Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers Model 71 Deluxe VS Savage 'brush rifle' in 358, which one to keep?

Faced with a bit of a dilemma or decision here. I have a large bill (over $1K) that I need to pay this month so have decided to part with one of my bigger bore 'thumper' lever action rifles. After all, the 348WCF and the 358 are SO close in performance no need really to keep both and economics force one or the other to be sold. The Model 71 is a well used but solid and unbubbba'ed rifle with a Redfield Peep sight and of course checkered stocks and the Super Grade style sling attachemnts. I have dies, 4 boxes of WW factory ammo and a 50 count box of Barnes 250gr Original bullets already for this caliber and I have always wanted one of these. That said, the dies and ammo are not expensive for a 358, it can be loaded with pointy bullets and the rifle could be scoped. A part of my decision is based - possibly - on the fact that the 348 is in like new condition and only fired a total of eight times according to the reliable and AFAIK hones member from here who traded it to me. If I keep it, it will get scoped, a peep sight added AND it will be hauled around on a quad, hunted with etc.

Which would YOU keep, and which would YOU sell if faced with my decision, and why?

Thanks in advance for the input. I will be posting this in the Savage collectors and Winchester collectors forums as well to get some biased input each way from each. I thought that this forum might give me a more balanced pluses and minuses discussion vs the two dedicated to those two brands.

Actually Safariman I already made the decision....I kept the .358 (in a Remington 760 pump). I too always wanted a Win. M71 and found one several years ago for a good price. Shot it a total of ten times (all at the range) and never touched it since. The .358 gets used a bit. The Winchester has major cool factor and if I hunted woods most of the time I would still probably have it (or if I simply hunted more!). It is a tough one and sorry you have to make it - I did not have to sell, just paring the herd back to the ones I do or intend to use FWIW.......good luck!

PennDog

Thanks! Different time of my life than when I used to buy and keep 'em all, but a really fine life it has been and continue's to be!

If that 358 Rem 760 were mine, I would be sorely tempted to make a 35 Whelen AI out of it, or even a 9.3x62 but that is just me. Probably not a lot of real world on game difference between the three down this way, none of them is going to magically become a 257WBY in the speed dept.

Heck, sell everything else and keep those two! I've had the 99-358 for years and still on the lookout for a 71, one of the last really "important to me" guns I'm after. Hope you get the $$$ some way besides losing one of those gems.

Appreciate the kind words and thoughts. Decided to sell the Savage 358. I have other firearms that I COULD sell, but I am even more attached to those like my Sako 222 and 223, 416 Rigby custom etc.

INTERESTING RESULTS in my informal poll: Even the guys at the Savage collectors forum said, almost to a man, to sell the 358 and keep the model 71! I expected the opposite, with the Savage guys telling my how superior the model 99 is to the Model 71. I was )pleasantly) surprised to say the least!

Had a Sav. 99F in 358 Win for several years and killed deer with it, never had a 71 ( I would keep the 71)

I would sell that Savage way before I did the M71.

Hmm, lets see, which one would I keep

depends on your eyes. the savage will take a scope without ruining it. but if you can shoot irons, the 71 is the ticket. the 348 is just too cool of a cartridge. a 71 carbine would be my grail gun.

Well, I went out and shot a couple of under 2 inch groups with the 71 (100 yards) and its peep sights so I sold the Model 99 358 at Gunbroker. Did not get as much as I wanted for it, but $1,100 was a decent and fair price both ways.

Loaded up a pile of .348 ammo last night (at 3AM! Danged RLS....) with some Barnes 250gr Original's. Surprisingly, that bullet has a BC of .327! Not the 'flying ashtray' that we have been told all flatpointed bullets are. In fact, that bullets BC is higher than the BC of almost all 50-60gr .224 bullets and even most spritzer or pointy nosed 150-165gr 30 caliber bullets.

Now, to figure out where and what to hunt with it.

Tough call, truly. Me, I would keep the 71.

Yeah, that would have been a tough call. Both of them are excellent rifles for up close hunting. If you shoot 2" groups with the 71 I can't see you losing out very often.