any practical advantages of one over the other as far as hunting deer, elk, bear etc...
any recoil differences?

anything that would have you choose one over the other?

While the two look the same on paper anyone who has used both will tell you that the 35 is much better. Caliber does matter.Excellent for deer and black bear and should be good for hog, though I wouldn't use either on elk. Both are light recoil ,best gun is the Marlin.

This is yet another age old debate that will never really be settled. For what they are both suited for I like the 35 because of the bigger bullets available, but what one will do the other will as well.

I don't see how one can be better than the other since they both work well within there range limitation...With simular hits I doubt that the results differ all that much...both work fine....and yes I have used both.

I have both, .30-30 in a Winchester and a .35 Marlin. The recoil is similar but the .35 is a bit more with the heavy bullets but not that much. The .35 needs to be handloaded to reach it's potential. With the .30-30 it is hard to better factory loads and then not by much. For me the first choice to go on a hunt it the .35. It's the more accurate of my two and I love those big bullets. On the other hand, I wouldn't hesitate to use the .30 either. To me there are no bad choices here.

Never had a .35, but been looking for a good deal on one. Had a bunch of 30-30's Win 94's Marlin's, contender's, even a Savage bolt. It work's, and some can be VERY accurate, ammo is common as dirt, and almost as cheap!