Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles .358 Win & Speer 180 gr Bullets...

...will be used for woods deer, shots no longer than 75 yds max. Being designed for the .35 Rem, should I run them @ .35 Rem velocities? That makes the most sense, but wanted to hear other opinions. Thanks, Joe

DS,not sure if this will help,but,I've killed several deer with that bullet fired from a .35 Rem. and never caught one. Two of the kills involved hitting major bone.My velocity was 2330 at the muzzle and no deer was further than 50 yards away when hit.

Yes it helps, thank you! What part of N.Y. are you in?

Probably not a bad idea to load those bullets using .35 Rem. loading data. I have loaded them in my .35 Whelen that way, they shoot accurately at that velocity but I have not had the opportunity to use them on whitetails yet.

I don't see any reason to load them at 35 Rem levels. I've used that bullet on deer from the 35 Whelen at full velocity and still didn't get as much expansion as most other bullets judging by the tissue damage and exits. My experiments with them in test media (so I could catch one) showed pretty much the same thing. They are a lot like XTP handgun bullets in that you get a little expansion of the nose but never a big wide mushroom.

I haven't used the 180 but I have heard from a number of people that both the speer 180 and 220FP bullets are fairly tough bullets. My experience with the 220 shows it to be less destructive than either the 200g hornady or the 225np and seems to bear this out. I have added a link to one fellow who did some testing, he shot the 180 at 2380 which is fairly fast for 35 rem and the bullet opened but not excessivley. There was another fellow who did some 35 cal testing and found similar results but I can't seem to find the link.

http://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/factoryloadpart1.html

Personally I wouldn't have an issue running them at 2500, although I have pretty much settled on the Hornady 200 in my 358's

Well I have some of the 180's for my 358( http://wisconsincartridge.com/product/358-win-180-gr-fn-2600-fps-20-roundsnew/ ) and they are accurate and the recoil is very mild. Probably the perfect "deer" load around my parts. Very pleasant to shoot. I haven't spent much time with that bullet though nor have I killed anything with it either.

I m mostly focusing on the Speer 220 and various other 225 gr pills for my 358 running somewhere between 2400 to 2500 fps. I have been finding IMR 3031 has been the most accurate powder and Ramshot TAC has produced the highest velocity.

I don't believe either Speer is that "hard". I do think you want to get a good start on them though like others have said. I m going to test them my self but from what I've seen the 220's are very accurate and hit hard at 2400-2500 fps.

I'd like to hear experiences with the 180/220 on large game my self. I'd also give a box of the listed factory loaded 180's a go before doing a ton of reloading with that 180. My rifle shoots them great!

When I had my Winchester M/70 rebored to .35 Whelen several years ago I did extensive load development and range testing. 225gr. Sierra and Nosler bullets shot the most accurately in my rifle, powder of choice is IMR 4064. I have taken an 8pt. whitetail buck with the 225gr. Sierra, the bullet performed well. Hope you find this info useful in developing a load for your .358.