.358 win bullet selection

[BlackWolf]

Good morning everyone!
Been a while since my last post, my wife and I have been moving into our new house and getting ready for the little one that's on the way.  What bullets does everyone like to use for this caliber?  I'll be shooting it out of the my BLR (20 inch barrel i think?).  I've been slowly trying to order some components to begin the adventure of hand loading this cartridge but I'm having trouble deciding what type of bullet to use (round/spire/etc) which manufacturer, what weight, etc etc etc.  My hunting here in Pennsylvania consists mainly of white tail deer hunting and black bear hunting (very large bears also).  Any help/advice/tips that you can give on this topic would greatly aid me and maybe some others who are interested in this great caliber!

[rickt300]

My best 358 loads for deer and feral hogs are put together with Remingtons 200 grain Round nose soft point corelokt and IMR 3031. I also advise the use of CCI 250 magnum primers to reduce the primer cratering usually seen on the BLR rifles.  O worked up to 47.0 grains of 3031 and found it perfect for my uses.

[pagris]

BlackWolf:  I too use 47.0 grains of IMR 3031 but I put it behind Speer's 180 grain Flat Point for deer hunting.  Very good accuracy out of two BLRs with this load. 

If you want to play around with a reduced-recoil load sometime, try using IMR's SR4759.  A load of 26.5 grains behind a Hornady 200 grain Round Nose makes for an accurate and pleasant shooting round in the .358. 

A fine article studying 35 caliber bullet performance is available here:

 http://www.suitorsgarage.com/gunstuff/35remington/factoryloadpart1.html

[Con]

Where a variety of game may be on offer and ranges both short (<50m) and long (max 250m) ... I think there's a lot to be said for the 225gr Nosler Partition. I had a factory 200gr SilverTip disintegrate on a spinal shot on a fallow deer. A high shoulder shot was muffed and became a solid spinal hit with the projectile managing approx 4-5" of travel whilst shredding itself with only a jacket base recovered. I wouldn't want to use that projectile on something larger where bones needed crunching.
I think for one all-rounder load the Nosler 225gr Partition is a solid choice.
Cheers...
Con

[rickt300]

While I have only taken three deer with the 200 grain RN corelokt it is what is still loaded in most of my brass. Penetrated completely and on one hit the bullet had to travel 20 inches and included some bone crunching. The partition may well be a fine bullet but I just don't see the RN corlokt coming apart at 2500 fps.

[BlackWolf]

This is some great data - I ordered some (200) 200 grain round nose core-lokt's last night.  I have some 225 partitions, 200 TSX, and 250 A-Frame's left from a large order I received from cpcartridge.com last fall.  I really like these bullets but from what I've read - they might be a bit more bullet than gun needed for most applications from the .358 win.  I can't wait to try out the core lokt's and see how they perform on deer - it seems like a good combination for even bears based on the ballistics that I've been looking at.  The spire point bullets seem to have an advantage for flat trajectory but with the ranges that I shoot at game at - that shouldn't be an issue.  I'm very interested in hearing what others have to say on this topic also.  My blood is almost boiling in anticipation of the upcoming hunting season.  Its going to be a long summer/fall for my wife ;-)

[quickdtoo]

Another spitzer you may want to consider is the 225gr Accubond, I've not shot them yet, but have some loaded up for the 35 Whelen.

Tim

http://www.nosler.com/index.php?p=11&b=5&s=3

[BlackWolf]

Will those fit in the magazine for the BLR?

[quickdtoo]

The will if you load em short enough to fit. 

Tim

[quickdtoo]

They're 1.369" long if that helps any.

Tim

[tanoose]

I have had some outstanding accuracy in my 358 BLR using Hornady 200 SP and remington 200 PSPCL (2400 fps) and the Hornady 250 RN (2100 fps) using both IMR 3031 and winchester 748 I will be shooting again this weekend using the same powders and sierras 225 SBT and speer 220 FN i'll post my results monday

[Country Boy]

 The hornady 200 grn and Remington 200 is fine for deer I get right at 2550 from my blr. Any .225 is too tough for deer. I've shot a couple of bear with them. But, Imostly use my rifle for bear and hogs. the .250 speer at 2350 followed by the .250 hornady but hornady is a little softer bullet. I've shot over 25 bear with the .358 BLR and it flatens them no tracking required. also a moose and a few elk.

[BlackWolf]

Which Speer bullets do you use?   I was checking out their site this morning and I see that they make 3 bullets in 35 caliber -TBBC (225 grains), Grand Slam (250 grains), and Hot-Cor (180, 220, and 250 grains).