THE .35 family ranges from pipsqueaks to powerhouses capable of reliably stopping the largest and most dangerous of the world’s big game. The majority flourished for only a brief time before becoming obsolete. Three notable exceptions were the the .35 Remington, the .35 Whelen and .358 Winchester, but they’re barely surviving, suffering from lack of interest and having few adherents.
The .35 saga began in 1903 with the introduction of the .35 Winchester, developed for the Model 1895 lever-action rifle. Both the cartridge and rifle lasted only until 1936.
The .35 WSL (Winchester Self Loading) was introduced in 1905 for the Winchester Model ’05 semi-auto rifle. The round was badly underpowered, driving a 180gn bullet at around 1440fps. By 1920 it had been replaced with a more powerful round, the .351 WSL, which boosted velocity with a 180gn bullet to 1850fps. The .351 WSL enjoyed a few decades of popularity before being dropped in 1957
The .35 Remington was introduced in 1906 for use in the Remington Model 8 semi-auto, Remington’s response to the more powerful .35 Winchester. Despite having the rather modest velocity of 2225fps with a 200gn bullet, the .35 Rem earned the reputation for being a good woods rifle and a reliable killer of deer and black bear. Rather surprisingly, 115
