Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 358 Win Pre-64 Fwt

I traded for a .243 Pre-64 that looked pretty good until I peeked down the barrel with the Hawkeye. Very clean, but lots of pitting..

Oh well, sometimes pitted guns shoot. Well, not this one and I loaded a series of known .243 accuracy loads. I don't need a 2" .243...

So, it's off to JES in Oregon for boring to .358 Winchester. The muzzle OD is .565" which when you subtract .358", leaves only .1" or so barrel wall thickness. Jes said that would be fine, so I'm sure it will be.

His cost is $250 which includes return postage. Postage on my end with $750 ins was around $35 or so, ground UPS, leaving this PM to get there Monday. And he says he can get it done in a week.

Now, that's pretty amazing. I've never heard of a gun he's done not shooting pretty well.

So, I'm excited about a new round at half the cost of a new barrel in a light, handy rifle.

Reason for going .35 cal, I don't have one. I have a 6.5 Creed, so don't need a .260. Have a 7-08, a 308, .a 338-06 so don't need to duplicate any of those calibers. That leaves the .358 by default, and wanting to leave the M-70 set up as a SA Fwt. in the original stock.

I've been reading up on the .358 Win and it seems pretty versatile. It'll shoot .38 pistol bullets on up to 225 gr. rifle bullets. I know, 250's, but I'm not going there.

And I have nearly every powder mentioned for that round.

Will report. It's like Christmas in Aug for a Loony.

I'm sure you guys understand...

DF

The M70 Fwt and the .358 go together like peas and carrots!

I'm about to send him something too after chatting on the phone today. He was very amenable to questions.

Just curious: did you send the whole thing or just the barreled action? Shipping seems like it would be much cheaper doing the latter.

What twist rate are you going with? I had my .358 done with a 1 in 12" so it would shoot the heavier bullets well. I shot 3 Hornady 250 gr Spirepoints into one single hole that we only about .380" edge to edge. Now that I have to use non-lead bullets here is CA, it shoots both the 225 gr and 200 gr TTSX bullets very well. I used John Barsness's loads with TAC that closely approximate .35 Whelen factory loads.

Most loading data for the .358 is kept low due to some lever actions like the Win 88 and Savage 99 being made in that chambering. A strong bolt action can go hotter. I used mine in Africa on plains game including kudu and Wildebeest.

Would that be like Jenny and Forrest?

I never asked about twist, guess he'll go with std twist, whatever that is.

I'm not trying to go heavy as those bullets are pretty slow, probably mostly shoot 180's and 200's.

BTW, what is the std. .358 Win twist?

DF


Edited to add, found this link

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5220834/

I'll need to find out what twists he does. I guess it's a choice between 12 and 14. We'll see what he says.

Just the barreled action.

And, you're right. Much cheaper.

DF

I have a standard grade M/70 that I had rebored by Randall Redman 25-30yrs. ago, for years 225gr. bullets were my whitetail load. Having had rotator cuff surgery on both shoulders I have been shooting 180 & 200gr. bullets. I found a Ken Waters load using Hornady Inter-lok 200gr. RN bullets and IMR 3031 that will cloverleaf 3 shots @ 100yds. I have used this load on the last three whitetails, the one bullet that I recovered was perfectly mushroomed and retained 66% of its original weight. If I were to have a Featherweight rebored to .358 I would definately stick to 180 & 200gr. bullets, in addition I added a Pachmyer Deceleator pad to my rifle which made it much more comfortable to shoot from the bench while developing loads.

Thanks. If you happened to take a photo before you sealed up and are willing to share, I'm interested in how you packed it. The trigger hanging there makes me nervous. But I'm also assuming he doesn't want to deal with tons of reassembly.

It's in a brown truck by now.

I cut a .223 case to make a tube long enough to support the rear action screw and the trigger guard. The Pre-64 doesn't have one piece bottom metal, it's in pieces. The attached bottom metal protects the trigger.

I had a double box from McM that a stock came in. I padded the barreled action in bubble wrap, wraped the bolt separately and put it in a small box inside the larger box.

Then dropped the inner box into the outer box. It should do well if UPS gorillas don't run over it with a truck..

Insure it and let it go.

DF

TAC and 200 -225 gr bullets. I like the 225 Woodleighs

DF, a 10 or 12 twist works real well with the .358’s. My two Whelens both shoot the 250’s fine even with the 16 twist but I’d prefer more RPMs myself, especially with the all copper bullets. I don’t believe the extra RPMs will go to waste assisting opening the copper bullets.

I have two 35 cal barrels waiting to find a donor like yours. Ones a 9.5 and the other a 10. No harm in getting extra and I’ve not seen any detriment to it.

I’m pretty jealous of the little 358 Featherweight you’re having made up. I’m betting he won’t stamp it unless you ask him to. I’ve sent a couple P64’s to him and he’s left them unstamped since he says a nicer stamp job could be found than his usual method.

I am looking forward to seeing what you do with the old rifle. I love breathing a little life into those old rifles and gettin a somewhat rare chambering is pretty fun as well.

Oh, the old P64 35 Remingtons were 1-16 twist along with the 358’s. At least I’m pretty sure on that.

The Browning BLRs are 1-12 or 1-14 I believe. Don’t hold me to it.

That's pretty cool. I believe you'll enjoy working with that one.

My .358 was rebored from .308.
It's shot about anything I've fed it reasonably well but with the 200 gr TTSX (and TAC), it turned into an exceptional shooter. Me, not so much.

An old friend and mentor had an original model 70 featherweight in 358 and used it almost exclusively as his elk rifle for 40+ years. He liked to still hunt them in the heavy timber and was quite successful at it. The bullet he used most was the Speer 250 grain spitzer. He often used the old cliche, "you could eat the bullet hole." Having used 250 grain bullets in a 35 Whelen to take a few caribou, I'd have to say the old cliche is accurate.

Lots of good bullet choices so go forth and make meat.

BLR .358 is twisted 1-12".

Nice project. Though not a Fwt, my 358 Win pre-64. The one in the middle.

Nice guns.

For you, as always.

And critters to show...

I guess I'll go 12 twist with mine, which is probably what he would have done, had I not mentioned it.

DF

The Fwt, now with even less barrel steel (weight) is gonna be pretty light.

How bad do these things kick? Mine has a brown, solid Decelerator pad, which should help some.

I'm re-cutting the checkering, will have the stock ready to glass bed when JES gets his part done.. I removed the old bedding.

DF

What is the minimum bore size that he will do? I thought I heard nothing smaller than .338....?
Just curious.....