Hi Guys,

I love 35 caliber cartridges and rifles.

I have a 35 Whelen that does about anything I need done.

Having said that, I've always wanted a 358 Norma, but I own several 375 Rugers.

Can anyone give me a situation where the Norma would actually be better than the Ruger?

Of course, I can have one made, just because I can.

I was hoping for a more 'logical' reason to convince myself (I'm obviously not having much luck).

Guiding on the Alaska Penisula for 35 years I've been around about a zillion 375's,, they work great and will do it all.

But I've never drunk the 375 cool-aid and used the 358 Norma with 300gr Barnes then 280 Swift's most of the time. The Norma is the finest moose rifle on earth IMHO, here's a 69" bull I took at 300yds with a 280 SAF .3 miles from where I'm sitting now!

Don't know about the 358 or 375 but dam it looks cold.

I am a Whelen guy as well.
I don't think the targets, Moose etc, would every know the difference in the 358 Norma or the 375 Ruger. Maybe a wider variety of bullets for the 375 but when you can get what you want for your use, what does that matter?? Doesn't.
I don't have either but I love the fact that Ruger took the plunge and is selling a good rifle in a great caliber for a decent price and people are buying them. Good for us shooters and our industry. Profits are the only thing that secure our products we love fellows.
Colt reminds us of that.

surefire7, you might check with ggibbs08@yahoo.com. He has a .358 Norma he might part with. Montana action.

Ya, you might as well just give in and get one. .
Its weird that I have not had at least one. The only 358s I've had are 2, 358 Winchester's.
Ruger is partly to blame for that by miss advertising the last batch of 35Whelan stainless Hawkeye rifles they made. Their specs said they had 1 in 14" twist. I don't want a 1 in 14" 1 in 12 or better yet. 1 in 10" .
In point of fact their 35 Whelan had a 1 in 12" . But by then they were scarce as hens teeth.

But, back to the Norma. Jim was getting 2600 fps with his with 300 gr Barnes Original RNSP. He's the guy that turned me onto the 300 gr Barnes Original RNSP in the 338 Win Mag. And Ruger came out with the M77 Mk2 in stainless. . But the max I could get out of them was 2500 fps. Which wasn't the end of the world, but still I wanted 2600.
Tho I Really like my 9.3×64. I sure do wish I had a 358 Norma Mag.

Waterrat, that's a nice moose you got there! Looks like the 358 Norma sure worked on him. Thanks for posting the pics.

Cold Trigger Finger, you say the Ruger Hawkeye in SS/Syn was in fact a 1/12" twist? I thought they advertised it as a 1/16. I own a SS/Syn Hawkeye in 35 Whelen. I'm now going to measure it's twist. I hope like heck you're right!!

A guy on the Ruger Forum lined me out on it. He is shooting 310 Woodliegh's @2300 fps an it has worked great on moose and brown bear getting 4-5' of penetration. He said he ran a tight patch.down it and discovered the 1 in 12" twist.
I really wish I knew they were 1 in 12 when they were in production.

Cold Trigger Finger:

You have blown my mind!

This is what I get for not checking these things out for myself. I have read on AR and other sites for years, that Remington and Ruger, dumber than a box of rocks, used 1/16" twist barrels on the 35 Whelen.

After your last post, I decided to run a tight patch down my Ruger Hawkeye 35 Whelen, and what do you know: 1/12" twist. I actually own three of these SS/Syn Ruger Hawkeye 35 Whelens, so I measured all of them. Yep, 1/12" twist.

I then measured my Ruger Mark II 35 Whelen, and found it was 1/14" twist.

Well,well,well...

On a different thread here on AR, people were trashing Ruger for their 35 Whelen 1/16 twist barrels, saying they would not stabilize anything over 250 gr. I reported that my Rugers were printing perfectly round holes at 200 yards with Double Tap 310 grainers. I wondered about it then.

Now I know. Thanks to you.

Thank you Cold Trigger Finger!

Note to self: don't believe everything you hear/read. I'm embarrassed.

So now, I'm wondering; where did this rumor begin? Is it only true for the old Mark I tang safety? Anybody own one of these that they can check?

3 of them, Wow. Wow!
And they shoot the heavy loads great. !!
It's kinda Ruger's fault for miss advertising them. I was really jazzed when I first saw them. Then I read their specs on the Ruger web site and got bummed. Actually I felt like somebody needed to kick someone at Ruger in the seat of their pants.

Looks like your set!!

Its not that complicated, the 375 Ruger is a better round than the 358 Norma any way you cut it, the question is do you need it for any North American game and the answer is NO, the 35 Whelen or the 358 Norma are both more than suitable for anything in NA, including Alaskan Brown, Polar Bear, and Moose..

The only time the 375 Ruger would be the better choice would be on African DG, and that's actually a close call, but the 35s are not legal for African DG Game in most countries.

However, having one of each is not a felony.

3 of them, Wow. Wow!
And they shoot the heavy loads great. !!
It's kinda Ruger's fault for miss advertising them. I was really jazzed when I first saw them. Then I read their specs on the Ruger web site and got bummed. Actually I felt like somebody needed to kick someone at Ruger in the seat of their pants.

Looks like your set!!