The ultimate 358 Winchester

[MBTcustom]

Well, I finished another interesting project. I converted the best semi-automatic rifle on the planet to shoot the best cast lead boolit cartridge on the planet.
I'm talking about an M1A National Match rebuilt to fire the 358 Winchester cartridge.
This is a project for a member here, that has been on the bench for a while, but I finally got it completed today.
It runs like a sewing machine with 200gr or 250 grain (jacketed only so far) and is amazingly accurate.
This is a 7 shot group, shot from prone position on my elbows (and it wasn't a comfortable hold!). Still, I was shocked at the accuracy I got, which seems to always bee the case when I'm shooting the M1A. I always expect to see a spray, and find a wad of holes instead.
Anyway, there is much more testing to come, but I couldn't wait to share.
Attachment 82422
Attachment 82423
PS, I had some awesome video of me ripping through a 20 round magazine, but somehow I deleted it. I'll get another video.

[Lefty SRH]

Pretty cool, I have been interested in the .358 Win here recently.

[MBTcustom]

Well, if you decide you want to lay down the law on the local pig population, I can sure build you one of these. It's like playing whack-a-mole with a battle axe!

[btroj]

Man, that could be one awesome cast boolit shooting gun. The local pigs aren't gonna like you Tim.

[Just Duke]

This should be on the cover of one of the gun magazines.

[JesterGrin_1]

Very nice Job Goodsteel. I have read reports on them and it is funny that all of them were good. .

It would be nice to see the .358 Winchester in a AR-10 or even a FAL. I was thinking of the FAL simply due to there adjustable gas system. But I feel the price to do so would not be worth the admission lol.

[Alan in GA]

WOW, been a fan of the .358 Win forever [owned a Ruger 77R in one for 12 years and fixing to build it's replacement], but I NEVER even THOUGHT about one like yours! Cool!

[MBTcustom]

WOW, been a fan of the .358 Win forever [owned a Ruger 77R in one for 12 years and fixing to build it's replacement], but I NEVER even THOUGHT about one like yours! Cool!

It's not mine. I just built it for a very good client and friend.

[GabbyM]

Awesome again:

Reading your post I was visualizing a bear attitude adjuster. Pigs though would be at extreme risk, in mass.

Any gun that makes a grown man fantasize like a school boy must have something going for it.
In the north woods round about midnight. Wolves howling in the distance and bears circling camp. Clip a light to your 358 caliber M1A's bayonet lug and load a 20 rounder of big lead boolits from the silver stream. We are now once again the top predator. Fearing not the darkness of night for the night is ours. Prey is closing in. Driven by there hungry bellies. Oblivious to what awaits them. Our nemesis is about to discover what really goes thump in the night.

I think Duke has something. Any magazine that fancies to auto loaders would do well to cover that build.

[Jupiter7]

I've seen an ar10 in .358w on YouTube. Guy was running it in some kind of themed pumpkin shoot. But for class and and overall sex appeal, M1A wins.

Awesome job Goodsteel!

[rockrat]

Goodsteel, how about a Garand to 35 Whelen? Can you do that?

[MBTcustom]

Goodsteel, how about a Garand to 35 Whelen? Can you do that?

Wouldn't doubt it for a second. Send me a Garand and let's find out!

[BruceB]

Awesome again:

Any gun that makes a grown man fantasize like a school boy must have something going for it.
In the north woods round about midnight. Wolves howling in the distance and bears circling camp. Clip a light to your 358 caliber M1A's bayonet lug and load a 20 rounder......

I actually LIVED this "fantasy", with an astonishing degree of similarity.

On strike in the Northwest Territories, I worked for two hunting seasons as camp manager of a trophy caribou camp in the Barrens. "North woods"? HA! I was BEYOND the North Woods, so far North that there were no trees. Wolves howling... you betcha, but they weren't much of a problem. BUT "bears circling camp".... not circling, the Barren-Ground grizzlies were coming INTO camp most nights.

We had a screened-in "meat shed" some distance from the sleeping quarters and kitchen, and naturally this was a great attraction for the bears.

I had two GENUINE TRW-built M-14 rifles, loaded with 180-grain Nosler Partitions. My experience on moose with these bullets gave me perfect faith in their utility on big bears...especially at short range and with twenty rounds on-tap.

One rifle was left as-issued as a "day rifle".

On the second M-14, I duct-taped a 3-cell flashlight beside the forearm and applied a strip of brilliant fluorescent tape to the front sight where it would catch some light from the flash. The rig was "zeroed" (!) so that the red front sight was in the middle of the light beam at fifty yards. Hey....we were almost two hundred miles by floatplane from "civilization".. I had to use what I could find in camp.

The setup worked perfectly. I spent many nights sitting on a Honda trike as night guard after the camp shut down. Everyone was warned VERY strongly about not approaching my position after dark... the entire site was on sand, and the bears were completely noiseless on approach. (I had NO TROUBLE staying awake!)

The second year, I took my wife and homeschooled six-year-old daughter along for the season. When the youngster made her last visit to the outdoor 'facilities' just before bedtime (in the dark), my wife mounted guard outside with an M-14.... one did NOT want to approach that position without making 'friendly' noises, either!

I've toyed with the idea of a larger-caliber M1 or M1A but frankly our bullets today are so good it seems almost pointless... UNLESS we do it for cast bullets. In that case, with nice cast softpoints and high firepower if needed... why not? I have PROVEN the M1A with cast in 7.62mm/.308... why not the .33 or .35 calibers?

Sadly, my M-14s had to remain in Canada when we emigrated to the US. BATF would not allow their importation (as well as our machineguns and a bunch of very nice military rifles). The M-14s were dirt cheap... the second one cost me just $192 in excellent condition. Value in the US would be in the thousands, maybe MANY thousands.

[MBTcustom]

Personally, I would take a 358 Winchester anyday over any other caliber, even if it was loaded with jacketed bullets. However, I am quite fond of anything based on the 308 Winchester case.
I just think that grain for grain of powder, case volume, and bullet wieght, the 358 trumps the 308 everytime if you are shooting closer than 200 yards. That's probably just personal superstition, but I like all the "evidence" that's out there to help me support my 35 caliber addiction. LOL!

I've shot deer with everything from a .22 Hornet to a 300winmag, and nothing hit's like the 358 Winchester. It just always seems to do more than it is supposed to. Sometimes too much (see my sig line). You figure 20 rounds of that level of destruction as fast as you can pull the trigger? You're darn tootin I built it!

[digger44]

sweet rifle/cartridge combo

[ballistim]

.358 Winchester is in my near future, most likely customized bolt but last weekend I saw a Browning BLR and had to walk away from it slowly...

[GRUMPA]

You know Tim, after reading this and that about your neat little projects I've come to the conclusion.....I wish we were neighbors.

[MBTcustom]

Well you better start packin, cause you aint seen nothin yet! LOL!
I've got a few projects that will be coming along in the next few months, and I don't think the owners mind if I post pictures of them.

[MBTcustom]

Well, I went out to the 600 yard range today. We are building a new backstop and hanging new gongs because last time I was out there with the M1A, I took the whole thing down to rubble with one magazine. Knocked the gong off, and toppled the wall of pallets that it was attached to LOL!

Anyway, we decided that it would be a good idea to rebuild and make a serious effort to build a dam good backstop and hang some gongs that were definitely bullet proof. Turns out if you know a guy at the local power company, you can get the old telephone poles they have cut down, and also some old manhole covers (read "match made in heaven").
I brought along the 358 M1A and my 45/70 to make sure you could stop a bullet. I told them we might want to think about doubling up the wall, because I was pretty sure both these guns will punch right through a telephone pole and keep on a truckin.
A demonstration was in order to prove my point, and I shot clean through the biggest telephone pole multiple times with the M1A in 358 Winchester.
The look on their faces was priceless!
Attachment 82550
Blew chunks out the other side. If your deer is standing on the other side of a power pole, you get your steaks along with a box of toothpicks.
Attachment 82551

BTW, I also shot clean through a large round bale of hey. The 358 going 2600fps has almost as much penetration potential as a 45/70 going 1400fps. I think 5 feet of wet hey was about all it wanted, but it still punched through.

I'll post more tests as I get time to do them.

[Lefty SRH]

Thats simpley impressive!