I have just purchased a Pre 64 Win M-70 358 fwt and was wondering if anyone may have a good load for deer. The manules are pretty slim on this old girl. I would probably lean towards the 200gr Hornady.

I have a 356 Winchester that I acquired back in 1995 ... virtually the same caliber as the 358. I have found that AA2520 48.2 with Remington 200RN works pretty good and has good performance. I get around 2500-2550 FPS with this which provides a respectable 2800 ft-lbs of energy. The 358 should actually run around 2600+ FPS. While I'm a little bias, I believe the 356/358 is the best short range (<150yds) deer cartridge ever produced. The deer I have shot with it looked like they had been hit by a truck. Amazingly, the Hornady 180XTP pistol bullets have shown the best accuracy, however I can't really hunt with them. These bullets were produced for pistols, and their limit is 1800 FPS. At 2600-2700 FPS, they explode on impact. :-) While this caliber will never be a tack driver, it is an awesome short range hunting cartridge. My $0.02.

I have the same gun as you (a mint pre-64 M70 Featherweight) that cloverleafs the 225 gr Sierra over 49 grs of 4320 in Win 308 brass ignited by CCI 200's. Velocity is 2430 fps.

Congrats! .358's in general aren't easy to find, but a pre-64 M70 is a rare bird. It's none of my business, but if you'd care to share how many buckazoids you had to part with to get that fine piece of shooting machinery, I'd be real interested.

A buddy of mine has been working with AA2520 powder and 225 grain Sierra's, but he bought some 200 grain RP PSPCL's at the last show, and they're next in the list. His rifle is a custom job on a Sako action.

We've not chrono'd anything yet, but accuracy with the 225's has been good. We'll share chrono results when available.

BigIron

I have three .358's --favorite 225 Seirra load is 748 51.5 wwlrp which gives 2480 fps--most favored load for deer is 200 Remington PSP from Midway-- 52.5 748 ww lrp 2585 fps -- both are good from my guns and that is all I can speak to. Both loads shoot very well and are very hard on deer-- I like the 200 grain load-- I really like the .358 -- I only have one other rifle and it is a 25.06

my Featherweight likes two loads straight out of the 1973 Winchester Ball Powder Loading Data book, namely:
50.6-748 behind a 200 grain Silvertip or 46.2 of 748 behind the 250 gr Silvertip; both ignited by WLR primers. Both loads are accurate and a good reason to look for these discontinued Silvertips that add to the joy of owning/shooting these fine old rifles. Suppose these charges would work with other bullets of the same weight?

Thanks for the info guys. I will give all suggestions a try and see what shakes out. I would like to use the rifle for a Dec cow elk hunt in Mich.

Bigiron I paid $1995 for the rifle and its in the 98% raqnge. I had one once before and sold it for a p64 super grade 7x57. I also have one thats NIB and just couldnt bring my self to foul the bbl!!

I swapped a 28 guage Browning Citori and an old 12 gauge Beretta Silver Snipe O/U for my M70 with a guy at a gun show in Wichita, KS.

I have a Browning BLR in 358 Win caliber. The load that I use for hunting most everything is 43.0 gr of IMR-3031 with Federal 210 primer with a Sierra 225 gr bullet. So far this load has been a one shot stopper on whitetail, boar, and a cow elk. Most go down right in their tracks and none have gone further than 20 yards.