A few weeks ago SPS had a really good deal on 358 cal 200 grain Accubonds. I had read they are too long to be useful in 358 Win loads, but the price was so low I thought I would give them a try. My rifle is a stainless Ruger Hawkeye with a magazine which will accommodate cartridges up to 2.880 inches in length.
The other components were Winchester cases, trimmed to 2.09 inches, and Federal 215m primers with TAC. Overall length was 2.875. I started at 48 grains and planned to work up to 52 grains. At 51 grains the charge was compressed, at 51.5 the "crunch" of the powder was distinctive. I decided not to load any with 52 grains.
The first loads at 48 grains showed an average of 2,730 fps. This seemed really high but there were no pressure signs. The next few .5 grain increments showed a steady increase in speed. I stopped shooting at 50 grains when three shots averaged 2,805. There were no signs of excess pressure but recoil was notably more stout than 200 Honradys at 2,600 fps or 250 grain partitions at 2,450 fps. Accuracy was not good on any of the loads. All groups, three shots each, were around 2 inches.
I suspected my chronograph might not be working properly so I shot some loads with 200 grain Hornadys and the readings were right on at a bit over 2.600.
I should note that my BLR 308 magazine will only accept loads with a max length of 2.815, so these loads would not fit. All the 308 based cartridges 243, 7-08 etc have interchangeable magazines in BLRs.
-Z
