358 rifles

[sendris]

Looking for some input on getting a rifle made in .358 caliber. Anyone in south central In. making these? and whats the best choice between the 358 Hoosier and the BFG WSM 358? I'v heard some rumers that people aren't satisfied with the Hoosier but haven't heard much about the BFG wsm. I hear the WSSM 358 BFG is awesome though finding a donor gun at a reasonable price in the wssm is impossible.

 

[spaniel]

I would suggest you secure confirmation that someone can make what you want before committing yourself to buying the donor gun. I have a donor gun but have so far been unable to find someone who can chamber a 358 BFG or 358 Grant (both 1.8") for me. Brian at BFG has been very responsive but indicated that with the craziness of the past year, he can't know when he can get supplies in to fulfill any new orders. I've pinged a couple people I know who work with the Grant, so far silence on making a barrel (I'm guessing maybe they are only interested in doing full custom guns).

I have not contacted Just Hunt to see if they sell Savage barrels...but the pattern I am seeing is that getting a barrel+dies is not straightforward.

The Hoosier might be easier, but I consider that a shorter range cartridge.

 

[gunselman]

If you are wanting a 358 Hoosier i would recommend AJ Brown Arms. Being that he is the guy who invented the cartridge you can't go wrong with having him build a gun .
A.J. Brown Arms Co.

If you are open to the 358 WSSM you can look at D-Tech. He makes uppers for the AR-15 family of rifles .
D-Tech - Custom AR-15 Upper Receivers - Dedicated Technology - Custom AR-15 Upper Recievers.

The cheapest route would be a Savage type rifle as the barrels are easy to install.

 

[6mm Shoot]

When I had mine built I had to wait for the barrel to come in. That took over 6 months. After it came in I sent it to a Smith that moved from Indiana to out west that builds target rifles. I was very pleased with the rifle I got back. It started life as a 308 Remington model 7. It was no fun to shoot and wasn't very accurate. It was way to light for shooting off hand.

It is now a pleasure to shoot. He replaced the recoil pad with a kick eez recoil pad. The barrel he installed was a magnum contour 20" long. He chambered it and did all the things that smiths like him do to ring out all the accuracy the rifle has. It shoots great. It is accurate and is a pleasure to shoot. I get less than a 1" group at 100 yards with a FPS of 2450 with a 200 gr bullet . That gives me a 200 yard PBR. I am very happy with the 358 Hoosier. It is giving me close to 358 Winchester ballistics with .2" less case. Well really only .1" less in the body of the case the other .1" is taken out of the neck.

I would have no problems using this rifle out to 300 yards. At 300 yards it has 1185 FT LBS of energy. At 350 yards it still has 1126 FT LbS of energy. It is at 400 yards that it drops below the grand mark. At 400 yards it also has a 40" drop with a 200 yard zero. I will stick with using it as a 300 yard rifle. That is what I am comfortable with.

 

[rjhans53]

ok as far as I can make out my 35 short and the 358 hoosier are the same more or less (my dies are 358 win dies that I took to the grinder). My kin and myself have taken a number of deer with it and it has performed well. A donor gun can be anything almost. I have built 2 on savage short actions (started life as 243's) (the barrels where 35 whelen from midway that where cut and the threads extended)one on a howa action (er shaw barrel special ordered), one of a ruger (took the original 358 barrel, cut .2 off the threads and then extended the existing threads to the proper length) and the original is on a mauser 98 (that barrel started off as a A & B 35 whelen that the threads were cut off and rethreaded). there is a hundred ways to do it, all you have to do is pick one. I do have a 358 bfg on a howa action but because the brass is a pain compared to my 35 short it's a safe queen.

 

[rjhans53]

I tried to pm you on the 358 but my post count is to low
If you are interested in the 358 bfg I would be willing to part with it. It's a howa action, a mcgowen barrel from bfg, in a bc stock. it would have to go from my ffl to yours, or I'd sell you just the barrel and dies and you can have it mounted on a vanguard or howa action. Or midway has 358 Winchester barrels for savage for 199, all you have to do is cut and extend the existing threads. I've done this, trim 358 brass to 1.8 and shoot, it is an extremely short neck but with 3 in the mag and a set of calipers I see no sign of bullet movement in the case

 

[6mm Shoot]

From what I understand of what you are saying you shorten a 358 Winchester die by .2" That removes the .2" from the body of the case. With the Hoosier you are taking .1" out of the body and .1" out of the neck of the 358 Winchester case.

If I am understanding you. You have a second way of getting the 1.8" case out of the 358 Winchester case by cutting the .2" off the neck and using the case in a stock 358 Winchester chamber?

I am not knocking either way of doing what you do. The first way that you are doing takes .2" out of the body of the case and that is the loss of a lot of powder space in the case. What kind of F.P.S. are you getting with doing it that way? I had thought of doing the same thing and was talked out of it by a gun smith because of the powder loss. He claimed that I would be lucky to get 35 Remington ballistics out of the round. I made a post about it on here and was given all sorts of grief about it. So I ended up going with the Hoosier. I get close to 358 Winchester ballistics with the Hoosier.

I have read several posts about the 358 Winchester short. Your second way of doing it and some are having good results and others are only having fair results. They are doing the same thing with the 35 Remington and it seems to work great in the lever actions. As you said there are a hundred ways to go about it.

 

[rjhans53]

The whole idea came when Brian (bfg) was getting 35 rem performance out of his 358 gremlin. I figured I could do at least as well. I guess really my short is .25 shorter than a 358. I developed the round figuring I could match 35 rem ballistics, but in the load development 2424 is do able with 180's and 2350 with 200's if I really want to push it I can get a little more but that's is wear I'm comfortable with it. Re7 and 4198 are the powders of choice. I toyed with the idea of increasing case capacity when they came out with the 1.8 but decided to let the necks get more of a proper length instead.

 

[bstewrat3]

Check out the single shots from T/C and H&R as well. If you don't want to buy custom dies, both the 35 Remington and 358 Winchester can be used in the factory chambers by shortnening the necks. The 358 Win is not ideal due to the neck being only .150", but does work for a single shot since there is no feed ramp to put the bullet out of concentricity getting it into the chamber. I built a 358 Win on a T/C Encore, but didn't like the look of the rounds and settled on the 35 Remington in a Contender.