Hey gents, I just bought a Stainless/ Laminate Browning BLR and need some load info to start with.

I appreciate ANY info/ advice you can give me.

Thanks

Joel, I have had several .358s and will drop you a note with some loads when I can dig them up.

You have about 45 358 Win loadings listed on the Hodgdon site and 46 loadings listed over on www.reloadersnest.com under the "rifle" (upper left corner) section. More than enough to keep you busy for quite awhile.

LOL, thanks Wade... gun seller. Ha ha.

I'm getting ready for her first trip to the range.

Thanks bigsqueeze...

The two bullets I'd advise paying close attention to are the 200-gn Hornady SP, and the 225 Partition. RL7 and TAC will get the 200's sceaming along well over 2600 fps. TAC is the berries for the 225's... unless your gun hates it, I'd look no further. If your gun hates TAC, then you are likely going to be wrestling with powder compression with the alternatives (if you want speed). IMR3031 and... crap... I think it's 4895 but that's not for sure (it's been a while), are kind of the standard old-school powders for .358 and should get you around 2500 fps with 225's BUT, at major compression to stay under 2.800 COAL. You'll want to lightly crimp, which opens a can of worms, but trust me, getting an action full of 3031 powder sticks from the powder pushing the bullet out and the bullets sticking in the lands when you try to chamber it, then eject it, sucks. A BLR action is a fright to clean that kind of thing out of.

The Horn 200 at 2600-2650 fps will absolutely flatten deer with authority. The 225 NP kills a little slower at .358 speeds but is an excellent deer bullet too and, I presume, pretty good on bigger stuff as well. I've carried it for elk, but didn't get to try it.

Can't help you with 250's.

I resize WW .308 brass (new) in one pass using Obenhauf's boot dressing as neck lube. Works slick.

Is your rifle pistol grip or straight stock? Mine was straight.

Feel free to PM me; .358 can be a bit challenging. It was for me. But if you take one thing from this, take this:

TAC

Mine shot the 200gr Hornady's great. The 200gr RN was the most accurate. 47grs H4895 went 2380fps and 49grs H4895 went 2490fps. Both were very accurate.

Thanks Jeff O; it's a straight stock BLR btw.

Since I need TAC for my 350 Rem Mag, it will plan out perfectly for the 358 too.

I've never crimped any reloads yet, but I'm sure it's easy.

I figured I would have compressed loads considering such a big bullet in a 308 case.

Thanks again...

If my barrel will ever come in, fixing to do some tinkering
with the 358 and 180 and 200 Hornadys - anyone ever use
H335 or is this a bad idea?

Encore, so will probably be able to load pretty long...

I would think H335 should be fine. I have a 338 Federal and a 350 Rem Mag and I've seen load data for it. Not sure of charge weights though.

H-335 works fine in mine but, I always caution when using H-335 to start low and work up. I have a lot that is fast and starting loads produce almost max. load velocity.

H-322 is mo betta in my 358, less compression, and 2700 fps with the 200 gn TSX, and a nice COL of 2.700.

Gunner

mine loves H322 also !

Ed

Wow, 2700fps with a 200 grainer. Very nice indeed.

I have owned three 358's and all three shot the 225 gr Partiton or Sierra very well over 48 gr of 4320 in Win 308 brass. I'll be fiddling with the 200 gr TTSX and TAC in my current pre-64 M70 358 as my son wants to use it in Africa in June. I recall JB doing a pretty good write on loading for the 358 a bit ago in Handloader IIRC.

I've had a 358 BLR for quite a while. IMR 4064 has been a great powder that shoots the 180-225 grain bullets very well albeit not as fast as a couple other powders may. The 200 grain Rem CL, Hornady SP and Sierra PH all shot well with it. I don't know if you'll see the velocites some claimed as I've generally not with mine, but that may just be my rifle. I've chrony'd the 200 Hornady with IIRC, 51 or 52 grns of TAC at about 2500 fps. I smoked a doe with that load this year at about 175 yards.

I've actually get velocities out of the 225s not too much slower than the 200s and have no problems getting 2400-2450 out of the Sierra or TSX. I personally like TAC and IMR 4064, but want to try Xterminator since it shot so well in my 356. It's a great gun and I think you'll find its not overly particular in what you feed it.

W-748 has been my best powder in my .358 , with the Speer 220 Gr. FP and the 225 Sierra .

I also loved the 200gr Hornady's. Used both SP and RN. I had pretty good accuracy with 3031 (for the old BLR), and started to play with TAC (also use it in my .350 mag)before I sold the BLR. Those Hornady's absolutely knocked the crap out of deer and hogs.

FL resize each load.

Just sold my 99'358 and the loads that went with were H4895 and 200 grain horn.

Got some more 358 Frontier results. I went out today even though I shouldn't have.
My intent was simply to do some pressure testing today, conditions were terrible. Snow at times heavy, wind 22 gusting 30+ mph. Just for $hits & giggles I put an IPSC target out at 300 yds as an aiming point for firing over the chrono. I was laughing when I went down afterwards and saw that 50% of the shots were on paper. I only fired 1 round of each charge weight.
Results:

BULLET: 200 Grain Hornady SP
CASE: Winchester 358
PRIMER: CCI #34
POWDER: Ramshot TAC
CRIMP: Medium
CHRONOGRAPHED: 25 Feb 2012, ~640 feet ASL
CONDITIONS: Mod-Heavy snow, ~1 deg C
CHRONOGRAPH: ProChrono Digital
FIREARM: Ruger Frontier
COAL: Seated to cannelure
VELOCITY:
46 Grains - 2207 fps
47 - 2275
48 - 2290
48.5 - 2275
49 - 2302
49.5 - 2335
50 - 2355
50.5 - 2411 - Slightly sticky extraction
51 - 2437 - Slightly sticky extraction
51.5 - 2433 - Slightly sticky extraction

I also fired 3 rounds of my hunting load as a control which typically averages ~2325: 47.5 grains of H4895, averaged 2323 fps.

My conclusion is that I think I will stay with my H4895. Crunching the numbers, with a velocity of 2300, I get ~218 yard PBR. If I plug in 2400, I get a PBR of ~228 yards. Difference at 300 yds is 1.5 inches.
The only gains I can see with TAC is ~50-75 fps and better metering through measures. I hand weigh all my hunting loads so metering is moot for me, leaving only velocity gains as a pro for using TAC. I've read that TAC might be temp sensitive as well which detracts from its appeal for me. H4895 is very temp stable and gives me good accuracy, I can't see enough reason to switch to the TAC. I think I'll stick with my Re15 in the 350 and not bother testing the TAC, again because I feel the gain if any, would be very little.

I've always used the 200gr Hornaday spire point for deer and bear. Years ago, I used IMR 4320, then I couldn't get it so I switched to IMR 4064. That works well but I'm tired of the 'big stick' powder, so I got a pound of TAC to try. If that doesn't work, I'll go back to IMR 4320.

Dale

I'm using TAC with 200 Gr. Hornady's, but I load to 2.825". Gives good velocity.

With RL7 and 200's, I can easily get over 2600 fps from my 20" M7 with very minimal compression. That's a load I've run a lot of. Easy on brass, etc. My load is well over anything I've seen in a book.

TAC gets 225's to a solid 2500 fps from that same 20" Pac-Nor barrel. Again with minimal compression.

I wouldn't assume crimping will be easy. It can be tricky to get it right, especially with heavy compression, and the cannelure (if there is one) might be in the wrong place. Plus your brass needs to be all trimmed to exactly the same size which means trimming every time or you'll get uneven crimps. Finally, it's very easy to crush the shoulder a bit on a .358 case.

For that reason, powders that will give me good speed without the compression are my choice, hence RL7 for 200's and TAC for 225's. From JB's data I'd expect TAC to work great on 200's too.

Nosler has a 200-gn Accubond coming out in .35. Gotta admit I like the sounds of that bad boy at 2600+ fps on deer!

I've killed a half-dozen deer with the 225 NP. Great bullet but nor quite as dramatic as the 200 Horn... keeps meat damage LOW though. I'll post a couple gory pics.

Ok, here's the heart and lungs of the buck I killed this last season. As you can see, it didn't exactly soup the lungs. 225 NP at a MV of 2500 fps, 35 yards or so.



Exit wound on the same buck:



This is a small buck I shot a few years ago, exit on the shoulder. The meat damage is minimal:

Ahh, I like big holes in furry animals. I think the big bore bug has bitten me.

Here's another small buck with a big hole from the 200 Horn:

Very nice!

well yeh..

I've been noticing that bullets entering through a big hole tend to want to exit through one of similar design. Go figure

Beauty of .358 is a big hole but minimal meat damage. While still having decent trajectory.

Anyone want to see a .358 head shot? It's pretty gruesome.

There is an accuracy node right around 49 grains of Varget under a 200 Hornady spire or RN. Speed is about 2400 and makes a nice clean nickel size hole in white tails. You can see daylight clear through the deer on the shot. But the hole quickly washes over with blood......