358 win info needed

[James Wisner]

Hello.

Some of you may not know, but I own the factory tooling for the Winchester 88 / 100 magazines.

We are currently in the process of making NEW 358 magazines for the Model 88.

In order to do this properly I need some input regarding what ammo is used in these rifles. Now that it appears that Winchester has dropped this amo, most people will be reloading, If they were not before.
This information is needed so we can check the function of the magazine and follower before we offer them for public sale.

Basically I need to know what is the most commonly used bullet, if is a roundnose 200 grain, or a spitzer 225 grain.

We hope to have these magazines available some time the middle of the summer.

Thank you.

Jim Wisner
Custom Metalsmith
www.wisnersinc.com

[onceabull]

Mr.Wisner:fwiw, & not by any means answering your ? BUT, I never had a bobble using 358 winnie ammo.(factory or reloads,including 225 spitzer bullets) out of oem 308 magazines.. can't do anything currently,as the lure of big $ has sent all of my 88's in 358 on down the road. Suspect that any I have in the future will be remakes from 308's...Will you be making some 284 W mag's too,as that one stands alone,ime,(and I got $85 for the last spare I sold) ??? Onceabull

[James Wisner]

The tooling for these magazines was made in about 1957. These are the common magazine with the deeper two step bottom.

The normal 358 magazine encountered is the old flat bottom one.
Winchester had made a rebumping die to flatten the side divets that the shoulder of the cartidge engages.
Sad to say this die was lost years ago.

With the tooling we have and the 243/308 magazines that the tooling produces. We will have to reach in from the bottom before the cover is attached, and recut .020" from the inside of these shoulders to allow the neck of the 358 to clear properly. Also the current follower is of a slighlty differnet shape than the older stamped follower. So we will have to remachine the new follower slightly to allow better feeding.

This is why the input as to what bullets are being used the most in this caliber.

The inside length of the magazine is 2.875" so the longest you can reload is to about 2.825 and still feed well.

The new magazines will be stamped 358 which the old ones were never stamped.

We are not trying to create any old fake magazines rather a good using magazine for this rilfe and caliber.
What we are seeing is that a good number of the 308's with worn barrels are now being rebored out to 358.
Thus making a steady market for a magazine that we hope to fill.

We have about 800, of the 284 magazines left in inventory. Available with plain bottoms or ones that say Winchester on them.

Next week I pick up about 5000 of the 243/308 bodies and another 1000 that will be turned into 358 magazines.
We do the two machine cuts on them, blue and assemble them in house.

Jim Wisner
Custom Metalsmith

[6pt-sika]

Jim , this has nothing to do with the Winchester 88 or 100 .

I just wanted to thank you for some parts I got a couple years ago for a 32 cal Marlin 1892 .
I first ordered a couple firing pins then later ordered an extractor and ejector . All three parts worked really well in the old Marlin .

Thanks again,
Craig

[onceabull]

yes,Given what I saw the last aftermarket 358(a rebarreled gun in post 64 regalia) bring on GB ($1025),I'd say you are right on in predicting that there will be a goodly # fixed up in the near future.!! I'm also glad I sold out of spare 284 Mags before the market found out about your stash..!! [smilie=1: Onceabull

[Pilgrim]

I can't speak for any .358 users other than myself. However, I can tell you what I decided to use, and why.

For jacketed bullets I originally loaded Speers 220 FP. Thsi bullet ws driven to ~2500 fps and appeared to give me all that I needed. However, I was told about the 225 Sierra bullet by a long time BLR user, and based upon the good reputation of that bullet, I switched to the Sierra 225 for jacketed bullet use. That particular Sierra bullet appears to be a fair bit tougher than most of the Sierra bullets as near as I can tell. It is fairly easy to get 2500 + fps out of a 22" barrel with the Sierra, and that gives a pretty good trajectory out to at least 300 yards. The 250 gr. bullets all take up a bit of case room, plus do not give as good "long range" performance compared to the 225 Sierra, so those bullets are not used as much. I have some of the 250 gr bullets on my reloading shelf, but I suspect when I die they will still be there.

For cast boolits, I use the RCBS 35-200 FN. This bullet when cast out of WW + 2% tin, after lubing and installing a GC weighs ~213 gr. This bullet has excellent performance characteristics when used in the .358 Win. and I have not found any other boolit that appears to offer the same, or better performance than this one. I have loaded an RCBS 35-250, but again the additional weight and length make achieving good long range performance problematic. FWIW....Pilgrim

[onceabull]

A BIG "me too" to Pilgrims findings/thoughts on the sierra 225 sptz.in the 358's...It's the most accurate for me,and at least adequate for anything I'll shoot at voluntarily.. Onceabull