358 winchester

Love my Ruger 77 in .358 win. I picked it up from a gun show about 10 years ago from a fella who had no idea what it was, couldn't find ammo for it and figured it for a boat anchor. I paid him $150 and it didn't have a scratch on it. Came with an old Weaver 6x fixed scope on it that I finally changed out last year. Fantastic deer rifle for my area, and I wouldn't hesitate to drop a hog with it.
 
The best whitetail deer/black bear rifle I own is a Savage Model 99 chambered in .358 Winchester. Any deer shot in the right place, or close to, won't travel far when hit with a 200 grain Silvertip fired from a .358.
 
A cheap but very good entry to the 358 is to buy a 35 Rem CVA Hunter or Scout from Buds and have it rechambered to .358
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Another alternative would be to just buy the 35 Whelen version.
 
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A while back a guy on this site was complaining that he could not find any .358 Win. Brass anywhere. I offered him 50 rounds of new brass for Midway's price plus $6.00 shipping. Never heard a word. Guess he didn't want any all that bad. :roll eyes: I really couldn't afford to give that much as I feed four rifles in .358 as is. Two early Ruger tang safeties, an early (first model) Browning BLR and a Savage 99. All shoot good but are semi-retired since I picked up a few .35 Whelens. Couple years back on a cow elk hunt, one of the guys in the group razzed me because when it was my turn to, the elk was layered at 350 yards. :eek: One shot and she slowly sank to the ground with her neck bone shattered at the base of the skull. Good piece of luck really as I was hold for a high lung shot. Not a flinch and the jerk on the trigger didn't jerk it. Turns out, when I later checked thing out at the range, the internal that control the adjustments had totally self destructed. I didn't tell my hunting partners about that though. Let them think I did it deliberately. ;) Payback for the razzing about my short range brush gun.
Paul B.
 
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The 358 is a great cartridge but doesn't offer anything that you don't already get from the 338 or 35 whelan.
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Except unlike .338 and 35 Whelan, it was offered in a woods handy lever-action and I think an auto at one time.

Exactly right, dahermit-though I don't think there was ever a semi-auto rifle offered by a factory chambered in .358 Winchester. If there was, I'd be interested in learning about it.
 
natman, while attending a gun show a couple of years ago I actually saw and handled a Model 100 rifle that was chambered in .358 (I've always thought that this would have been a great idea) and was so marked. In all appearances, it looked to be an unaltered, factory-made, Model 100. From all of the information I've been able to find, however, there is no evidence that Winchester ever "marketed" a Model 100 chambered in .358 and the best guess seems to be that the few that have been discovered were, as you suggested, "prototypes". I'd really be interested in learning the "real" story behind this apparent anomaly.
 
to mention something I haven't seen yet, the only practical difference is that the 358 is the short action. it fires the same bullets as the whelen at about a 10% lower velocity. A .308 could be rebarreld for the .358, but would it be worth the time? It's not going to have any serious alteration in performance on anything but the very largest of pigs. I'd use either a tipped bullet, or a big blunt one that will open up quickly. a traditional spitzer point may not get in enough expansion with such a heavy round within the first inches, and may even pass through without enough expansion to matter if the hog is smallish.
 
If you are looking to maximize your redundancy then here is the 9.3x62 offered recently by ruger and cz. And from cz was a kevlar model 550, that seemed very appealing before I came to my senses.

I never hunted hogs, seems like a good candidate for a 44mag marlin lever. But what do I know? The 44 hits pretty hard.
 
I got a Savage 99F in .358 Win. in 1966 and made it my primary big game cartridge. I have shot the most deer with the .358.

I started hand loading and deer hunting in 1953 and have rifles chambered for most hunting and some target cartridges. It feels cool woods hunting with a 358.

The bottom two rifles are .358's!

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one question who needs an excuse to buy another firearm? if it doesnt take food from the table or cause a problem with rent money oh or get too far into the beer budget i buy the dang thing.
 
If you like levers, and are just looking for an excuse, why not get something that is ballistically different instead of a caliber that approximates what you're already rocking?

Consider the 45-70. Unless you're routinely shooting hogs at well over 200 yards, the 18.5" Guide would be a hog killing machine. If you reload, the possibilities are limitless with faster bullet weights from 250 grains to slow moving monsters in the 500-550 grain range. Along with anything that walks the planet, hogs fall to the Gubmint all the time:D
 
I've killed quite a few with the 45-70. Its a fine choice but to be perfectly honest my 45-70 gets more safe time these days. Guess u could say I've spent my wad with it already and always looking at something new. I've looked in every gun shop around and havnt found the right used rifle yet in this round but I will one day. I'm headed now to the back yard to play with my newest play pretty. 26 nosler
 
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