Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 358 Win. rechamber to 350 Rem. Mag. or 358 WSM 'smith recommendation

If you can find PPVarmint, it will better the TAC speed. I just tried some last week & got up to 2650fps out of a 21" barrel with a little more room to go upward in my rifle. 4-shot groups were nice & round between 3/4 & 1" @ 100yds from 50 to 52.5gr. Lapua 308 brass & WLRs. Wish I could find more bullets to continue.

Awesome. Which bullet were you using? What manufacturer makes the PPVarmint?

IME, the .358 Win, with modern powders and modern bullets, can give its larger cousins a serious run. Not a bear hunter but was very impressed with what a 178 Hammer bullet out of my .358W did to a white tail. Don’t think a bear would fare well hit with that load or similar.

I used TAC, Xterminator, RL-10 and RL-7. I got less compaction with X-Term, vs TAC, velocity about the same. I got better accuracy with RL-7 vs RL-10.

If it was me, I’d make the .358W work, wouldn’t rechamber it.

DF

Essentially, whatever a persons view of the .35 Whelen is based on its history of use on game, transfer that to the .358. It’s doing everything the Whelen was 20 years ago.

Initial testing was with the Sierra 225 cuz they're cheaper than Partitions, but they may be fine without going to the premium bullet... if Sierra ever runs them again.

It's one of the few Alliant rifle powders made in USA that comes up for sale fairly regular. PP=Power Pro.

From experience on several deer at least, the 225 NP is a penetrating SOB from a .358. It is NOT an expanding SOB... not to imply it doesn’t expand, but if you blow it through lungs, expect the animal to run a bit because they essentially just have neat holes in their lungs.

I’ve got pics of two sets of deer lungs from 225 NP’s/.358 I can dig up if anyone cares.

I have never used the 225 gr NP but Sierra Game Kings in 225gr are awesome.

Don’t forget Barnes, Hammer and Cutting Edge.

DF

That's great info. Thank you!

Totally agree with this. I think they are the best deer bullet going for the 358 Win and Whelen myself. The PT is fine, but the Sierra expands and makes a bigger hole.

I agree with most of the above posts. Stick with it as-is. The 358 Win is a shell that never caught on, but for no reason linked to a lack of performance on game.


If you desire more even power, get a standard 30-06 length action (all over the country, and far less expensive then a SAKO) and re-barrel to 35 Whelen or 9.3X62 Such a barrel swap would give you the same or more power as the 350 Rem Mag and do so at less expense. In using the 30-06 action (25-06, 270, 280 or 30-06) you need to do NO modifications at all on the magazines feed lips bolt face extractor or ejector. Just a new barrel and you are ready to go.

And if you compare the 9.3X62 to the 358 short magnum you will find the 9.3 looks good and the brass is not the nightmare to get that the WSM is. 9.3 bullets run from 225 grains up to 320, so the cartridge is quite versatile. Used with great success on game from small deer up to elephant for over 115 years.


As a final thought, I'd bet you can find a 375H&H on the used market for not much more money then it would cost you to have a good gunsmith do the conversion on your SAKO that you first mentioned.

The Sako has a 2.8" magazine...........leave the gun be and get an other one in what ever.

I think it would sell pretty well, probably get enough to buy equivalent rifle chambered to suit OP.

DF

Yeah, a .358 Sako would not be tough to sell.

^ this is a big deal. ^

Even fitting .358 into 2.8” has its challenges at times.

Jeff why would a pedophile like you post on a firearms forum?