Strongly considering reboring my older Savage M_99 in .308 to the 358 Winchester. My retirement is nearing & I'd like a little more thump in my brush gun. The 225 grain Nosler partition @ 2200-2400 fps sounds pretty good over my current 180 grain loads.
Has anyone had this service done by this vendor? I'm curious as if they remarked the barrel with the new caliber, and any other details you'd like to offer like on the 3 groove rifling he seems to prefer.
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I got my Savage 99 in 308 WIN in 2003. I got my Rem 7600 in 35 Whelen in 2005. For over a decade, the rifles went head-to-head in my rifle hunting. I quickly realized a full-house 35 Whelen load was WAAAAAY to much for me or the whitetails, so I downloaded the Whelenizer to be a hot 358 WIN- ish round.
After 2014, I retired the Whelenizer. It had made a good showing with a deer a year over 10 seasons. However, as far as performance was concerned the 308 WIN was dropping deer a bit more consistently. I'm not going to say there were any failures with the Whelenizer. However, deer taking the bigger 200 grain REM SPCL's were able to make it a bit further. The 165 grain Hornady IL SP's were more likely to drop them right where they stood. All that extra thump and the extra cost of the rounds were not producing a better result.
All I'm saying is that were I to have a 308 WIN Savage 99 in front of me, and whitetail was my main fare, I'd not rebore it. In fact, if you want to put more "thump" in the Savage, I'd think about dropping down to a 165 or 150 grain bullet and stepping up the velocity. That combination has been dynamite on our deer.
I have a 30-30 that I'm thinking of sending off to JES. I would not dissuade you from using JES. I'm just saying I might rethink 358WIN.
