I just picked up an interesting rifle at a gun show, and wanted to hear others thoughts. It is a tang safety Ruger 77, that was originally a 350 Rem mag, but has been rechambered to .358 Norma mag.

Knowing that it was an orphan, I gave a trade I was having trouble getting $400 for. That for the rifle and 3 boxes of Norma ammo. Figuring I could get about $100 for the ammo, I thought I could rebarrel the action if the chamber job is a dog and still be OK. I have a soft spot for the tang safety Rugers. Anyone know where I could find an original 350 barrel ?

I am thinking I would like to load it with 200 Hornady bullets for pigs and deer, as I have about 6 boxes of them. Does anyone have a good load like this ?

I am having a little bit of a hard time finding used dies, and new ones are a little steep, about $60.00 a set.

Does anyone have some dies for sale ? Any good load data for the bullet I am thinking about ?

Thanks for any help or insight provided.

I would rather shoot it as a 358 Norma. Wanna sell it? Let me know.
Frank

Just down load the 358 Norma to 35 Whelen levels (this is what the 350 Rem mag is) if that is what you want. You have the brass now and Norma brass is normally very high quality.

$60 for dies is alot cheaper than a new barrel.

Thanks for the input. I went ahead and ordered the dies, thinking the same thing (cheaper than a barrel). The rifle feeds and handles nicely.

I mounted a 1.5 - 5 Leupold on it, and will shoot some of the factory ammo as soon as the weather gives me a little break.

I guess my thinking is that the 350 Rem Mag. was just kind of rare in the older Rugers, and that it would have been kind of neat to restore it.

If the rechamber job is good, I will shoot it as is. If I have to change it, I will look for an original barrel.

Now, anyone have a good .358 Norma load for all those 200 grain Hornady Round nose bullets ?

I was under the impression that the .350 RM Rugers were built on a short action. Anyway, once changed, you can't restore them as a collector's item.
The old tang safety Rugers are good actions. My custom .280 is built on one. E

keep it, I love my 358 norma, it hits like a ton of bricks and makes quite an impression on both ends

Got the dies and some .338 mag brass today. (Fast service from Midway).

I necked it up to 375, then formed it back to 358, now I am prepping it for fireforming. Will find out soon if this rechamber job is any good.