Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Recovered .35 cal 200 Accubond for your perusal

Since it’s a rare bullet/cartridge combo I thought some folks might find this interesting. Recovered this from a blacktail buck the other day… quartering away shot, two ribs going in, hit scapula/shoulder, found it under the hide in his neck. .358 Win, about 2650 fps MV, range was around 60 yards. Retained weight is 148 grains which is 74%. Looks like an easy 2x expansion, not counting that one big petal.

I’ve killed a bunch of deer with my .358 using several bullets; this is my favorite. This would be the 4th or 5th I’ve killed with the 200 NAB. If only they weren’t unobtanium….

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Such a great bullet. Not sure why Nosler decided to double their prices. All manufacturers went up a little. Wonder why Barnes, Sierra, Hornady, Speer and others didn’t need to double their product cost?

Todd

I shoot 180 Barnes in my 358 so I always make two holes. It just makes sense. Never more than one needed.

Looks like a great bullet. I've not had the pleasure of recovering a 35 Cal bullet after taking game. One of the pluses for using this caliber. Great shot.

I’ve now recovered two from my .358… the other was a 225 Partition @ 40 yards, 2500 fps MV, that was again a quartering shot except that one skidded along the buck’s spine for a ways… made a mess out of one of the backstraps. I posted a pic of that one in that year’s Dink-A-Thon… smallest horns ever, I actually thought it was a doe! Luckily my tag was for a spike or doe. I think that pic was from Ye Olde Dark Ages before my first iPhone, though. 😂 Maybe not. I’ll look.

I do have it! Man the camera was bad on those first iPhones, though. So that’s a .35 cal 225 Partition. Don’t recall the retained weight. It sure expanded!

Not dissing on the bullet. It did as designed, but I'd want less expansion and a more likely exit.
I used a 180 AB out of my .338-06 on a whitetail buck a few years back. Yes, it killed the deer, but it ran a long ways with zero blood and didn't exit. The wide mushroom acts like a parachute, IMO.
I'll take a Grandslam or Barnes.

Low sectional density in a bullet that is known to have a wider expanded front isn't helping the 180 grain .338 or 200 grain .358 bullets as far as penetration goes.

I’d be curious to try a Barnes for sure. My main beef with the 225 NP at .358 speeds is it doesn’t seem to expand much, or at least not quickly, on broadside lung shots. Saw that with two bucks. I have pics of the lungs… just didn’t do a ton of damage. Anyway I agree, an exit is always nice.

The plain old Hornady 200 SP is a great deer bullet from a .358. Wicked. Like shooting a potato, though. The 200 NAB flies more like a rifle bullet should.

The 200 NAB’s are also $94/box on the Noz website, and that’s IF they had them, which they don’t. Yowsa.

Here’s a pic of deer lungs broadside with a 225 NP. Range was under 50 yards.

Great recovery!

The .358 has always intrigued me, much like the .338 Federal and their ‘06 case cousins the .338-06 and .35 Whelen!

Thanks for sharing. Always neat to see what various bullets will do.

A 200 gr TTSX recovered after full diagonal penetration and caught under the hip. It was about a 200 yards shot from a pre-64 M70 358 Win with a 2650 fps MV.

EdM,
Pastor Rob out in Dillingham has used that 200 grain ttsx out to 400 yards on a nice bull moose. Then a finishing shot to the neck up close. Amazing bullet, allowing the 358 win to work its magic in gusty, treeless Alaska, where shots can be long.

Right now, they're available from multiple vendors @ $52 a box. Availability and affordable pricing:

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1010409957?pid=557229

Here's a 185TTSX that went diagonal through most of a smallish bull moose from my .338-06.



A few minutes before this shot, we shot a cow at a little over 200 yards. Pass through and she went about 20 yards and bit the dust. The bull went right down.

That’s really interesting, thanks!

My motivation to move away from the Hornady 200 SP wasn’t its terminal performance; it’s wicked. It was that as part of my ongoing quest to get the most out of all my rifles I shot them at long range (for a .358) and the wind especially just has its way with those little potatoes… lol. Then I switched to the 225 NP, which is a good .358 bullet and I’d use it on say elk with no hesitation, but two years in a row I shot 3x3 blacktail bucks broadside at the same range (same spot actually) and got what you see in the pics of the lungs above. Both bucks died coughing, which I’ve never heard from any other lung-shot deer. So then I figured the 200 NAB was worth a try, because it more or less duplicates the flight ballistics of the 225 NP but the thought was it’d have more smack on light game like deer with a double lung shot… and I’ve found that to be the case.

But whether I can ever get another box of them is the question. Good to know Barnes is actually MAKING their .35 cal projectiles.

Edit… COAL is a big consideration in Remington short-action based .358’s… I can barely fit the 200 NAB without the ogive being inside the case neck… I gotta think a 200 TTSX would be a longer bullet than a 200 NAB… hmmm.

Final edit, lol: just in case someone doesn’t know this, RL7 is the absolute bomb for 200’s and lighter in a .358. I bet I could get 2700 fps/200’s if I was willing to compress it; my ~ 2650 fps load is easy and mild.

Jeff, I've been there done that with the 358 winchester. I've been loading the 200 grain nab since they first came out. If you want to run them at standard COAL, what needs to happen is you need to trim the brass down a bit, to work with the stupidly long ogive.

Along with the piss poor nose profile, there's no shank on the fkn things. Which is why I've like the 200 grain ttsx.

Good intel… do you kill deer with them?

I just loaded my last 29 Nosler Partitions - 225’s. Shoots touching groups. No friggin way I’m paying $100 a box for 50 boolits!

Another hand in the air for the Barnes 180gr TTSX in the .358 Win. Mine are seated over 50.0 gr Win 748 in LC brass. Five will go into the same square inch at 100 yds. Looking forward to getting some blood on one before season ends.