Speaking of heavy .357/10mm bullets, I was reading about using pistol bullets in the .358 Winchester, which I'm in the process of putting together. A pre-64 shot out .243 Fwt, now in OR with JES, becoming a .358 Win.
Nathan Foster down in New Zealand does a lot of terminal performance testing on game with a number of loads. Good stuff. Google Ballisticstudies.com.
This is what he wrote on the 170 Gold Dot and 180 XTP at .358 Win speeds. Was sorta surprised that he liked the Gold Dot more than the XTP. I would have guessed the opposite.
For hunting very light bodied deer species, the .358 can be loaded with .357 Magnum bullets. Hornady’s 180 grain XTP bullet can be loaded to 2700fps; however, this bullet and the 158 grain XTP are better utilized as youth loads, down loaded to between 2200 and 2400fps, so as not to inhibit penetration.
The .357” Speer 158 grain Gold Dot hollow point and 170 grain Gold Dot flat point at .358 Winchester velocities are more reliable than the XTP on light game up to 60kg (132lb). The 170 grain Gold Dot used at close ranges performs well from muzzle velocities of 2400fps up to 2800fps.
Go figure...
DF
