Is it just a bumped up version of the 30-30 or 32 special?

Pretty much. It shoots a heavier bullet so it may have a little more impact. A friend of mine bought a scoped .270 bolt for deer and bear hunting. After I dropped a bear stone dead with a .32 special, He figured he' d downsize. He picked up a used .35 and has used it for the last 15 years or so. He' s killed quite a few bears and deer with it. He sold the .270.

The .35 Rem is kind of a bumped up 30/30. The case is not the same necked up as is the case of the .308 win to .358 win though. Factory ammo has a 150 gr and 200 gr bullet. The factory ammo is underloaded a good deal though. If you handload you can use different bullets and load them hotter, this helps the old cartridge show off its stuff. Also if you have a magazine feed rifle you can load pointed bullets which helps even more. The .35 Rem is much better than the durty/thurty and a lot easier to find brass and more bullets available than the .32 win special.

the .35 remington was part of a family of cartridges remington put out , they were the .25 remington , .30 remington , .32 remington , and the .35 remington , they were initially chambered in , i think it was the model 141 pump action rifle , that is why they were semi-rimless , and they were created to compete with the winchester and savage cartridges that were popular at that time , only the .35 survived and for a while was chambered in the remington m760 pump , and was recently in a limited production run offered in the m7600 pump with a black synthetic stock , and is still chambered in the marlin 336 rifle , and has been a mainstay there for years . it is about a 100 to 150 yard cartridge capable for taking deer and black bear , it is superior to the .30-30 but , isn' t a barnburner by todays cartridges standards , i' ve got one and i like her , she will do a great job as long as she' s used for what she was made for

I love mine in the marlin 336. I get 1 inch groups at 100 yards with the cheap winchester 200grn. super-x. Lots of internal damage, I asume because of the weight and diameter of the bullet. I limit my shots to 150 yards with this rifle but, its usualy used out of my climber in the thick stuff (40 yards or less) because of its ease of handeling. No round is a " brush buster" but, the 35rem will put them down quickly, with a great entrance and exit wound for tracking in the thick suff. That being said, every deer I' ve shot with it has droped with in 30 yards ( had to crawl to get that one) and usualy within 5. If your looking for a depenable, light, handy, good shooting rifle for " shorter distances" 150 yards or less, a used marlin 336 in 35rem is a great choice. I say used becasue then your not affraid of a few scatches that it will get in the woods.

Hunt any time you can.

Very underrated cartridge might be one of the better woods cartridges out there and has great killing power

a fine caliber for game under 150yds. sighted in at 75yds. almost all of my buddies use it for deer and blackbear in maine. they like the 200gr. bullets. seen seveal drop and some others run 5-20yds after the intial hit on there video' s when hunting.