This is an email from an aquaintence back from Africa in 2003 on the .358:
Just back from a month in South Africa where I got about 18 days of hunting in. Had a hell of a hunt with our group of 6 taking 60 animals (granted 15 or so were warthogs & baboons) from Baboon to Giraffe. Just have to report on how impressed I am with my new "favorite" brush country/bushvelt hunting rifle. Took a new Win M70 classic featherweight in 7mm08 and sent it to Tim Carrick in NC 336-859-5273 to make me a "minature express rifle". What an awesome job he did too............. We used the factory action/stock and customized as follows:
21" med weight PacNor dlx barrel chambered in .358 Win.
Glassed the action and chamber
Full action/trigger job with 3# pull
NECG express sights
NECG barrel band fron swivel mt
Decellerator pad, 1"
Leupold QRW rings & bases
Leupold VX III 1.75x6 HDP
Project turned out even better than I had hoped. Rifle is just a smaller version of a Win M70 Express rifle. Shoots about anything you put in it well and kills game way out of proportion to it's size and recoil level (kicks about like an average 06 with 180gr loads).
Load I used most on this trip was the excellent Swift 250gr A-frame over 45 grains of Varget for an honest 2150FPS (I now know I can get up to 2275 out of this rifle now and still working my "ultimate load" combination). I shot Kudu, Blue Wildebeest, Zebra, Nyala, Warthog (8 actually), bushpig and baboon with this load. I also shot a black Wildebeest with a 225gr Barnes moly coated X over 46 grains of Varget. Everything except 2 baboons (a running shot and a offhand 150 yd shot) were one shot kills. I just can't get over how easy this rifle is to shoot and how well it puts down big tough game. Most shots gave full penetration and we only recovered 2 Swifts and as usual they were perfect and could be used in Swift advertising with perfect controlled expansion and 95%+ weight retention.
Everyone else in our group except my son used Swift A-frames exclusively and we didn't loose a single animal. My girlfriend used the 275gr A-frame in a .338 WM Sako compact hunter. Her one shot kill on a big Eland bull was further proof that this combination continues to work well. Just a lot more kick and blast for very little gain over the .358.
The other guys used .308 165gr, .30-06 180gr, 9.3x62 300gr (this is another great performer), .300 WSM 180gr and .375 300gr.. With this being my 4th trip to Africa using Swift A-frames I can conclude that they are 100% reliable on game. You recover very few bullets, but when you do they are examples of perfect controlled expansion. Ryan used factory Win Failsafes in his .375 to take Giraffe, Waterbuck and Zebra, all were one shot kills and no bullets were recovered, so this whole solid copper bullet thing seems to work well too.
I continue to be impressed with how hard African game is to kill. Often perfect hits with good bullets still resulted in the animal going up to 400 yds before going down. Most amazing was two big warthog boars, both shot thru both lungs. One took a 300gr 9.3x62 bullet and ran 150 yds like we had completely missed him. The other took a .412gr LBT out of the .480 Ruger and ran approx 300yds (not a drop of blood for the first 75yds either). Then my black Wildebeest which are supposed to be real hard to kill dropped in his tracks when hit by a 225gr Barnes X out of my .358!!!! Go figure..............
