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Anyone loading .358 Win or .35 Whelen?

Currently barreling 3 450 BM’s to 358 Win for these new regs, along with 3 358 WSM’s. 200gr AB’s will be the bullet of choice for starters, interested to see the velocity on the WSM case. 180gr TTSX would be one to try too but haven’t been able to find any in stock.
Look at the .325 wsm data. You should be able to better it by a 100fps or so with equal weight bullets.
Keep us informed.of your results.
 
So, the great state of IA just made bottlenecks .350 & larger deer legal. I screwed a Shaw .358 Win barrel into a Savage 16 I have & so far results have been great. A friend of mine has a .35 Whelen barrel on backorder for his 110 (hoping it shows up before December rolls around).

The problem is bullet & powder availability (like everyone else). I have a pile of Hornady 200 gr RN & 200 Gr SPs from years of playing with my MGM .357 max Encore. So far H4895 has been the winner, but I have a limited supply. RE7 was so-so...anyone tried RE15 or W760? My manuals are fairly dated, can't find much on either & have a decent supply of both RE15 & W760. Any favorite powder/bullet combinations here?
I got best velocities with TAC. Focus on bullets built for 35 Remington if you plan on shooting much past 150 yards. Hornady’s gummy tips, TAC and magnum primers gave me best combination of speed, accuracy and expansion out of my 18” carbine.
 
Scored some large rifle primers at the local Scheels over the weekend but unfortunately no powder on my list. They have quite a bit of VihtaVuori powder (at $50+a pound) on hand but little of anything else.
 
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VV N130 shot very well in my rifle with 200s. Not quite as fast as A2015, but close. A few of the first groups were under an inch @ 100yds. Haven't tried the N133 I got yet. N135 is also listed in a manual, but I forget which. It's nice powder. Burns clean. I always stayed away because of the price, but in this mess we have now it's cheaper than some US owned companies stuff. I will be getting more.
 
Yeah, It seems like VV is the only stuff available in any quantities in my area, I might bite the bullet & try a pound or kilo or however they bill it... Brownells had 1 & 8 lb's of TAC but sold out in a day.
 
So, the great state of IA just made bottlenecks .350 & larger deer legal. I screwed a Shaw .358 Win barrel into a Savage 16 I have & so far results have been great. A friend of mine has a .35 Whelen barrel on backorder for his 110 (hoping it shows up before December rolls around).

The problem is bullet & powder availability (like everyone else). I have a pile of Hornady 200 gr RN & 200 Gr SPs from years of playing with my MGM .357 max Encore. So far H4895 has been the winner, but I have a limited supply. RE7 was so-so...anyone tried RE15 or W760? My manuals are fairly dated, can't find much on either & have a decent supply of both RE15 & W760. Any favorite powder/bullet combinations here?
Check a burn rate chart and pick the closest you have if it's very close. An old Hornady manul shows 52 grain max 46.4 start load of 4064, close to 748 for 250 grain bulletts.
 
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2700 with a 250gr bullet must be a pretty high pressure load.
CFE223 & Power Pro 2000MR are progressive burners for lack of a better term. They're both listed in Speer #15 & Sierra VI at a much higher velocity than used to be available safely from 35 Whelen. I've touched 3000fps with a 200 Hornady in my 22" Whelen with PP2000 but backed it down to about 2950 for better accuracy. My rifle got good speed but lacked accuracy with CFE223.
 
2700 with a 250gr bullet must be a pretty high pressure load.
CFE223 & Power Pro 2000MR are progressive burners for lack of a better term. They're both listed in Speer #15 & Sierra VI at a much higher velocity than used to be available safely from 35 Whelen. I've touched 3000fps with a 200 Hornady in my 22" Whelen with PP2000 but backed it down to about 2950 for better accuracy. My rifle got good speed but lacked accuracy with CFE223.
What can you get in .358 Norma size case?. Old loads gave about 2850 with a 250 gr in that case.
 
What can you get in .358 Norma size case?. Old loads gave about 2850 with a 250 gr in that case.

Great minds think alike? :D

Sorry for the thread hijack. I ran out of case space (very compressed) with PP2000MR & 200s @3200fps. Tried PP Varmint but it pressured out @ 3125.

Got to 3150fps with an ejector mark using 225 Accubonds & PP2000MR so backed off to around 3075.

Haven't tried 2000MR with 250s yet or CFE223 with any bullet weight in the Norma due to it's poor performance in my Whelen & the unavailablity of new bullets in 35 cal. An old lot of IMR4350 @c.2850 is good enough for anything in North America. Winter is coming & there are a few yellow boxes of 250 Speers on the shelf so maybe a quick velocity test will happen.

Speeds are rounded up <20fps to closer approximate MV from 10' instrumental. This was from a 22" bbl. all with Fed 215s in reformed PPU 300 WinMag brass which wasn't measured for H2O capacity yet. I believe it's fairly close or 1/2 a tad (a highly technical term) bigger inside than Norma brass getting roughly 15fps less with equal loads of RL15/200gr bullets.
 
2700 with a 250gr bullet must be a pretty high pressure load.
I wouldn't consider it a higher pressure load. At least not more than any other published load. My load with CFE 223 is slightly below max of Speer's published load with a 250 gr bullet. I think it's just a case of the right powder burn rate for that case/bullet combo. It is a "thumper" though..... :)
 
These developments are all news to me. Looks like an exciting time in the medium bore reloading world.
It really is, the advent of the .350 Legend opened the doors for several states. I had played with the .357 Max for several years in a MGM T/C Encore, but when I read about the new regs allowing bottleneck cartridges .350 + I thought hell had proverbially frozen over! If only they would have done this pre-pandemic, I would have stocked up on some more appropriate powders! ;)
This is my Savage project:
.358 w-VX3.jpg
I have some RE15 w/Hor 200 SP loads loaded up to test this weekend.
 
C3B7A87E-C717-4618-8046-BAFA9CE77914.jpeg
Just finished this 35 WSM. Douglas bbl fluted w/ interrupted flute this was one of my screw ups as I missed an index…oh well, it just went on my own rifle. (thanks Stan for the 1 week turnaround on 6 358 bbls!!!), Win 70 action, McM htg stock with Leupold 2.5-8 mounted. I also loaded ammo for another friend’s 35 Whelen AI last week and PP2000 w/ Sierra 225’s clocked 2740fps 3 grains under max load listed in the Speer manual with resized 30-06 brass.

looks like CFE will be the go to in the WSM case according to QuickLoad.
 
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View attachment 1295712
Just finished this 35 WSM. Douglas bbl fluted w/ interrupted flute this was one of my screw ups as I missed an index…oh well, it just went on my own rifle. (thanks Stan for the 1 week turnaround on 6 358 bbls!!!), Win 70 action, McM htg stock with Leupold 2.5-8 mounted. I also loaded ammo for another friend’s 35 Whelen AI last week and PP2000 w/ Sierra 225’s clocked 2740fps 3 grains under max load listed in the Speer manual with resized 30-06 brass.

looks like CFE will be the go to in the WSM case according to QuickLoad.
What throat length do you have and what OAL can cartridge be?
 

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