The 358 Winchester in the BLR in my favorite rifle of all time. It does the job on big game from Antelope to Grizzly Bear with stunning results. I am a big fan of the 358 Winchester, the 35 Whelen, the 350 Rem. Mag, and my own wildcat the 35 Short Newton based on the new 375 Ruger case cut back to 57mm in length and necked down to 35 caliber. See it at
http://ammoguide.com/cgi-bin/ai.cgi?sn=fpleCLBEpq&catid=529I like to stick to just two loads. A small game load that uses the same 140 grain soft point that I use in my 357 Magnum revolver. In the 358 Winchester I like to send this out at 1,800 to 1,900 fps. This is great to fill the pot with small game on long backpacking trips. See
http://www.kifaru.net/hunt_prod.htm for info on packs with the GunBearer System which makes carrying a rifle into the far, far backcountry and easily doable thing. In the 358 Winchester, I'd love to have a bullet with a Sectional Density greater than 0.300, which would weigh 270 grains. There are actually 3 bullets greater than this weight that I'm aware of the Swift 280 grain A-Frame and the Woodleigh 310 grain in both solid and softpoint with the same Ballistic Coefficient. But the 358 Winchester doesn't have quite enough powder capacity to get these up to my minimum desired velocity of 2,300 fps. At first blush I thought why not a 250 grain. There are several good ones including the Hornady, the Nosler, the Swift, the Woodleigh, the Speer, etc. But while you can get very close to the optimum velocity range of 2,375 to 2,425 it really strains things. So for an excellent penetrator with the length of a bullet with a higher sectional density the 225 grain Barnes Triple-X gets the nod in the 358 Winchester. This one can be driven at 2,375 fps quite easily with Accurate Arms 2520. 47.0 grains should do the trick.
The optimum velocity of a high sectional density rifle bullet has been known for a very long time. At least since 1905 when the 9.3x62mm Mauser came out and brought peace of mind and exceptional performance on everything from Elephant, Rhino, Hippo, Lion, Cape Buffalo, Leopard on down to Sable, Kudu, clear down to Dik-Dik at a level of recoil that made excellent marksmanship doable for the average African Farmer. This cartridge launched a 286 grain softpoint or solid at 2,350 fps. There is still a bit of minor debate on the speed required to make the sort of explosive wound channels that bring the big cats down swiftly. But the concensus is that is is somewhere between 2,200 fps and 2,250 fps. So the 9.3x62mm made the grade to at least 50 yards and out to 110 yards for those who feel that the 2,200 fps number is enough. As for Elephant so long as you aren't chasing wounded ones into the jesse, which really calls for a 505 Gibbs or something of that nature, the general concensus is that the 9.3x62mm and the 375 H&H both drilled about the same size hole all the way through and were equals at putting Elephant down for the count. The only observation being that the 375 does so with considerably more recoil and wastes an extra 150 fps on the countryside after exit. One should note that quite a large number of the folks who reload in Africa download the 375 to throw a 300 grain at 2,375 to 2,400.
I read an article in a gun magazine awhile back where the author's thesis was that 2,700 fps is the optimum velocity. Given the above plus the ballistics of Holland & Hollands two new rounds:
the 400 H&H throws a 400 grain 0.411 diameter bullet with a sectional density of 0.338 at 2,375 fps; the 465 H&H throws a 480 grain 0.468 diameter bullet with a sectional density of 0.313 at a velocity of 2,375 fps. Given the long history in practical African experience with the 9.3x62mm, the 375 H&H, and the new 400 H&H, and the new 465 H&H. I'm going to stand pat that the optimum velocity of a big game rifle is between 2,300 fps and 2,500 fps with peak performance in the 2,375 to 2,400 fps range.
Note that with bullets of equal Ballistic Coefficient and a 200 yard zero: The 2,700 fps load is 2 inches high at 110 yards and 8.6 inches down at 300 yards. The 2,400 fps load is 2.8 inches high at 110 yards, and 11.4 inches down at 300 yards. In the field shooter error almost completely eliminates these subtle differences in trajectory. So I vote for the less recoil, muzzle blast, muzzle flash, and lower noise of the 2,400 fps versions.