Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles 348 WCF LOAD DATA

Gents I just picked up a beautiful Model 71 Winchester and was fortunate to find new brass and 200gr Hornady and 250gr Woodleighs. The rifle came with some very good (reasonably loaded and accurate) 200gr Hornady loaded rounds with which the previous owner took a nice moose with. If any of you have any loads to share, particularly for the 350gr bullet, I would appreciate it.

jorge

You did mean 250 gr data, right?

Thanks! looks like RL-15's the way to go.

Jorge,

I did a piece of HANDLOADER on the .348 for a late fall edition in 2011. It included a number of loads for the bullets you have.

With the 200gr Hornady, I get my best accuracy with RL-19.

405wcf

Great info. Here's some more:

http://www.realguns.com/loads/348winchester.htm

Varget with the 250's has done well for me.

John: Do you know where I can get a copy? I did not have that caliber back then so I did not keep it. That said, how do these look?:

Barnes Original 250 59.8 2.795 Re19 59.0 2309 2960 1.1
Barnes Original 250 59.8 2.795 H414 57.0 2417 3242 0.7

You can order one from Wolfe Publishing.

In my rifle (a Browning carbine with 20" barrel) I got the best results with 200's using Varget and with 250's using H4350. I would much rather use those powders than RL-19 or H414, because of their more consistent performance in cold weather. But then I hunt a lot in cold weather, and you may not.

Thanks John. I agree on your powder choice, much more temp insensitive. jorge

I just scored on some Winchester brass at Midway USA! 200 pieces. Still waitng on the Woodleigh 250s but I have some 200gr Hornady Flat and Flex points to play with this weekend. The rifle came with some new reloads using 200gr Hornadys, IMR 3031 and WLR primers. I'll run those through a chrono tomorrow and see how they work, then I'll make up some loads with H-4350, RL-15 & 19 and see how it goes from there. I'll shoot at 50 yards to start.

Ha! That Winchester book by R.L. Wilson sits on either my coffee table or toilet. Pure gun porn. Now back on topic!

Ken Waters Pet Loads books are an excellent source of loading data for .348 WCF.

50 yards is where I started as well. I was using the factory bolt peep and this is how she did with factory 200 gr. Winchester silver tips..:



I screwed the 3rd. shot up when I got cocky. Put the 4th one right back where the 3rd one should have been

58 grs of H4350 with the 250 gr Barnes shoots very well in my Browning Carbine.

My response from now on will be "how high sir."

John, I took your advice and loaded H-4350 and Varget, 65gr and 57.5 gr respectivly both just under their max published loads. Velocities came in EXACTLY as publishes, with very small velocity spread. Both Powders attained nearly identical velocities, ~2603-07 fps. Below are the targets at 50 yards:

H-4350 three shots:


And five for Varget, with the last three after I drifted the sight over:


I then moved the sight up and punched them in the center. I expect the Hornadys to do well at 348 velocities, so I'll stick with them for now. I have 250gr Woodleighs coming and I'll report on them next week. On reflection, I question the Woodleighs as they have no cannelure but I'm hoping the Lee Factory Crimp Die will clamp them down enough. jorge

Nice shooting. Is that with the factory irons?

Yep, factory barrel sights.

Jorge,

Glad the loads worked OK!

You are my hero and a fine rifle shooter sir!!!!