Mainer, I was following your posts on the 358 right from the beginning over on the AOF. Early on a lot of guys were of the opinion that the 225 grain bullets were about as heavy as the little 358 could push reliably. You were going heavy for caliber, and if my memory is correct worked your way up to 300 grain bullets. I stopped at 250 grain NP. I would have gone heavier but the 250 NP was almost flawless on large game. The bison here are pretty spooky and quite tough to hunt. Our season runs in the winter months so a guy can do a lot of snowshoeing. Anyway I got up on a small herd that were feeding in a big slough, but they got my wind before I was where I wanted to be and busted out for the hills. Luckily I found an opening an shot a big bull that was bringing up the rear. I wanted to anchor him so held right in the middle of his shoulder. The bullet broke both shoulders and I found it perfectly mushroomed under the hide on the off side. The distance was about 90 meters and that bullet lifted that bull right off his feet. Anyone who has ever butchered a big bull bison will know that they are the biggest heaviest boned animals in NA.
On another note I also read your posts over there where you were talking about the (then new) Ruger Compact Magnum in 338 RCM. At that point I had never heard of the round before but did some digging. I liked your idea of a short light handy rifle, with good open sights that a guy could take sheep hunting, then pull the scope off and have a good bear defence gun. Took me awhile to find one here in Canada but I did find a left hand model. Im not sure if you ever got one or not, but I can say that your assessment of that rifle was spot on! I've had it for about a year now and it has quickly become my all time favourite rifle. So far its taken a huge bull bison, a caribou, and a wolf. Im shooting 225 grain core locks at about 2700 FPS and performance is outstanding. In reality the only thing it offers over the 358 is a bit flatter trajectory but for the north country I cant imagine a more suitable rifle. From what I understand Ruger dropped that rifle and for the life of me I dont understand why it wasn't more popular.
