358 winchester

[howl 1 up]

can i trim 358 winchester brass down to o.a.l. of 1.800 to meet indiana silly firearms specs for legal deer cartridge. it would give me roughly .150 neck length would this be safe ?
would i need to crimp for neck tension? what other problems could exist.

thanks

 

[TonyR]

I have had no problems with bullets seated way out in the neck in a single shot bolt gun but you might have issues with very little neck engagement in a repeater. I would be most concerned about the effect of recoil on the seating depth of the rounds in the magazine. I have loaded both my 6mmBR and 284 Shehane with light bullets that barely engaged the neck and both shot very well and accuartely enough for most eastern deer hunting. However, I was looking at the Indiana deer hunting regulations and I did find the section that deals with bullet diameters .357 and over but the section I found says a max case length of 1.6 something inches. Where is the section that says 1.800 inches? The whole section I found is confusing and seems to be a vaguely worded attempt to prevent people from hunting deer with certain pistol cartridges.

 

[howl 1 up]

thanks, it will be a bolt gun, i have trimmed back 35 rem and had no issues, just wasnt for sure on this case. 2011 they are changing case length from 1.625 to 1.810 to allow more cartridges, some guys are using wssm brass to make 358 wssm to meet specs.law says .357 bullet diameter or bigger with a max case length of 1.810,its so silly they restrict us deer on cartridge specs but you can squirrel hunt with a 338 ultra mag if you want.

 

[TonyR]

Might be fun to rebarrel with a 338/358 wildcat. Lots of nice 338 bullets out there including some in the 200 grain range.

 

[treeman]

that would be called a 338 federal factory round that just came out in the last couple of years. that is a really weird law but then again most fire arms related laws already are. however if you were to trim them to 1.810" and use a bullet with a canalure and crimp there it would be safe.

 

[TonyR]

Darn! Here I thought I had an original idea for once. I haven't hunted for years so I am not up on that side of the sport; but the Federal sounds like it would be a great deer cartidge in thick cover.