Any opinions on either of the two rounds, good or bad??? Barrel life and barrel length guesstimates. Doubt I'd make either my varmint rifle and blast a 1000 rounds a year, just curious.

Anyhow, I'd expect the performance of the two rounds to be very similar. 225 gr @ 3200 fps, 250 gr @ 3000 fps and 280 gr @ 2800 fps. As far as which one on is "better", I don't know. You're looking at a 375 H&H length action, and magazene capacity will be about the same. I have no problem with belted cases, as the ability of the smith to cut a good chamber and crown is where accuracy is gained and lost, not in whether the case has a belt or not.

I don't think barrel life will be an issue. The only concern is that recoil will be severe, not a sharp jab, not a big push, but a big sharp jab. I'd considered building one until my smith related his experiences test firing a few 358 STA's that the recoil was at a level all its own.

I did just have him re-chamber my whelen to a 350 Rigby, and to me, it and the 358 Norma mag are a good sized case for the 35 bore. You can push 225's 3000 fps, 250's 2800 and 280's 2600. To me, that provides all the range and killing power I want out of a 35 bore, and the recoil level is still manageble. If I want more killing power, then I want a bigger bore and more lead, not more speed.

Deciding between the two may depend upon what sort of action you want to use ; I found playing with some dummy rounds that my Winchester push feed will not work with the UM cases unless you use a wider magazine or other modifications , but all the H&H based cases will feed slick ........One thing in the STA's favor over the RUM case is the STA is "standardized" with dies and reamers fairly common . I imagine you would be looking at strictly custom stuff for a .35 UM . As far as recoil goes , I expect a 250 gr slug at 3000 could sting all right , but there's no reason a handloader would need to use max loads all the time .

I did some looking for dies todsay and didn't find either. Difference in price is probably less than 50 bucks. I have a 257 STW. I was not aware of a need to fire form brass??? If I did do the job, I'd try a Vais muzzle brake. Yes, maybe a sissy, but not stupid. I can see the difference in recoil between a slow, hard shove..and a sharp snap. I can also see the combination of the worst of each with this caliber. I've heard .340 were bad, this can't be any better.

A 250 grain whatever at 3000 fps would be really coo though. I'd have to scrounge up a Remington 700 lefty donor first. I think all the actions are the same length aren't they??(mag vs non mag)

[This message has been edited by Jesse Jaymes (edited 05-22-2002).]

A mate of mine origianlly converted a Stainless Rem 700 and took it toi Africa with 225 grain Barnes X bullets. The rifle was so accurate over a wide range of loads as to be incredible.

He fou nd the kick too hard and gave me the barrel which I had fitted to a switch barrel bench gun. The accuracy was great that I got another barrel made to see if it was a fluke. It was not a fluke. Another friend of mine hada barrel made and his Rem 700 had already be set up to have same headspace with barrels as my switch barrel gun, so we tried his barrel on the bench gun. Agains, same results.

All 3 barrels were .357 groove and chambered with JGS reamer and 1 in 14 twist. The .357 was chosen as an undersize barrel seems to make Barnes Xs shoot more consistently.

The rifle was like shootinga heavy barrel 270 in that it just shot everything and also just about shot everything to the same point.

However, I suspect it was the combination of the slower twist, undersize barrel and JGS reamer that was repsonsible rather than the 358 STA itself. Results were excellent with fireforing loads, loads in fireformed cases and loads in necked up 340 Wbys.

Lastly, the same contoour barrels from the same maker were fitted to the gun in 338 Win, 340 Wby with both 1 in 10 and 1 in 12 twists and with conventional freebore and also 375 H&H.

The loads that produced the best accuracy from each caliber had comparable group size.

However the 358 STA won easily when all loads in each caliber were compared.

The one disadvantage is that 35 bullets like Hornady 250 Spire points are too long beyond the cannelure to fit the standard 3.6" 375 magazine. In other words a similar problem to the 2.85" case being used with 338 bullets which is why Rem shortened the 300 Ultra case slightly for the 338 RUM.

By the way, with 78 grains of Varget fired both from a new 375 case anda fireformed 375 case, accurayc with Hornady 180 grain XTPs was consistently on an 1 inch. The same load also shot beautifully with 200 Hornady Spire and Round Nose and 225 grain Sierras.

Mike

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I kinda figured and planned on you to chime in. Your braked rifles and comparable recoil sound liveable. I can do a .300 Wby KS rifle with 180's O.K.

Never did have a Winchester rifle, lefties are harder to find, I assume no problems on length of mags??
Do you have 24" or longer and which twist do you have???

Lastly, I know you have slain 1/3 of the worlds game animals, how many have you taken with the .358 STA and results if you have time. Thanks for the post.

Mike- not forgetting you either, thanks for the time spent replying. If I buid one, think we could hook up down your way for some...........auh......ballistic(donkey) tests?????? How much fun would that be??

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(sic) My wife says I always save one more chambering for the future. She always was pretty and smart. Good shooting.

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Funny,

I seem to suffer from the same affliction

Just as I'm almost done with the 350 Rigby, I'm thinking that a 300 win mag on a VZ-24 is in the future.