Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 358 Win

Why the 358 Win never took off? Do you think if rifle and ammo manufactures tried to market this caliber again it would take off? With the push on the short action magnums from manufactures why not try and push this one again?

Few people wanted it the first time around, despite how good a round it is.

No, the "in" thing now is fast twist and high BC bullets.

One would think that it was a Remington introduction.

^

This pretty much.

Last I read the actual numbers of hunters is declining. I've also heard that a lot of the rifle & scopes purchased or used more for target shooting, with a secondary use in hunting. IF that's true, then really a cartridge like the .358 Win isn't ideal in a dual purpose role.

I put one together last year (Rem 7600), and I also own a .350 Rem Mag, but neither one is something I grab when heading out back to punch paper or ring steel.

Coton,
That is good question.

The .358 is a very good cartridge , however , without comparing it here to the counterparts, which if one studies that aspect , one would find an excellent choice.

I put a lot of blame on gun writers for the unpopularity of the .358.

I have little respect for them, and or their opinions.

I think gun writers by and large have not been able to see the potential of the .358. There reasons for omitting it is part of the mystery.

Most of them are too myopic to look beyond the 45/70.

Of course I still shoot a .348.

The mild little 35 Rem was quite popular as a "woods" deer round. The 350 RemMag was just silly. The 35 Whelen was a bit much for a lot of shooters. The 358 fell right in the middle, kinda like Goldilock's "just right" porridge. That might seem to have made it perfect, but it had the opposite effect. The old 35 Rem guys stuck with their little blammer, macho Whelen shooters sneered at anything weaker, and there weren't enough hunters left to venture into unfamiliar territory.

The owner of the pawn shop where I worked for a while had a gorgeous little Sako (Vixen?) in 358. I loaded up a box of "Punkin Poppers" for it using 125-gr JHP pistol bullets. I tried some first. Talk about orange mist! Reduced loads using jacketed pistol bullets are a hoot in the 358.

What makes ANY caliber become popular?

As an "in-between" caliber goes, what about the .41 Rem Mag?
More power than the .357 Mag, yet less recoil and easier to handle than the .44 Rem Mag.
I have a S&W M57 w/8 3/8" bbl. It's built on the N frame.
The only difference between it and a M29 is that a little less metal was removed during production. The M57 is just a touch heavier. With a bit milder cartridge, recoil is more manageable.
I find the .41 Rem Mag to be a perfect 👌 compromise.
Initially, LEO's loved it, but as the wheel gun gave way to the semi auto in law enforcement, the .41 Rem Mag has pretty much died.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of perfectly good cartridges that are languishing just because of "popularity"!
Who knew?

I always wanted to have a stainless synthetic Win 70 built in 358 with a Leupy 2.5-8x36.

Would make a nice woods gun.

Always seems like other stuff gets priority though

I always wanted a savage 99 in 358 if I find the right deal I may buy one. I'm afraid missing several fingers the recoil may either send the gun flying or smack me in the face.

A 358 Win fan here.

An odd combination of things.

Designed as a light, handy rifle cartridge, its premiere 250 gr. bullet was a kicker in those rifles.

And the .308 in the lighter weight bullet had better sectional density.

Heavier rifles to shoot the heavy bullets had the .35 Whelen/9.3x62mm.

All the while competing against the tried and true 200-220 gr. .30-06.

Like the modern .338 Federal, it was a niche cartridge from the start.




GR

In the past I used to favor the 25-06, 30-06, 35 Whelen platform. The last few years I have become more a fan of the 243, 308, 358 platform. I have also become more interested in rifle/pistol caliber lever action guns. I have a 41 Magnum revolver. A lever rifle in the same caliber would fit nicely. But then I like the 45-70 on the upper end.

Have some good experience with the cartridge and rifle, but not knowledgeable enough to assess why it never "took off". After such success/enjoyment with the easy to load/use .35 Whelen and the plethora of stuff flooded onto the scene these days, have doubts that the .358 Win could be successfully pushed.

Would have been a much better cartridge as a rimed 35 with Semi-Flat Point bullets intended for tube fed lever-actions, falling in between the 30-30 and the 38-55.

Phil

Well that sounds like the 356 Winchester. Another great cartridge that few seem to want.

Except that the 356 Win. came along 80 some odd years later and people were already into AR's.

Phil

My first centerfire rifle was a Win 94 AE in .356. Had a Leupold 1.5-5

My Ruger American is the first gun I got to shoot sub-moa at 100 yds with cast bullets.

Having every caliber in the .308 case based cartridges, the one that was missing was a .358. Also having every cartridge in the.35 again the .358 was missing. I picked up a Remington 700 short action from on of our members a few years ago, I thought the one caliber I wanted to build off of was the .358 win. So the Remington 700 was mated with a stainless medium contour .358 win barrel. I scored a Leupold vari xIII LPS 1.5-6x 42 from a local guy. Perfect short -medium range thumper. Maybe one day Ill find something to shoot with it.