I have a Winchester FTWT classic chambered in 22-250 that I am strongly considering using the action from as a doner. What I want is a short light rifle good to 250 yards on medium to heavy game in 338 caliber or above. so far I have an 18" barreled 358 Winchester with Leupold 2-7 scope pictured but am open to suggestions or even critisism.

Sounds as though the new .338 Federal (.338x08)would suite youe needs.

Yup, 338 Federal...

Either one of those is an excellent choice!
I'd try to handle several differnt rifles of different barrel lengths to determine what length tube will balance your new thumper the best. My .358 has a 20" tube and is a bit muzzle light...22" or even longer may be prefered. Longer will also be quieter too. Sounds like a great project. Good luck and have a great New Year too. BT53

If you could open up the bolt face, you could chamber it to 350 rem mag and get a step up in power over the 358 with an 18 inch barrel. Now if you had a 24 inch barreled 358 and a 18 inch 350rem mag, then you would hae a draw. But with a short action, the 358 may come up a bit short on what you want. A 350 with an 18 inch barrel will give you standard Whelen velosities. It is what made the rem 600 and 660 so good.

Hadn't even heard of the 338-08 becoming standardized until now. I need to get out more! I did do a quick search and the ballistics do look good for my purpose. The b.c. is a little better for the 338 vs. 358 and the 338 still has a good selection of heavy bullets although I am a little concerned what barrel length would be needed to get good performance from the 338-08.

BT, good point about balance. One of the reasons I am concidering building this particular rifle is the ability to get off quick shots so good balance would be esential.

That sounds like a 338 federal to me to.

For around here 7mm-08, .308, .338 Federal should fill the bill and fit in your action.

Just matters what size hole you want through your dinner.

.376 Steyr. Great all-around cartridge designed for short barrels.

If quick shots are what you want also consider a Browning BLR 358, you could trade in your 22/250 and be set, but that M70 would make a dandy 338/08 or 358. I would personally go no shorter than 20, my 7BR rifle is 21 and .700 muzzle, nice handling, short, but stiff tube for accuracy and it steadies well for a hunting rifle. A 358 bore makes lighter tube so 22-23 would still be fine depending on diameter though 20 should give plenty of room for a high expansion ratio cartridge to burn either 338 or 358.

HOw about the 9.3 B-S. A 350 rem mag necked up to 9.3mm. We are talking 232s @ 2700, 250s @ 2550fps, 286s @ 2400fps. That would be a sweet little big game rifle. You can get brass from midway now already formed. B-S stands for Barsness , Sisk. There is an artical in the Oct 05 Handloader magazine.

It basically duplicates the legendary 9.3x62 perfromance in a short action. This kind of perfromance has taken all of Africas game for years with appropriate bullets.

Why not a Marlin 336 in .356 Win....short, fast and easy to carry. I had a 35 Rem converted and it seems to work great so far. When Horny gets their new lever action bullets out for reloading, it should be a 300 yd gun for anything in North America.

Staying with the platform you've chosen, which is a very good one by the way, I don't believe that going beyond the power level of the .338 Fed or the .358 Win is going to gain you anything practical unless you like recoil and muzzle blast.
An 18" .350 RM will give you all of that and more. It will not be a user friendly shooter.
Where you live and where you hunt may be different, I don't know. But I do know that either of those two cartridges will take deer or elk or whatever your fancy out to 300 yards and more with no problem at all.
I love to shoot 225 gr Sierra's out of my 20" Sako at our 280 yard berm at the shooting range. We pick out fist size rocks and take turns reducing their size. Their easy to hit because the rifle is easy to shoot.
Loading is as simple as running .308 brass thru a die for either cartridge. 180 - 225gr projectiles are common for both calibers.
Their both good common sense cartridges that you'll want to shoot. BT53

quote:

Originally posted by SteveM70:
I have a Winchester FTWT classic chambered in 22-250 that I am strongly considering using the action from as a doner. What I want is a short light rifle good to 250 yards on medium to heavy game in 338 caliber or above. so far I have an 18" barreled 358 Winchester with Leupold 2-7 scope pictured but am open to suggestions or even critisism.

Let's look at first things first. One, I go along with a 22" barrel with a 1 in 12" twist for the .358 Win. However, one thing bothers me. According to the figures in my Winchester loading booklet #15, the OAL for the 22-250 is 2.350" and the OAL for the .358 is 2.780", a difference of .430". Now Winchester uses spacer blocks for the various cartridges and a different length bolt stop as well, based on the cartridge in use. You might want to check that out to see if the magazine will accept a .358 round.
I have five rifles chambered to the .358 Win., a Savage 99 (1/12") Browning BLR (1/12" first model)two Ruger 77s (1/16") and a Kodiak Mauser (1/16")Figures inparantheses are the twist rate in the barrel. The Savage and Browning will outshot the three bolt action rifles by a considerable margin which I have to attribute to the faster twist rate. The Browning has a 20" barrel and IMHO, balances poorly as it is very muzzle light. The rest of the rifles have 22" barrels and balance very nicely.
The .358 Win. is a very under appreciated cartrdige that like the late late Rodney Dangerfield, gets no respect. Too bad as it is not just a brush round as touted by the "eggspurts" in the gun rags. A properly loaded Hornady 200 gr Spire point at 2550 FPS will certainly take deer to 250 yards. Don't sound like a brush gun to me. Loaded fairly hot, a 250 gr. bullet will handle any inland Grizzly Bear in the hands of a cool shot. One of the 225 gr. premium bullets would work just as well.
Me? I like the .358. It's a good cartridge.
Paul B.

Your criteria place you smack in the lap of the 358 Win. The 338 Federal is interesting, but over the indicated 250 yards it won't beat the 358...plus you can shoot .357 pistol bullets in the 358.

Paul, thanks for the concern about the bolt stop and the magazine spacer. I knew someone would think of that and bring it up. The action is the same as that on a 7-08 I have and will chamber rounds loaded to an OAL of 2.8 with the magazine spacer removed. In fact I hate to admitt it but I got the two bolts mixed up and traded them out for a shooting session one day. One thing I am still concerned with though is feeding. I guess the best way to find out if I will need work done to the feed ramp is to try some loaded 358 cartriges.

BTW, You and Blacktail are doing a great job of selling me on my original choice

I love mine ! If anything the .33 or .35 should feed even better than the parent cartridge.
Which ever way you go, thats gonna be a really great rifle.
Gotta go play now...you guys all have a great new year!! BT53