When it comes to choosing the right cartridge for hunting, there are a lot of factors to consider, such as accuracy, range, and stopping power. Two cartridges that have been popular among hunters for a long time are the 360 Buckhammer and the 35 Remington. In this article, we’ll compare the 360 Buckhammer and the 35 Remington in terms of their specifications, performance, and applications.
Here is the short answer:
The 360 Buckhammer has a slight advantage over the 35 Remington in almost all ways but not a very big advantage. The only real difference between the cartridges is that the 35 Remington can’t be used in states with straight-wall cartridge restrictions.
Now that we have looked at the short answer, we can look closer at each cartridge, their ballistic, and see how they compare in-depth.
In-Depth Look at the 360 Buckhammer
The 360 Buckhammer was introduced by Remington in 2023. It is a 30-30 case with the neck blown out and tapered to a straight wall cartridge that uses .358 caliber bullets weighing between 180 to 200 grain bullets.
The 360 Buckhammer was made to be used in states with a straight-wall restrictions such as Michigan. This cartridge is very similar to the 350 Legend in that it shoots almost the same caliber bullets in a straight wall case. However, unlike the 350 Legend, the 360 Buckhammer is made for lever action rifles, not bolt action or AR-15-style rifles.
Because the 360 Buckhammer shoots a heavy bullet out of a relatively small case, it is best used for close range hunting situations or hunting in areas where you may need to shoot through heavy brush with a heavy bullet. The maximum range of the 360 Buckhammer on deer is somewhere are 200 yards so hunting in open terrain would be far from ideal with this round.
Here is a ballistics chart of the 360 Buckhammer with a 200-grain Remington Core-Lokt bullet:
| range (YD) | drop (IN) | wind drift (IN) | velocity FPS | energy ft-lb |
| 0 | -1.5 | 0 | 2300 | 2349 |
| 50 | 0.2 | 0.6 | 2078 | 1917 |
| 100 | 0 | 2.5 | 1867 | 1548 |
| 150 | -2.8 | 6 | 1673 | 1243 |
| 200 | -8.7 | 11.2 | 1495 | 993 |
| 250 | -18.5 | 18.4 | 1339 | 796 |
| 300 | -33.3 | 27.7 | 1207 | 647 |
| 350 | -54.1 | 39.2 | 1106 | 543 |
| 400 | -82.1 | 52.5 | 1031 | 472 |
| 450 | -118 | 67.3 | 974 | 421 |
| 500 | -162.6 | 83.7 | 927 | 382 |
In-Depth Look at the 35 Remington
The 35 Remington was introduced in 1906 and remained a less popular cartridge often overlooked for the more popular 30-30 Winchester, 45-70 Goverment, or the flatter shooting cartridges such as the 30-06 Springfield. In recent years, the 35 Remington fell out of production with many rifle manufacturers but is still produced widely among most all ammo manufactures.
Although the 35 Remington fell mostly out of production it is still a popular cartridge in lever action rifles especially for close-range hunting. Overall, the 35 Remington is a pretty middle-of-the-pack cartridge, it has a maximum effective range of about 200 yards depending on the bullet so it’s not bad but there are certainly more powerful cartridges with flatter trajectory and better energy retention.
Here is a ballistics chart of the 35 Remington with a 200-grain jacketed soft point bullet:
| range (YD) | drop (IN) | wind drift (IN) | velocity FPS | energy ft-lb |
| 0 | -1.5 | 0 | 2080 | 1921 |
| 50 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 1881 | 1571 |
| 100 | 0 | 2.8 | 1697 | 1278 |
| 150 | -3.5 | 6.4 | 1526 | 1034 |
| 200 | -10.7 | 12 | 1374 | 838 |
| 250 | -22.6 | 19.5 | 1243 | 686 |
| 300 | -40.2 | 29.1 | 1138 | 575 |
| 350 | -64.6 | 40.5 | 1059 | 498 |
| 400 | -96.6 | 53.5 | 999 | 443 |
| 450 | -136.8 | 67.9 | 951 | 402 |
| 500 | -186 | 83.6 | 910 | 368 |
In-Depth Comparison
When comparing the ballistics 360 Buckhammer and the 35 Remington you will find that we the 360 Buckhammer has better ballistics. It has less wind drift, more energy, and less drop so its is just a better overall cartridge. However, these differences are pretty minute so it doesn’t really matter which one you choose.
In terms of accuracy, both cartridges are pretty tied. Neither are known for exceptional accuracy when compared to other cartridges as the 308 Winchester or other intermediate cartridges. There are better cartridges and they are used for similar tasks and they do good at those tasks. The accuracy will be more determined by the shooter and the rifle than the cartridge.
When it comes to recoil, the 360 Buckhammer produces slightly less recoil than the 35 Remington even though it has more energy. However, once again, the difference will not be that is very small, and for the average shooter, the difference in recoil between these two cartridges won’t be noticeable.
Overall the 360 Buckahmmer has a slight advantage over the 35 Remington in all ways. But this edge over the 35 Remington is small, and at the end of the day, if you were to shoot a deer with the 360 Buckhammer and one with the 35 Remington at the same yardage, in the same spot, they would both die the same.
The only real advantage the 360 Buckhammer has over the 35 Remington is that it is a straight-walled cartridge and can be used in states with straight-wall restrictions.