Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting .358 bullets

The 200 grain Hornady SPs are really good in the .358. If you want reliable expansion at longer ranges and a fun deer bullet, the Hornady 180 XTP pistol bullet works REALLY well also. Flinch

For the 358 Win you have fairly low velocity. Many 358 bullets are more heavily jacketed than lower caliber bullets and long range expansion can become an issue. I love the 225 grain Nosler Partition. It has a good B.C. and expands down to 1700fps. I love em.

Article I wrote about 7 years ago.

http://35cal.com/35bullet_study/35bullet_study1.html

North61 that's a great article!Nicely done and very interesting.

North61,
I fully agree with BobinNH. Well done. Many excellent nuggets of truth in your article.
I got a new son in law a couple of years ago who was just getting into hunting big game. I gave him a Whelen and 50 rounds loaded with 250 gr Hornady's. Told him that he can hunt anything in North America with it, with perfect confidence. My only condition was to try to retrieve the empty cases for free refills.

VERY well done sir. I'm partial to the 225 Partition in my .358.

North61,
Nice article! I took my 35 Whelen to Alaska and killed my caribou with it. I have also taken my first black bear with it. I used the 225 GR. Partition on both animals. The bear was hit in the heart at 30 yards and fell down and never took another step.
I was very pleased.
Do you know anyone who has taken brown bear with the 35 Whelen?
whelennut

200gr Hornady SP's + H4895 in my .358 Win Hawkeye

I did have a deer catch a 225 Partition for me. Sharply quartering away and the bullet skidded along the bottom of the spine a ways.

Thanks all..no experience on brown bears. I'd feel ok with the 225 NP even on the big bears though.

I just purchased a Browning BLR in .358 Win from another Campfire member and was searching for bullet info. I was lucky to find this thread. Learned a lot from the posts and from North61's article. I purchased dies, brass and bullets from another member and now have almost a full box of 200 gr. Hornady FTX bullets. I'm pretty sure they were designed to work at .35 Rem velocities (2200fps and less) but wondered if anyone had any experience with them in a .358 Win. I would guess that they should be good for deer and black bears, maybe even caribou. Any thoughts?

RaystownRon, I don't have experience with the FTX bullets yet. I have a Rem 660 350 mag and I just got a box of FTX bullets to load. I'll load them to about 358 Win velocity. I reckon 2400 fps isn't to much velocity.

I've used the 358 on a variety of game including moose, grizzly, caribou, and used a variety of bullets including 200 PSPCL, 250 IL, 250 HC, and 225 XFB. The XFB was always most impressive though it does run out of the good stuff when the distances get longer. I'm inclined to think the 200 TSX would be as good, and the 200 TTSX even better than the old XFB. (The new 225 TSX is longer than the old one.) The 225 Partition benefits from better speed potential than the 250s. I'm also inclined to think that the 250s, while accurate, are just a big too much for the small case capacity of the 358. The 225 stays within a better ideal operating range.

Raystownron ..... presently working on a 358 project ... contacted hornady a few weeks ago and they stated the FTX should work fine up to 2600 fps .

My thoughts are 2500 should be ideal .

I am also looking of 225 grain bearclaws if anyone knows where to buy them ..... previously purchased these for my 35 whelan in loaded federal ammo but need to roll my own with the 358 win

225 TBBC's

i have used the 200gr core-lokt psp on two deer,with the .358win, the first was a fairly big whitetail buck, maybe 180lbs live weight. Hit him with a quartering frontal and it put him down in a couple of yards. Never found the bullet, it did punch the opposite ribs and break a couple but by then it had run out of steam.

The second was a perfect broadside whitetail doe at around 40 yards, about the same as the buck. She ran about 35yds but was done, great blood trail, and no blood shot meat.

I have also used the Hornady 200gr S.p. for one buck, it did a good job but one of the bullets lost its core with a less than ideal shot. Its a great bullet but i think the core-lokt is tougher.

I dont really see any reason to use another bullet, except the 200gr FTX, for deer. Although the 200gr TTSX does look interesting.

kansas82,

While the 250 Hornady Spire Point is kind of an iffy expander from the .358, the 250 RN will expand nicely.

But as a lot of others have already suggested, the 200 Spire Point is a great deer bullet.

Yes Sir it does... the 250 Horn RN is a sweet deer bullet expands even with lung shots from a 358 Win. In my rifle it also feeds the slickest. Though I'd like to give the 180 TTSX a try just for Sh*ts and giggles. In my Whelen I've had the 225 TBBC just drill a 35 cal hole in the lungs and watch the 100 yard dash. For deer I'd stick with 180's 200's or 250 RN's out of any of the 35's.

Since the original poster said that his shots wil be under 150 yards, there is nothing wrong with either the Rem or Hornady 200 gr RN. Or the 250 gr RN.

For my use at more distance, I prefer the 225 gr Partition or Sierra. Locally, I have to use the TSX.

M1 Garand .... thanks for the heads up on Weidners .... did not think of them ..... now if I can get drawn for a moose permit will put them to good use .

I don't often get to use my favorite rifle due to lack of bullets that hold up at high speed. I had a top notch smith build me a 358 STA 10 years ago and everything I shoot with it HAS to be a head shot or it is a mess. I like the Nosler Combined Tech for accuracy. They are downright scarey accurate, but if a deer or elk is closer than 400 yards, a body shot blows gelled blood into every muscle group withing a foot of the entrance hole, or even farther.
The 225's are accurate. The 250's are slower, but don't shoot well through this 700 action with a heavily fluted Pac Nor bbl. Partitions come completely apart at less than 400 yds, or just pass through leaving a hole you could feed a trident sub through. Head shots blow the skull to shreds every time so antlers are never intact enough to measure, tho I am not much of a trophy hunter.

I have had to pass up some shots on deer and elk that were too close to shoot in the body and too far for a clean head shot......
Anyone had any bullets that performed well at 3200-2900 fps? I hate to see it relegated to a long range coyote rifle, and so do the coyotes.......
Thanks for any with 358 high speed experience.