Testing the water:

I am considering buying several thousand of each, 348 Win. and 25-35 Win....these will be monolithic flat nose hollow points for the mod. 94 win. and mod. 71 Winchesters..They will be lighter than cup and core bullets thus will shoot faster and penetrate better, and weighted to shoot in the above guns..The same thing that Barnes has done with the 30-30 that are available, and at one time did with the .348 but dropped that one, and they were awesome, he made an elk gun out of the 30-30 with that fine bullet.

It would be quite an investment on my part I suspect, but there seems to be a market for these hard to find bullets in these calibers. 348s are available but a light bullet in that caliber that is a monolithic HV HP, would be deadly beyond belief and make that old smoke pole a 300 yard elk gun at least, and is needed IMO...I have arranged to have this done so it could come about.

So whatcha think, give me some feed back?

I use the XFN 150 grain Barnes in my 308ME lever gun and it works great on deer. Full penetration and excellent expansion.
I am positive the XFN 200 grain in .348 would work great too. Last .348's I bought were the Barnes Originals in 250 grain. The 250's really make the .348 a big hammer. I have no experience with a 25-35.

What bullet weight are you expecting in .257 Ray?

Bill,
It looks like the 25-35s will be 100 gr. and being monolithics they are the same length as a 117 cup and core, so they should shoot and Gerard assured me they would..

The .348s are 180 gr. and the same length as the 200 gr. cup and core it appears

I believe your thoughts for a 180 grain 348 are excellent. That weight with the correct powder would allow velocities very near what is attained by a 30-06. As you consider these bullets, think about whether they should be produced with the radial grooves that Barnes is currently doing with their TSXs.
You haven't mentioned whether, after production you would be auctioning off some of those or retaining them for your own enjoyment.

Ray, I'd sure be interested in trying your .25-35 monometal bullet in the .25-35 Tomcat, once it gets built.

Well I talked to Gerard and Gina at GS Customs and they are going to try and keep them in stock in the USA I think, but if not they can order anything you want and delivery is about 4 weeks, so I and a couple of friends just ordered a couple of boxes each to test..

You can contact Gina@gscustomusa.com Gina is Gerards daughter and she now lives in the USA and will be the GS Custom outlet..I have been having my RSA hunters bring back bullets for me for years as shipping was very expensive, and African postal service is horrible at best..so this move to the USA was great news.

Bob,
Gerard at GS Customs is the inventor of Radial grooves, The rest followed suit. I have used these bullets quit a bit on game, and they are very accurate and deadly killers, and don't bloodshot meat as much as other bullets or so it appears to me, rather they grind a big hole with hamburger fringes if that makes since..They penetrate like one would expect from a monolithic..

Ray, eagerly awaiting your report on the .25-35 pills.

Bill,
Should have them in about 4 weeks, and they should be in stock from then on...I know they will work simply because Gerard is a perfectionist and I have used his bullets for probably 10 or 15 years, they have been accurate as any bullet I have used, and they kill really well..I'm hoping for 2600 to 2700 FPS in the 25-35, but I'll let you know..

I should get an easy 2700 FPS with the 180, 348 Win bullet and that monolithic should penetrate a bull elk lengthwise and I have the perfect place to test it on elk, a nasty black timber swamp with undergrowth with lots of elk and all shots are close and going away! can't wait.

Atkinson: Anything you can do to keep the model 71 Winchester shooting is great. The 180 grain bullet sounds interesting, I recall that Winchester for a time made 150 grain bullets for the 348 but dropped it for some reason.

The reason a loading is dropped is almost always the same - low sales.


.

Well I got my 25-35s and 348s today, and they are absolutely beautiful..I'll be testing them this week..

I guess they are now in stock by GS Customs USA...Gina is Gerards daughter, Gerard posts on AR from time to time..She and her husband now live in the USA..

G S Customs, gina@gscustomusa.com, tel. 269-861-2553

I'll let you know after I ring them out..Im sure they will shoot, as I have never had a GS Custom bullet fail on game or shoot poorly.

Got out this morning since it was a nice day at last...

Worked up what has to be max or near max load with 32 grs. of H-380 and the 97 gr. GS Customs monolithic flat nose hollow point, has to be around 2600 FPS plus is my guess..My chronograph is out being repaired..It shot a bit under 2 inches for 3 shots and same for 5 shots, in my old worn out Win. 94 Saddle ring carbine in 25-35 and that's what that old gun does with every load it seems.

The 348 liked 53 and 54 grs. of RL-15 and the 180 gr., long for weight FN HP, for a few one inch groups and 1.5 was the largest and that was most likely me..Velocity should be about 2650 or better, 54 grs. seemed max so I cut back until I get some info from Gerard as he will post it on his web page load data soon.

I used Fed 210 primers and your supposed to use magnum primers with GS Customs bullets..Do not crimp GS Customs bullets,

They are accurate and fast and absolutey great killers of game and meat destruction is such that you see a ground hole with three or four inches of clean hamburger and very little blood shot tissue by comparison to other bullets..

I have used GS Customs for years in the 416, 404, 375, 9.3x62, 250 savage, and .308 to name most of them...

At last a source of bullets for the 250, 25-35, 348 and other hard to find calibers and Gerard is good about trying to serve his clients even if it requires him setting up for those rare calibers as he did for me..They will now be in stock for all of us..

Ray, I just heard from John Taylor that he is about ready to ship me the .25-35 Tomcat Marlin. Wondering if you have had any additional experience with the GS monometal .257. How do you think the flat point would perform on antelope and deer-sized game?

In a word, AWESOME....It killed hogs as well as anything Ive used including my 348..They gave me full penetration on broadside shots and 1.5 to 2 inch exits holes and lots of blood on the ground at 2700 FPS in my gun and 2800 is very do-able..Also they are accurate and I suspect you can easily duplicate the 250-3000 in the Tomcat, and I would hunt any animal short of Alaskas brown bear with the 250/3000

I got my chronograph back, actually traded it in on new one..
Velocities were as I suspected and posted above.
2777 FPS with the 25-35 and 2764 FPS with the 348 Win..Gives the old guns a boost..Hopefully I'll be in Texas shooting whitetail this year and in Colorado for an big cow elk..and I did draw a Mule Deer in Idahos South Hills unit 54, and its argueably the best in the state..Its behind my house and I know the country like the back of my hand.

I also got some 85 gr. .257 spritzers GS Custom HV HPs for my 250-3000 and they got 3119 FPS av. of 5 and shot into a dime size group out of my 99 TD, but its the best shooting 99 Ive ever owned and that's common for this gun. It has a 1x14 twist and shoots the 100 FB spitsers or 117 gr. Hornady RN into under an inch..It scatters all boat tails, just won't shoot any 100 gr. boattail..Ive shot a number of deer and some plainsgame with this bullet and its deadly.

Ray, to be clear, you are getting 2777 fps with the GS Custom 97-grain FP monometal over 32 grains of H-380 in your .25-35 carbine? I will order some today.