Favorite bullets and powders for the 358 Win? Crimp?

NYDAN

Handloader
Sep 17, 2013
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What are your favorite powders and bullets for the 358 Winchester? I will use it primarily for stalking deer in the woods - probably with iron sights. I was thinking the 200 gr. Hornady RN or the 200 gr. Sierra RN.
 
Dan,
Take a look at IMR4895, IMR3031, CFE223 and Varget.
The 200 gr bullets should get you over 2400 fps.

JD338
 
Jim, I have Varget, but not the others. What about H4198? I have that.
 
H4198 will work great with 200’s Dan. I used a lot of IMR with Hornady 200’s when I first got mine.

My favorite bullet is the 225 Sierra GK. For deer it opens very nicely and is accurate. My opinion but the PT was a bit too tough for deer but they work fine. If you’re just shooting deer the Sierras are excellent.

I use 15, 748, 2520, etc. it’s not a fussy cartridge mostly.

4198 and 200’s will go 2500-2600 easily and that’ll swat deer.
 
In my BLRs, I had great success with Hornady 200 g FTX and 47 g IMR3031, 200 g Sierra SPRN and 53 g TAC, Barnes 225 g TSX and 43 g A2015 or 52 g WW748, Nosler 225 g AB and 47 g Varget, Nosler 225 Partition and either 47.5 g W748 or 45.5 g A2495, Sierra 225 g SBT and 41.5 g 10X or 45 g TAC. Most of my hunting was done with Barnes 200 g TSX charged with 49 g H335. All these loads yielded sub-MOA and good velocities.
 
Scotty, Jim, and Mike, thank you for your expertise. I really appreciate it. Just ordered brass and a modified case.

I hope to shoot it with some factory ammo tomorrow morning and see how I get along with the iron sights.

The coin flip came up heads for me this year and I drew 2 deer management tags. ;)
 
Dan,
Congratulations on the two tags.
I have had a long run with the 35 Whelen, since Remington introduced it as a SAAMI spec in 1988.
First 2 years I used factory 200 gr SPCL load and it hammered 4 bucks. I switched to the Nosler 225 gr PT in 1990 and smashed another 15+ bucks along with a 250 lb black bear. That bullet always expanded well and exited, even lengthwise on a buck who played peekaboo in a cedar swamp.
The 358 Win is the little brother to the 35 Whelen and gives up nothing at woods ranges.
Welcome to the 35(8) club, you won't be disappointed!

JD338
 
I tried IMR 3031, IMR 8208 and H 4895 in the 358 Win with 200's, IMR 3031 was best for me. I would just try the powders you have mentioned already and you'll probably find something good. H 4198 sounds like an excellent option. I liked the 200 gr Sierra best and took one bear with them. Any of the Hornady 200's will work fine too. Scotty and DrMike have covered 358 loads quite well in this thread.
 
The Hornady factory 200 gr. SP ammo had a light crimp. Do you guys crimp for the 358 Win.? I am using the BLR with the box magazine.

Also, how fussy do you have to be with the cartridge OAL with the BLR? Will the action handle COAL's that aren't "right on"?
 
I'm with Gerry on this. The only crimping I do is 44 Rem Mag and 45-70. I don't even crimp my 338 RUM, 375 H&H Mag or the 416 Wby Mag when I had it.

JD338
 
I tell you to try the Speer 180 grain hot core. I’ve shot a few deer with them out of my 35 Rem. I also just loaded some at Winchester velocities out of my Whelen to use this year. Pretty tough bullet. I crimp my 336, 35 Remlever gun using a lee factory crimp dye. Also use my own casted 200 grain cast hollow points in them, which are the hammer of Thor with 40 grains of varget. I can’t get them to feed properly out of my 7600 Whelen but they do in my 7600 35 Rem just fine. They sure feed great in my 336…

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sh...-my-Marlin-336-and-our-200-grain-HP-group-buy!



Here is the 200 grain hollow point I cast up at 10.5 BH. Is 50% clip on wheel weight and 50% pure soft lead. I also add 2% pewter to the total weight to help with mold fill out. It’s wicked on deer at 2100 fps. It knocks them off their feet every time so far…knock on wood.


 
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I tell you to try the Speer 180 grain hot core. I’ve shot a few deer with them out of my 35 Rem. I also just loaded some at Winchester velocities out of my Whelen to use this year. Pretty tough bullet. I crimp my 336, 35 Remlever gun using a lee factory crimp dye. Also use my own casted 200 grain cast hollow points in them, which are the hammer of Thor with 40 grains of varget. I can’t get them to feed properly out of my 7600 Whelen but they do in my 7600 35 Rem just fine. They sure feed great in my 336…

https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sh...-my-Marlin-336-and-our-200-grain-HP-group-buy!



Here is the 200 grain hollow point I cast up at 10.5 BH. Is 50% clip on wheel weight and 50% pure soft lead. I also add 2% pewter to the total weight to help with mold fill out. It’s wicked on deer at 2100 fps. It knocks them off their feet every time so far…knock on wood.


Nice looking Boolets. Is that shake and bake poly paint coating?
 
I Powder coating them and Tumbled the coating on in a Tupperware container. I now mainly use clear powder coating for all my rifle rounds because it coats as smooth as glass. Figure it’s “mentally” more “aerodynamic” with the smooth clear finish. Eventually, I’ll try and get them to feed in my 7600 pump 35 Whelen again. I figure I’ll load them with a really super short overall length and see if that helps with feeding instead of loading them at magazine length like I did previously. Apparently it’s a pretty finicky feeder like the 450 bushmasters.
 
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