358 Winchester Round
 

How many of you out there have a rifle chambered in the old 358 Winchester? What do you like or dislike about it. I am a fan of old chamberings (not necessarily old rifles) I have Ruger #1 in .405 Win. and a Marlin 1895 Guide Gun in .45-70.
I am thinking of getting a Browning BLR in 358. Rifle is going to be used for whitetail and black bear in PA.

If it is anything like the 35 Remington it ought to be a great round. A friend has a Marlin 336 in 35 Remington and out to 100-150 yards it packs a wallop on anything it its way. One nice thing that I have heard and read about the 358 round is that it is big enough of a bullet that you can shoot inexpensive bullets (Core Lokts, Power Points etc.) with great success even on large animals. I have always wanted to shoot one myself to see what the recoil is like. Maybe I will ask that friend this weekend if I see him while elk hunting.

The 358 Win is a 308 necked up to 35 caliber.
35 Whelen and 358 Win, relates to a 30-06 and 308.
Should be a great whitetail and black bear round at short to medium range.

They have a pretty solid following on some of the other boards Bronko.

What do you consider old??

The 358 Winchester is a fantastic round. Definitely better than the 35 Remington. I have a 358 Encore pistol barrel. I cast a 200 grain bullet for it. the 358 is a fantastic lead bullet round. But it is also very deadly with jacketed bullets. It is very close to the 35 Whelen. And probably a little more powerful than a 30-06 with a 200 grain bullet. Tom.

I have a 358 win in a Browning BLR and I took a doe with it in NY last year. I was using Win factory 200gr silvertips and they worked real well. This year I loaded some speer 180 s with rl 7 and accuracy was good and I cant wait to try them out. I like the BLR but would love to see the Ruger Hawkeye in a lefty.

I recently loaded with the Speer 180's and was able to get average groups. The recoil is pretty noticable in the 1960 Winchester Model 88 I was using. That gun has increased in value quite a bit over the years, especially a pre 64 in 358. No, I don't want to sell it :)

Many years ago, I had a Savage 99R in .358 Win. It shot great groups with my reloads with 220 gr. Speer bullets. It had a steel buttplate and a rather sharp comb, and was not very shooter friendly. Because the rear lockup 99 bolt allowed a lot of case stretching, I only got 2-3 loadings before I began to experience head separations.