Advice on 348 ammo.

ShadeTree

Handloader
Mar 6, 2017
3,515
3,019
Several weeks ago I put some pictures on here of Dad's old 348. Several people suggested that the gun ought to go hunting again and to be honest those suggestions awakened a real desire to take the gun out hunting and kill something with it. I've never even shot the gun. Mentioned it to my Dad about taking it deer hunting and he was all game.

Anyways all I got for ammo is 8 shells in a Western Super X ammo box marked as 200 gr Silvertip. That gives me a couple shots to see how close it is at 50 and 100 yds, and a couple to go hunting with. The cartridges look in good shape, not corroded or anything like that, but how safe do you think they are to fire in that gun? As you can see the box is marked $5.40 in red ink if that tells you anything about the age.



 
I wouldn't hesitate to use them. I have some older than those (for another cartridge) and I use them. If they have been kept out of extreme heat and don't show signs of corrosion, they will be fine.
 
lefty315":j2d5w99t said:
Fire away!!!

That's what I was hoping to hear. (y) I've picked up old 30-30's already and made sure they were sound and fired ammo in them that who knows how old it was and never gave it a thought. But a 30-30 is a pretty low pressure round, this thing will have some fairly major thump behind it and I wanted to make sure there wasn't a big concern with old ammo I should know about.
 
DrMike":2beg39qy said:
I wouldn't hesitate to use them. I have some older than those (for another cartridge) and I use them. If they have been kept out of extreme heat and don't show signs of corrosion, they will be fine.

Another wise one with advice I was hoping to hear. :) Thanks Mike.
 
ShadeTree":3gubkbo8 said:
lefty315":3gubkbo8 said:
Fire away!!!

That's what I was hoping to hear. (y) I've picked up old 30-30's already and made sure they were sound and fired ammo in them that who knows how old it was and never gave it a thought. But a 30-30 is a pretty low pressure round, this thing will have some fairly major thump behind it and I wanted to make sure there wasn't a big concern with old ammo I should know about.

Still not a high-pressure cartridge. Larger projectile than the 30-30, but maximum chamber pressure is actually lower than that for the 30-30.
 
DrMike":4k1nff5d said:
ShadeTree":4k1nff5d said:
lefty315":4k1nff5d said:
Fire away!!!

That's what I was hoping to hear. (y) I've picked up old 30-30's already and made sure they were sound and fired ammo in them that who knows how old it was and never gave it a thought. But a 30-30 is a pretty low pressure round, this thing will have some fairly major thump behind it and I wanted to make sure there wasn't a big concern with old ammo I should know about.

Still not a high-pressure cartridge. Larger projectile than the 30-30, but maximum chamber pressure is actually lower than that for the 30-30.

Good to know. (y) Never looked up any info on it. Might try to do some reloading for it next yr and at that point I'll have to do some studying on any information I can find regarding reloading for that cartridge.
 
lefty315":o9qkmrwu said:
How much of your season is left? Can you get out still this year?

Yep. Already killed a decent buck with the 06 and now got some doe tags to fill in the upcoming doe season. The 6MM will come out first to try and guarantee 1 more deer in the freezer as we can go through 2 deer well before the next yr rolls around. After that Lord willing I'd like to try and shoot deer with both my Mom's old model 94 30-30 which probably hasn't been bloodied in 40 yrs, and now I have the opportunity to try and kill 1 with the old 348 which would be very special to me.
 
Shot it 3 shots today.......what a load of fun! (y) Wish I had a whole box to work through. Didn't bump near like I thought it would, guess a summer of squeezing the trigger and ignoring the thump of an 06 off the bench has me conditioned. This things more of a shove than a quick hard knock, and to be honest my 06 bumps harder. I'll have to allow for some Kentucky windage as it's shooting a little high and to the left, but a big doe better not stop in a hole in the brush at 70 yds or she's in trouble!!
 
lefty315":k8wr8p8h said:
Fire away!!!

Same here. I have a complete box of the old 250 Silvertips. I am too chicken to shoot them though since they are complete.. I am not scared of old ammo though if it clean as Mike suggested.

That 348 is a horse of a cartridge.
 
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