Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors Reloading for .358

Hi all,
I am about to reload for an elk hunt in Feb. My Pard is using a Savage 99 in .358

Are there any tricks I should know about for function in the 99??

Preferences in powder/bullets?

Thanx in advance

Mark

I would look at 225 gr Partitions or the TSX in 200 or 225. I don't remember if I read it here or elsewhere but at least one guy was very happy with the 220 gr Speers.

I've had good success with 200 gr Hornady's on deer, can't say how they'd be on anything heavier.

IMR 4320, and the 4895's have worked well for me with the 200 grainers. They do make for a very full case however.

No special tricks, just standard reloading procedures.

Dale

Speer 250 spitzers with a max load of Ball C worked just fine on the last bull I shot. He stumbled, traveled about 20 yards, and fell while leaving a blood trail Ray Charles could follow. I do believe that the Hornady 200 grain would work as well for me as I do not take iffy shots.

MarkT,

I would like to have your friends rifle with me while you establish the ideal headspace for the FL die setting. Also keep in mind that if that rifle's chambers headspace is on the long side it might not be as reliable to fire with new factory brass.

Make sure that the neck tension is adequate as many .358 Win. loads are compressed. As to the ideal COL we want as long a load as will function perfectly for most bullets suitable for the larger game animals. You should run those loads through his gun to make sure that they feed and chamber well. It a strong need on mine to shoot that load as well of course for function, accuracy and being sighted in.

As for myself I had Ball C by the keg when it was surplus and if there is a powder that I don't like for erratic ignition and being dirty its Ball C. Use some other powder.

Thanx guys, I appreciate the info.

Mark

Winchester 200 gr. Silvertips shoot so good out of my Model 99, I don't think that I could do any better with handloads.......Ken

I still like sierra 225 grains over some 4895

For an elk load, hard to improve upon the 225 NPT and 4895. 2400 FPS should be no problem.

Bump

not too thread jack but I am not a reloader but would be interested in the best source of .358 ammo. Been looking around a found a surplus box of silvertips for $30!!! But that is a rare find these days...A reloader I stumbled across online named Bob Shell would make up loads for $25 a box plus shipping...any body have any experience with him??

here is his website

http://www.aco4u.com/ammo/

Well,
We loaded 25 rounds on Sunday of 200gr Hornady SP over 45 grs of H-4895.
Now we just have to get out & shoot them over the Chronograph.
Range report to follow.

Mark

Mine shoots 250 SPs into an inch. I would try those. Might not be heavy enough for elk though...

We managed to get out & shoot yesterday afternoon.
To refresh; the recipe is: Virgin WW cases, Hornaday 200 gr interlocks over 45 gr H-4895.
avg velocity was 2352 fps, with a high of 2384 fps & low of 2308 fps.
We has 3 misfires (I have never had a misfire on a reload before) I am hoping this is due to the virgin brass????

Interestingly enough we had a box of Winchester silver-tips 200 gr & they chrono'd at 2350 fps also, with no misfires...

Did any of the FIRED ammo you loaded have protruding primers, which indicates a headspace problem? Were the hits on the dud's primers shallow?

Allen

None of the Fired rounds were protruding, all nice & flat.

The 3 primers that didn't fire, looked to be seated a bit deeper than the others.

I am thinking that that it's the virgin brass & when we re-shoot with once fired brass all will be well. I hope

MarkT, the primer pocket depth isn't going to change after firing!! you have to seat the primer even with the rim of the case,maybe the cases were made with a deep pocket ,i'd check the depth against some other cases . Don

I'm a dope...

I have seen "short" shells that fired and the primers back out some. This is a definite indication headspace isn't right. Sorry, I was sleeping when I replied.

BTW, even if the primers were deep, it SHOULD have to be a lot deep to not ignite, unless the firing pin is way marginal to begin with. Do the craters on the fired brass look round? May be a broken pin tip....

I just turned an expander ball for oversizing my 308 brass by .005 thousandths into 358 win ammo, so the ball is .363 od.Once the brass is sized up, I then back the FL die off and slowly start resizing, until the brass allows the chamber to close fully, then add a little more sizing to the case. This makes the brass tight in the chamber, eliminating setback on a deep chamber, and the 308 cases fill the chamber well. I had to do this to my 7TCU which has a deep chamber, as you can see the rounds that did have soft hits( misfires) fell into the chamber too deep. The above fixed the problem, and that gun shoots sub 1" 5 shot groups w/ a 3x pistol scope.

Good luck

Allen

We ended up using Factory Winchester 200 grain Silvertips, due to the misfires in the handloads. The hunt went as follows:

We were at the gate to hunting area at 0630... drove & glassed all day long. Saw 2 coyotes, 2 red tail hawks, 1 bald eagle, 3 deer, 6 elk during the day.

Last clear cut of the day roughly 1700 hrs started glassing a large clear cut in a Deep bowl & Steve spies a cow elk at about 250 yds starring back at him out of the re-prod. Brian shoots at it & misses. The one cow elk turns into about 12 elk. & at about 300 yds Brian connects with a large cow elk. Steve puts the finisher on it & the work begins. we butchered the elk & packed & packed for 5 hours. Finally getting out of that bowl HELL Hole at 10pm ish & out of the woods at 10:30pm. had a quick bite to eat at McDonalds in Astoria, then I drove for home and made it about 1am...

Found a mushroomed silvertip under the hide on the off side that weighed 162.2 grains (81%)

Mark

congrats on the hunt!! Glad to hear your friend used a 358 savage 99!!

MarkT,

The culprit on your misfires may have been faulty primers... you didn't say which ones you used. I've had some faulty Winchester Large Rifle primers that failed to fire from time to time, and batch to batch.

Congrats on the successful hunt.

Other loads you can try are 225 gr Sierra's, TSX's and NPT's. All shoot well in my 358. My rifle just seems to prefer teh 220 gr Speers.

Another source for 358 Win ammo and brass right now is Quality. Although Winchester has said that they will be making 358 Win ammo and brass in 2009, after not doing so for three years. Good thing as both Browning and Ruger are both building rifles chambered to this cartridge right now.

My hunting partner is breaking in the new Ruger Hawkeye in 358 and reporting very good accuracy with it.