Personally, I ask the question; "why bother?". From my experience, go with the 358 mate.Foz wrote:Does anyone know of a .358 win being improved in an Ackley fashion ie: 40 deg shoulder and body taper reduction?
I have a .308 Ruger 77II stainless which cries out for some foolin around.
Any thoughts or suggestions of a larger cal alternative for the short action?
Since purchasing a Remington 700 in 7mm-08, my Remington 700 in 243 became redundant and remained in the safe feeling unloved. I wanted a dedicated Sambar Stag unit in 9.3x62mm, but couldn't afford a new Sako. So I did the research on suitable short action calibres and estimated the performance I could get from the 338F and 358W from a 24" barrel. I opted for the 9mm calibre for the larger frontal area and subsequently rebarreled the 243 to 358. The MAB barrel has a 1 in 12" twist, 24" long (Remington profile), bead blasted and was fitted by JK Engineering.
The rifle loves 45grs of AR2206H behind 250gr Woodleigh or Hornady projectile, with the recoil being surprisingly mild - similar to a 180gr load from a 30-06. Interestingly the loads were chronographed and are doing 2320ft/s. That's not far behind a 35 Whelen!!!!
250gr Hornady projectiles - 0.400" group at 50m
250gr Woodleigh projectiles - 0.468" group at 100m
First blood for the 358
A magazine full of thumpers
Two of my fellow Sambar hunting mates are in the process of building a 358, another has bought a new Ruger Hawkeye in 358. One is rebarreling a BSA Majestic (243) and the other is rebarreling a Savage 99A lever-action (308).