Just ordered a 358 Winchester!

[Elkins45]

Bud's has the Ruger Hawkeye stainless synthetic for $451 right now. I thought I didn't need another rifle but getting a factory built gun at that price in such a great cast boolit cartridge made me click the 'Buy' button yesterday.

I was contemplating buying a donor Savage lefty and a 358 barrel from Midway. I would still prefer a lefty, but I guess I could always buy a Ruger lefty in 308 and perform a barrel transplant if I want. The new Savage would have been almost $400, plus $200 for the Midway barrel. They only sell it as a kit with a barrel nut wrench and headspace gauges, all of which I already have.

Anyway it bought it was a good deal on a new gun and I can't wait to get it next week and start flinging some lead. I wish it were a lefty, but I guess I can't have everything.

[Artful]

358 is a great cast boolit cartridge.

[flhroy]

I was thinking of looking for a lefty savage to convert to 358win but I now have another brain storm. I'm now thinking of converting a savage 99 in 308 to 338 federal. that should be a simple barrel swap but nothing is ever simple.

[waksupi]

.308, .338 Federal, .358 Win, all same cartridge.

[Elkins45]

.308, .338 Federal, .358 Win, all same cartridge.

That's one of the many attractions of the .358. I already have 1000 rounds of surplus military 7.62 brass so it will be easy ( and cheap) to make new brass for my rifle whenever I need it.

[MJR007]

I really like my 358 and it really likes Varget. Mine is a 700 with a Douglas tube. Once you pull the trigger on game you will be hooked for life. Good luck to you.

[Larry Gibson]

Suggest the RCBS 35-200-FN....awesome cast bullet in 35s.

Larry Gibson

[rockrat]

flhroy--just sent it to Jesse at JES reboring and have him make it into a 338 federal

[Elkins45]

Suggest the RCBS 35-200-FN....awesome cast bullet in 35s.

Larry Gibson

I already have a big pile of them waiting for my dies to get here.

[Larry Gibson]

I already have a big pile of them waiting for my dies to get here.

Larry Gibson

[Elkins45]

I picked up the rifle today. It's a light little booger! Guess I need to wait for jacket weather before I start shooting it with full power hunting loads.

The trigger is SWEET! Best Ruger trigger I've ever experienced.

[softpoint]

The right caliber! I have 2 358Winnies, both Remingtons with Shilen barrels. One is a Model 600, the other a 700. I load three boolits for them, the 200 grain RCBS, 245 grain Saeco and a Lyman 286 grain, (358009). They shoot all of them almost equally well. I use Varget, 4320 and 3031 in them.

[MJR007]

I glad to hear about the trigger. I just got back from Hart a M77 Mark II (308). The trigger is a little over 8lbs! I will be bring it to my smith this weekend. Even with your lite rifle the recoil will not be that bad.

[JesterGrin_1]

I glad to hear about the trigger. I just got back from Hart a M77 Mark II (308). The trigger is a little over 8lbs! I will be bring it to my smith this weekend. Even with your lite rifle the recoil will not be that bad.

One thing I have learned over the last couple of years about myself is to never ever give personal comments about Recoil lol.


As it was nicely pointed out to me that if someone asked me how a certain rifle would recoil and I said the recoil is not bad at all then to everyone else it will kick like a Mule lol. If I say well the Recoil is pretty heavy that means nobody else should even try it lol. Unless they like pain.

I learned this at the Shooting Range when I was shooting my Marlin XL-7 made into a 35 Whelen with a good load of RL-15 and the Speer 250Gr Hot Core. A fellow I know from the shooting range was admiring the rifle and asked if he could shoot it and how the recoil was. And I said it is not much just about the same as a 30-06. So he jumped on the bench and took 1 Shot and said Holly Heck this thing kicks MUCH harder than an 06 lol. Everyone has there own perception of Felt Recoil.

Just like when I see threads on the Marlin 1894 in .44 Mag and ask about Recoil I have no idea what in the world they are talking about. As for me the recoil was almost non existent and that was shooting the Lee 310Gr with a full load of H-110 or W-296.

But I will say I do not care who you are but an H&H Side by Side in 600 or 700 Nitro will wake you up at the bench.


A good person to ask on this site about the 358 Winchester would be Ben. I hope to be able to do some shooting with my Newly built 358 Winchester on a Savage Action.

[Elkins45]

Just like when I see threads on the Marlin 1894 in .44 Mag and ask about Recoil I have no idea what in the world they are talking about. As for me the recoil was almost non existent and that was shooting the Lee 310Gr with a full load of H-110 or W-296.

There are a lot of personal physiology and individual gun fitting factors that influence recoil. I'm relative insensitive to it, and in fact I kind of enjoy hard kicking handguns, but there are certain guns that seem much worse than others. Ironically the Marlin 1894 is one of them for me.

I don't know if it's because I'm a lefty but that particular rifle makes my face hurt when I shoot it! There's something about the stock design that smacks my cheekbone and really gives my head a good whack. The felt recoil on my shoulder doesn't bother me at all, but the overall experience isn't positive at all. Contrast that with something like my 50 caliber Savage smokeless throwing a 300 grain bullet at 2200 fps--the 50 cal is much more pleasant to shoot, even though they weigh pretty close to the same and it has much more muzzle energy.

[MJR007]

Recoil I agree with you both. I will rather shoot this 358 over this 308 any day. Both are very good rifles made for different things.

[9.3X62AL]

The right caliber! I have 2 358Winnies, both Remingtons with Shilen barrels. One is a Model 600, the other a 700. I load three boolits for them, the 200 grain RCBS, 245 grain Saeco and a Lyman 286 grain, (358009). They shoot all of them almost equally well. I use Varget, 4320 and 3031 in them.

If your 358s have the 1-16" twist rate common to the caliber.......how well does that twist stabilize the heavy 286 grain Lyman #358009? My 9.3mm has a 1-13" metric twist (3 turns/meter), and does well with the .366" 286 grainers. That faster twist rate and its potential to do better work with longer bullets caused me to choose the 9.3 x 62 over the 35 Whelen or 358 Winchester in 2002. Goodness knows cases would be an easier and cheaper proposition for either of the 35s. I don't think a game animal can tell the difference between the 3.

[softpoint]

The Shilen barrels I have in my Remingtons have 14 inch twists. They have shot anything I have put in them well. Myself and a friend had these built at the same time. He later wanted to trade his away and I knew it was a very good shooting rifle. That's how I wound up with 2 0f them! And I like them so well I want to keep them both! The 700 is 20 inch barrel, HS stock, The 600 is 21 inch barrel, Lone Wolf stock. It is substantially lighter (mostly the stock) but shoots just as good as the 700. Some barrel makers only offered a 16 inch twist .35, but I see now Douglas is12 inch! Probably a bit overkill, as 14 inch will stabilize 300 grain bullets

[softpoint]

There are a lot of personal physiology and individual gun fitting factors that influence recoil. I'm relative insensitive to it, and in fact I kind of enjoy hard kicking handguns, but there are certain guns that seem much worse than others. Ironically the Marlin 1894 is one of them for me.

I don't know if it's because I'm a lefty but that particular rifle makes my face hurt when I shoot it! There's something about the stock design that smacks my cheekbone and really gives my head a good whack. The felt recoil on my shoulder doesn't bother me at all, but the overall experience isn't positive at all. Contrast that with something like my 50 caliber Savage smokeless throwing a 300 grain bullet at 2200 fps--the 50 cal is much more pleasant to shoot, even though they weigh pretty close to the same and it has much more muzzle energy.

Recoil doesn't bother my shoulder much, but I have had it give me some pretty bad headaches sometimes. I Remember a couple of rifles that were pretty obnoxious to shoot. One was a Ruger #3 carbine in 45/70. Since everyone said that those would handle the same loads as the #1, we figured the thing to do was to load up about 53 grains of 3031 behind the jacketed 500 grain Hornady. The little open sighted carbine with steel buttplate probably weighs less than 6 lbs.....You can figure it from there.... The other was my lightweight 416 Weatherby. I decided I did not like muzzle brakes, especially when hunting. So I took it off to see if point of impact would change. 117grains of RL22 with 400grain Hornady RN. I found out rather quickly that that particular rifle needs it's muzzle brake.

[felix]

12 twist will make the 35 guns shoot 600 yards though a hurricane. Why shoot in those conditions? Stay with the 14 twist. ... felix