DO NOT REMOVE your scope! Yes you can shoot one relatively close but as I already said you can still get a long shot, I know we have in the past. I am also a .35 cal fan and so are my buddies. I watched my partner shoot one at 300 yds with his 35 whelen and that bull hit the deck harder than the other one he took with his .338 mag the day before. Last fall another buddy of mine tried his .358 BLR and it knocked the feet out from under his bull quite nicely. I own 2 .358 wins and a .350 rem mag. Caribou hunting is a nice place to test guns/loads. The are alot bigger than whitetails but not hard to kill. Never had to shoot twice at one yet.