense because of the possibilities in rifles and bullets. The .358 Win. is the closest U.S. equivalent to the fine old 9x57 Mauser or 9mm Mannlicher cartridges. The 250-grain load at around 2200 f.p.s. is about ideal (the 200-grain bullet is not, unless loaded down to .35 Rem. levels).
The .35 Whelen is an old, but good cartridge which doesn’t need full loads to fill the woods role gotten off the ground. It would be easy to take a .30-30 Remington 788 or .30-40 Ruger No. 3 and have it rebarreled. It also has fine potential for heavy game. A 300-grain cast .35 Whelen load at around 2000 f.p.s. would be strong medicine for elk, moose or bear. The .35 Rem. would also hold real promise in a rifle with a 12” twist, like the Savage 170 pump, which could give results comparable to the .375 Win. with 250-grain cast bullets.
The ideal load requirements of a heavy bullet at moderate velocity are easily met with and perfectly suited for the cast bullet. Soft alloys give good hunting accuracy with fine expansion in game. The economic factors are clear, since common scrap alloys like wheel weights can be used with complete success, and the moderately powered cast loads are frugal in their expenditure of powder. My Scot’s blood boils at the thought of using 10cent jacketed bullets and $8/lb. powder for hunting loads when a home-cast wheel weight bullet with modest powder charge will kill table meat just as surely with less money and a lot more personal satisfaction.
There are few domestic cartridges suited for medium-bore, cast bullet hunting loads, but this simplifies the process of seeking the ideal cast bullet hunting load for your particular needs. Many years ago, A.C. Gould said in Shooting & Fishing, “Sixty-five yards is an average shot in American big game hunting.” After a half a century of wandering and wondering in the woods, I would conclude he was correct. About 90% of the shots I have taken at big game were in that category, and in much of that hunting I used cast loads. Never did I feel handicapped using them; often the proper cast load was the key to my success.
The finest medium-bore, domestic rifle and cartridge which I’ve used extensively was a pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 featherweight in .358 Win. This .358 Win. had shallow .004” depth grooves, 12” twist and standard factory chamber with abrupt forcing cone, which allowed good performance only up to about 1800 f.p.s. with my usual hunting alloy. Using the Lyman #3589 282-grain blunt-nosed gascheck bullet cast of wheel weights with 2% tin added, I got about 1800 f.p.s. with 48 grains of old surplus H4831. I used a 3X Weaver scope for load testing, and open sights for hunting. This heavy bullet load left no unburned powder, but there was considerable fouling, which required barrel brushing to maintain accuracy during a long day’s plinkenfest. For maximum accuracy, I’d brush every 10 shots and this light rifle would stay in 2 m.o.a. all day; not bad for such an outfit.
I tried most of the available swaged and cast handgun bullets from 150 grains up through the normal 200280 grain rifle weights, and had no problems finding reasonably accurate loads. The trick is keeping the velocity to a suitable level for the bullet. The 12” twist proved to be very flexible in this respect. The handgun bullets seemed to shoot best with light loads below 1500 f.p.s., whereas the heavier rifle bullets shot better when driven above 1500 f.p.s. and up to about 1800 f.p.s. Since my rifle had a .3585” groove diameter, I sized my cast bullets .359”.
There are few domestic cartridges suited for medium-bore, cast bullet hunting loads, but this simplifies the process of seeking the ideal cast bullet hunting load for your particular needs. Many years ago, A.C. Gould said in Shooting & Fishing, “Sixty-five yards is an average shot in American big game hunting.” After a half a century of wandering and wondering in the woods, I would conclude he was correct. About 90% of the shots I have taken at big game were in that category, and in much of that hunting I used cast loads. Never did I feel handicapped using them; often the proper cast load was the key to my success.
The finest medium-bore, domestic rifle and cartridge which I’ve used extensively was a pre-1964 Winchester Model 70 featherweight in .358 Win. This .358 Win. had shallow .004” depth grooves, 12” twist and standard factory chamber with abrupt forcing cone, which allowed good performance only up to about 1800 f.p.s. with my usual hunting alloy. Using the Lyman #3589 282-grain blunt-nosed gascheck bullet cast of wheel weights with 2% tin added, I got about 1800 f.p.s. with 48 grains of old surplus H4831. I used a 3X Weaver scope for load testing, and open sights for hunting. This heavy bullet load left no unburned powder, but there was considerable fouling, which required barrel brushing to maintain accuracy during a long day’s plinkenfest. For maximum accuracy, I’d brush every 10 shots and this light rifle would stay in 2 m.o.a. all day; not bad for such an outfit.
I tried most of the available swaged and cast handgun bullets from 150 grains up through the normal 200280 grain rifle weights, and had no problems finding reasonably accurate loads. The trick is keeping the velocity to a suitable level for the bullet. The 12” twist proved to be very flexible in this respect. The handgun bullets seemed to shoot best with light loads below 1500 f.p.s., whereas the heavier rifle bullets shot better when driven above 1500 f.p.s. and up to about 1800 f.p.s. Since my rifle had a .3585” groove diameter, I sized my cast bullets .359”.
As fine as the #3589 Lyman bullet was, it is not as nice as Ed Harris’ 290-grain Hoch #359272 he designed for the .35 Whelen. This is a super .35 bullet. Ed designed this bullet, and the somewhat lighter #359255 of the same nose shape, with a full .353” nose riding diameter to be a snug fit in the typical .35 rifle barrel (which runs .352 bore more often than the .350” minimum seen on the SAAMI drawings). Both are nose-pour configuration with a 2-caliber tangent ogive, .16” flat point and broad bands with two large grease grooves and gascheck base. The only difference between the bullets is that the bands and grooves on the #359255 are .080” wide, instead of .10”, shortening the bullet by .10” and 20-grains, permitting its use in cartridges with shorter necks like the .358 Win.
Lyman bullets, the 210-grain #358315 for the .35 Rem., and 245-grain #358318 for the .35 Win., do not come from the mold with large enough noses to fit the minimum .350” bore, not to mention the usual .351-.352” one. With these bullets and the intermediate 235-grain Lyman #35897, I have gotten great improvement by bumping the noses to create a partial bore-riding condition. This shortens the bullet considerably and helps stability in slow twists. I have used this technique successfully in a .35 Rem. Marlin, 9x57 Mauser, and a .350 British (.303 necked to .35), all having 16” twists.
The Marlin responded favorably to bumping the nose on the 210-grain #358315 up to .354” to fit the Micro-Groove barrel. I also reshaped it to a flat nose at the same time for its tubular magazine. With soft alloy such as wheel weights, this doesn’t take much effort, provided you bump the bullets soon after casting, before they have time to age harden. The .35 Rem. flat nosed wheel weight bullet mushrooms well at 1750 f.p.s. with 35 grains of IMR-4064. In my .350 British, I have had good results on game with some RCBS 35-200 FN bullets Ed Harris cast from his hunting alloy of 50-50 linotype and pure lead. I think I could improve the performance of my .35 Marlin by using these flat nosed bullets, at about 1900 f.p.s.
Lyman bullets, the 210-grain #358315 for the .35 Rem., and 245-grain #358318 for the .35 Win., do not come from the mold with large enough noses to fit the minimum .350” bore, not to mention the usual .351-.352” one. With these bullets and the intermediate 235-grain Lyman #35897, I have gotten great improvement by bumping the noses to create a partial bore-riding condition. This shortens the bullet considerably and helps stability in slow twists. I have used this technique successfully in a .35 Rem. Marlin, 9x57 Mauser, and a .350 British (.303 necked to .35), all having 16” twists.
The Marlin responded favorably to bumping the nose on the 210-grain #358315 up to .354” to fit the Micro-Groove barrel. I also reshaped it to a flat nose at the same time for its tubular magazine. With soft alloy such as wheel weights, this doesn’t take much effort, provided you bump the bullets soon after casting, before they have time to age harden. The .35 Rem. flat nosed wheel weight bullet mushrooms well at 1750 f.p.s. with 35 grains of IMR-4064. In my .350 British, I have had good results on game with some RCBS 35-200 FN bullets Ed Harris cast from his hunting alloy of 50-50 linotype and pure lead. I think I could improve the performance of my .35 Marlin by using these flat nosed bullets, at about 1900 f.p.s.
Nothing in .35 cal., however, can match the effectiveness of the heavy bullets. The ideal would be to take a round like the .358 Win. or the 9x57 with a slightly longer neck and less body taper, tailoring it to hold a heavy 290-grain bullet like Ed’s Hoch design, seated to the base of the neck. This would feed reliably in a standard .308 length action and provide about 1800-1900 f.p.s. It should be the ideal American woods cartridge and a fine cast bullet round to boot.
