358 Win, 180gr Hitek

[Turtlepwr281]

Hello all.

Finished putting together a 358 Win on a Savage action. Tube is 18" long and 1-14 twist. I have some Missouri Bullet Co 180gr WFN sized to .360 and Hi-tek coated. These are supposedly 18 bhn.

I was hoping to get these to 1800-1850 fps and was thinking of using 16-18gr blue dot, but I worry this is too peaky for a plain base boolit, despite it being coated.

Does anyone else have any load recommendations for me to get there if the blue dot is too severe? I'm willing to compromise on velocity if you think that it would be hard to achieve with accuracy (being a plain base).

I currently have H4895, H4198, Blue Dot, Red Dot and Unique.

Thanks in advance for your time.

[Cast_outlaw]

That load could work but you might have accuracy problems with pd bullets gc would be better with that load I’m getting 1800 with 15.5 blue dot in a 308 and 303b but with a gc 180 round nose you may need to drop the charge to 10 grains and work up and or down till accuracy is at its best if you have a crony that will help I would do 10 at each load and test each one just a guess but I think around 1400 FPS will be best results with 12gr blue dot but you might need to switch to something faster like red dot if you get incomplete burn and a small tuft of kapok or any fluffy filler will reduce max spread with blue dot (my experience any way)

[popper]

Unique seems to peak out about 1600 in 30/30 & 308, 4895 should work but you may need a fluff of dacron to keep the base from getting dinged by powder kernels. No experience with the dot powders. You can heat treat a few and see if they do better, HiTek just turns brown when recooked but works anyway.