Home Forums Lever Action Central Big Bore Levers .348 Winchester loads

I have a Browning 71 carbine on the way and want to start loading for it. Anyone have some good loads for jacketed and cast bullets? What mold would you recommend?

I use a 250gr. LBT LCFN and the Accurate 35-220B with either RL-15 or IMR4064

I was getting good accuracy with 59.0 grains of IMR 4350 with the Hornady 200 FP in a Browning 71.

In a Winchester 71 using a Lyman 350447 190grain cast with a load of IMR 4198.

My next load was going to use the RCBS 200 grain. Bought the mould and then sold the rifles.

Just got a Browning M71, so keep the loads coming.

59 gr. of IMR 4350 in a Win.71 works best for me.

250 grs Barnes Orig. FN, 52 grs Norma URP powder and standard primers. Patterns 1 1/2" - 2" @100yds.

Pete

There was an article in either Rifle or Handloader a number of years ago that did a write up on the M71/348 with load data. As I recall, RL 19 was one of the better performers and is where I ended up with my Browning 71/348. 200 grain jacketed bullets is all I've shot in it so far and I want to say around 65 gr RL 19, but don't have my notes handy.

Having recently inherited my Dads Browning 71, I too am in that same search. After number rainy days hours web searching, I have concluded that one of the most repetitive loads for the 348 Win is 59 to 60 gr of IMR 4350 behind the 200gr Hornady. No experience yet, but close.

I have 15 rounds all loaded up with 55, 57, and 57 gr of IMR4350 and the 200 gr Hornady. Plan to shoot soon if the rain and work let up.

Do a search here on the subject. Myself and a few others including Mule Deer have published some good loads both for the 200gr Hornady as well as the 250 Barnes original and Woodleighs. 4350 ain't it. When I get home I'll dig up the loads if you can't find them here. J

JorgeI,
In my search I've seen some of your info. Good stuff. But, please repost your loads so I can make sure I get it all. At least your favorites or most accurates.

I noted some R17 load data from others that looked promosing too. Plus your pics of the 250 gr Woodleighs showed an awesome expansion!

Thanks for sharing. If I ever get to the range I'll post my results. But with my eyes it'll just be 50 yard iron sight groupings!

348 WCF Thread from 2013
Did my best to post the link. My first try.

It has a lot of info. Looks like IMR 4350, RL-15,RL-19, H4895, and even a few others are candidates. JorgeI and a few others got great iron sight results with both H4350 and IMR4350. Better than I could like shoot with irons.

Watch those max loads and check your own book.

I pulled together all my data from various sources into a spreadsheet. Only focused on IMR4350 and H4895.

Shoot me an IM if you want a copy.

H4831sc is the powder of choice for me.

All my loads are on that thread. These are the ones I settled on:

200gr Hornadys and MD's charge of 56.5gr of Varget
56.5 VARGER for the 250s.

Finally got out to shoot a few shots! These the 71's first rounds.

All shots were at 25 yds with full buck horn rear sight.

The first shot was just to get on target and was low. Forget that low one.

I adjusted up a notch on the site and fired 3 more. These three were 55 gr of IMR 4350. Not bad for me.

Then I fired 4 shots with 59 gr of IMR 4350. There were, I thought, pretty darn good for me!

I'd say the 59 gr of IMR 4350 behind the 200gr Hornady flat point will be a dandy round.

Went out this weekend and shot a few rounds with the 348 to double check my stuff. At least in my 71, H-4350 for the 250s and Varget for the 200s are unquestionably the way to go. J

RL17 is working very well for me with the 200's and 250's. I am getting just over 2500 with the 200's and 2300 with the 250's. Accuracy is very good for me.

When I still had a .348 (sniff), I used 60gr of IMR4350, WW brass (what else), Hornady 200 gr FP, and WLR primers.

Nicely accurate, and the one doe I shot looked like she'd been hit with a hot .270.

I am very surprised nobody has mentioned what I would consider the most classic 348 Win load of all. And the one that was supposed to duplicate the Win factory load.

That being 55gr IMR 4350 with a 250 gr. bullet. I use Win brass and primers, Hawk bullets......

I'll have to try it, but I must say, it's hard to argue with what I'm getting with my 250s and H-4350.

So far in my 1942 vintage 71 the 200gr bullet worked best with imr3031 and the 250gr with imr4895.Imr4350 I had high hopes for the results were just so so.I did just find some Varget to try out as soon as the weather improves.

Interesting to me folks get such different results with the same powder. Course, my baby is Browning 71, not the venerable Winny.

I have not tried anything BUT IMR 4350, but I shot again yesterday at 50 yards. With just the buck horns, I put 3-shots on a 1 1/2" center with two of them touching (mostly unheard of me cause I am a terrible shot). The load is 59gr of 4350 behind the Hornady 200 gr flat point #3410.

Have to admit I'm curious what 3031 and Varget might do, but it just does not seem worth the expense to find out. At least not now, maybe later.

As noted in a few of my other posts, I'm just getting started n rifle reloading. Got the 71 shooting pretty decent. On to the 94 Trapper in 44 mag.

My brother has bought some lead bullets for his Model 71 and needs to keep velocity down to about 2100 fps.

Anybody got a good load to start at? He already has some IMR-4350.

Check the Lyman Cast Bullet Manual, follow their published info using 3031

My Experience and $.02
Kevin

Beretz: What primer are you using?

j

Not beretzs Jorge, but, I'm using RL-17 under the old heavy jacket Barnes 250 gr fnsp's in my '71, I use the hard faced CCI-250 mag primers, my '71 is a 1937 year model I got it from BSA here at the 'fire, and has a hell of a heavy hammer blow/strike on firing.

Thanks, Gunner. Mine shoots pretty well with 58gr H-4350 and WLR primers, but I need to give that RL-17 a go.

CCIBR2’s.

Thanks very much.

No problem. 17 shoots real well in my 71 with 250 Woodleighs and Hornady 200’s.

My 200 gr load. This from a few weeks ago after mounting my FF3.

Each of our Model 71s is a law unto itself as to accuracy and pressure. With the Hornady -Hawk 200 grs and Hawk 180s IMR-4895 and 4064
produced the best results. Dave Scovill in Handloader tried RL-15 and RL-19. Keep in mind that if you are using almost 60 grs of 4350 to produce the same velocity that
IMR 4895, 4320 or 4064 does with 51-53 grs for the 200 grain bullets-maybe time to re-think or experiment.

For the 250 gr bullets, powder selection is more critical to obtain optimum velocity. With Alaska Bullet Works, Barnes, and Hawk 250s-4350 has been consistent.
Some have tried the mid-range powders but most return to 4350 as the consistent standby. Tends to discourage bullet shift with full caseloads of powder.
The Lee factory crimp die really helps.

I have had interesting results with the Hawk-Barnes-North Fork bullets in 220-230 weight range. I personally think this is the best all-round weight for
the standard 348 WCF cartridge. A bit of extra weight but not too much. IMR 4895 and 4064 do well with these weights.
North Fork puts out a tough bonded core bullet at 230 grs. I have some and they work well with a little less powder, producing velocity in the 2375 FPS range.

Another factor to consider is barrel length. If you have a Browning or original Winchester carbine barrel of 20 inches, think the faster mid-range powders to
fully push the bullet under short barrel limitations. That being said, the Model 71s are lever actions and pressure needs to remain close to factory levels.

Fuller: I'm getting around 2250 FPS with 58gr of H4350 with either Barnes Originals or Woodleighs. Max load in the Woodleigh book for their 250 is 59.5gr. No pressure signs (that I can tell) and no out of the norm case life issues.

The Woodleighs are bonded core and first rate bullets. My 348 cave is full of the original Barnes 250's loaded with about that same load in 4350.
If you get close to 60 grs of 4350, your rifle will let you know. Those tapered lugs on the finger lever will drop if it gets a bit too warm. My shoulder
and the felt recoil usually tell me its time to lock in the powder weight for a particular bullet. Your 4350 loadings should do fine.

The Alaska Bullet Works folks make a nice 250 gr bullet that I think is every bit the equal of the Woodleighs. Really wish they made a 225-230 like North Fork does.
The NFork folks in Oregon are starting to get my attention with their 1- 230 gr bullet offering. It was developed by the owner and the NF people promised that they would not change the design. It splits the weight difference in other makers bullets. I want to try out some Swift A-frame 200 grain bullets. Most deer can be handled by the Hornady 200 grain. Elk, particularly-need more gun. The moose I killed in Alaska fell to a 270 gr Hawk behind a stiff charge of 4350. Hawk covers the waterfront as to bullet weight.

Tried to buy more Alaska bullet works bullets for my 356win and couldn't find them online, are they still in business? Settled on IMR4895 in my 348 with woodleighs, best accuracy off all bullets tested. Have taken 3 moose with that combo so far, perfect mushrooms on all!

I think they are still in business, but the last time I ordered I just called him and placed the order.

450 Fuller, I am with you on the 200 grain A-Frame and the NF 230.. Both of those should be terrors in the 348. I am having a hard time using anything but that big Woody, that sucker shoots darned good and it's performance for the folks around here is really darned good.

Beretz: I'm with you on the Woodleighs as well (or the Barnes, simply because I have a lot of them), if for no other reason that as an iron sighted rifle, I don't see me shooting much past say 150 yards or so. I do use North Forks and they are superb, but I just don't seen them improving on what I'm getting out of the Woodleighs. My rifle shoots the 200gr Hornadys well also, but I'm sticking with the 250s.

Same here, they launch at 2300 from my rifle and I can shoot it adequately out to 200, so I don't see much making it better... Plus, like you said, I have a pile of Woodleighs on the rack, so I might as well try to use em...

My best loads All 2' or less in an original 71 but with the barrel cut to 22" (by previous owner)

H414 and the 250 Woodleigh. I'd stop adding powder at 2225fps or so. Best accuracy in my gun and this is a great bullet on really big game.
IMR 4451 and the 200 Hornady FN. Stop adding powder at 2520 fps. Need to use magnum primers (CC 250's) with this one or groups open up quite a bit. Took my moose with this load last year. It died...and I mean right away!
H414 and 200 Flextips...stop at 2520 again. This is quite a caribou load.

So far can't find a load for the A-Frames that shoots as well as the above three.

Interesting stat on the mag primers, North. Love your videos BTW. I subscribed and I hope it'll help!

Thanks Jorge, 9 to go. The Mag Primers only have this effect with 4451. You just never know.

That is good detail North on the magnum primers. I use them in the 348 AI. Though Hawk bullets have worked for me on moose, I think
in the future I am going to narrow the field to 230 gr North Forks and Alaska Bullet Works 250s along with Woodleighs. The Swift 200s combine
A-frame construction with the extra speed of a 200 gr in the Model 71. These well constructed premium bullets take the 348 cartridge into another dimension.
I think the Hornady 200 gr bullet is a slight bit tougher than the factory 200 gr W-W Silvertip. Just my impression.

{Some of you may be familiar with Alaska Outdoors -somewhere in their forums someone had a mint pre-war Deluxe Model 71 in a posting-the rifle was chambered in
348 Ack Imp and he was really pleased with his M-71. I am doing more wildcat 348 research and cannot locate that posting. Let me know if you see it. Thanks. }

For those of you having difficulty obtaining 348 WCF brass-Graf and Son in Missouri have been stocking Jamison, W-W, and Hornady brass. The
listed price recently was reasonable: 20 pieces of Jamison's-$26.00. Stocking availability is another question.

Good info.

Wow great groups with a 3MOA dot! How do you do it?

Ed nice shooting. Who makes the mount you put that FF3 on?

I have three of their manuals 45th, 46th & 48th & no cast bullets loads in them.

I’m looking for loads for whitetails using 200 grain cast.

Thanks to Gun-Geezer for a copy of his load spreadsheet.
I ordered cast bullets from Montana Bullet Works. 200 grain RCBS style with GC’s and blue lube. One hundred sized to .348 and one hundred sized to .349. The bullets were crimped firmly with.a Lee crimp die. I used 27.5 grains H4198 & WLRM primers. I shot a 5 shot group with each at 20 yards. The groups were pretty much identical. The bore was clean - each shot .6” group. Which is about what I could do with those sights. I did take off the hated buckhorn sights and mounted a Lyman Steel aperture sight.

These were from a “new to me” Browning 71, which I got here on the 24.

Next I’ll shoot groups at 50 meters and I’ll measure velocity.

Turnbull makes the mount. It works really well.

Attached are some 348 Win loads from Handloader.

348 Win Loads

Finally I can also share my load on here. Turns out, my inability to shoot well with a 4MOA Fastfire II caused the horrific groups I previously shot with my 24" Browning 71. Now it's wearing the Lyman peep sight again. Today I shot two sub-MOA groups at 100m with a .358 Sierra Pro Hunter sized to .348 over 54 grains of VV N140 with Starline brass and CCI standard primers. I was tempted to send it down the road recently, but with these results, I'll have to give it another try.

I use the choice ammo 200gr aframe load. 2550 fps. Shoot very accurate. Love that gun!

You might have posted this before, if you did sorry for asking. What do you use to size 358 bullets to 348?

Bugger ,

Lee push through sizing die. They made a special run of the older style die a while back and last I checked they still had some . They also have the new style that uses an insert in a aluminum housing that should do the same. Watch the video on youtube.


https://leeprecision.com/bullet-szr-punch-.348.html

https://leeprecision.com/custom-classic-bullet-sizing-kit.html

That looks like a great deal. I have lots of 35 bullets

Personally, I use the NOE sizing system. It takes quite a bit of effort, though.

I got enough bullets to last a good while but I am gonna get the Lee sizer just incase . I shoot three .35 caliber rifles so I have a bunch of bullets and they will be easier to find in the future.

The videos show the SPEER Hot Core being resized. Any luck with other bullets, in particular Interlocks?

Ask the man that did the Video, maybe he has tried others by now. I haven't bought the die yet. I already shoot the Speer bullets in my BLR .358 for deer and hogs so I'll probably stick to those for squeezing down. If I need anything tougher I have Barnes 250's and will be stocking up on the Hawk bullets . Also am interested in the .348 and .358 bullets Dinny is working with at the moment and am hoping they will be affordable and plentiful.