I only have 2 rifles left to my name a H&R in 218 Bee and one in 350 Jacob (my own wildcat). I was hoping for the new magnum action, as were many of you, but it didn't happen and I already had a 35 Whelen barrel at Wayne York's being re-chambered and a muzzle brake being installed, so I have made do. The 350 Jacob is a belted magnum made from a 300 WM necked out to .358 and then fire formed to a 40 deg shoulder with no case taper. I guess you could call it a 358/300WM/AI but I named it after my son who was 1 yo at the time hence the "350 Jacob". In Jake's Winchester 70 our loads have cronoed 3250 fps with a 225 gr Nosler guite obviously too much for the Handi to handle, but the solution is the same one that 45-70 owners have done for years. There's 45-70 Trapdoor, 45-70 lever and 45-70 high power loads for Ruger#1 etc. I took my elk last season with a 225 nosler over 56 gr of R15(35 Whelen) and it did just fine, so I started the 350 Jacob at 57.5 gr of R15 and a 200 gr Hornady just to see what I would get and to fire-form some cases.The results were magnificent. No sign of pressure, very little recoil (Wayne's muzzle brake helping here) and accuracy a go-go (showing my age there) 5 shots all touching at 100 yds. In the initial development of the round I discovered many starting loads that gave moderate speed with great accuracy. I have always felt the 300 WM was a great round but seemed to need hot loading to do it's best. When enlarged to .358 the case becomes much more efficient and when fire-formed the cases have very little case stretch or shoulder separation (as touted by PO Ackley). I'm going to keep working along these lines with Nosler 225's and Barnes 225's as well as the Hornady 200's. The late James M. Stanley , gunsmith, engraver and my hunting buddy would say"Speed ain't everything lad, ya got ta hit it first". I'll try to post some pic's and crono reports in the future for those of you that are interested.
Regards to all - Fanner 50 aka Gary
