I made the mistake of going to the gun show today. Ended up spending some $$$$$. Finally found a BLR in 358win. for what i thought was a decent price. It is a 1980 BLR before the model 81. Payed $475.00. The gun is in good shape. Has the williams peep site at rear of receiver. Now I have to buy dies, brass, and bullets. Is midway a good place to get brass? Natchez is out. Which dies work best for the lever action? Are the reddings good for the 358. I prefer reddings over rcbs.
Thank You for any advice.

You have a fine rifle. I've seen a few at the range over the years and every owner was pleased as punch with his. My only levergun is an 1895G but I buy Redding unless there's a good reason not to. Midway is as good a place as any to buy online, but I've used Natchez and Graf too with satisfaction. Good hunting!

Dies are dies beyond the obvious differences in personal preference.

If you personally prefer redding dies why even ask?

I have a few Redding dies and I think their Titanium Carbide
(not to be confused with Hornady's Titanium nitride coating)
pistol sizing dies are the best that money can buy.

Most of my dies are RCBS and Hornady

IF you need to FORM brass by expanding the neck of other 308 based cases out to 358 I'd recommend geting a Hornady sizing die, because their expander is probably the best for the job.

They actually make (or made) a neck expanding die
which is essentially nothing more than a holder for their
excellent tapered expander.

I have one in 358 that I bought and used to make 358Norma cases from 300WinMag cases.
Yeah, I know the "books" say that 338Win brass works but that always comes out too short.

AD

Congrats on a fine rifle! I've had mine for 27 years and still enjoy it. The .358 cases are only run occasionally but, some may be in stock. I use the ever plentiful .308 necked up to .358 with no problems.

Thank You for the replys. The reason I asked about the dies is because I had read in other posts that some people had to use small base dies for the brass to function in their lever guns. I have rcbs dies and the dies themselves work fine, but I have had problems with the brass set screw not holding the lock ring in place. I tried the lead shot up under the set screw but still had problems. I ended up ordering the Hornady split lock rings from midway when the where $2.00ea. I ordered about $20.00 worth.
Again thanks for any info.

I have both an original blr as well as new stainless laminate one in 358. Both are very accurate. I reload for both with standard RCBS dies. As far as brass goes order it quick and buy more than you think you need. It is a "seasonal" run by winchester. Which means they make it when ever they feel like it and no more than once a year. As far as bullets go I have had great luck with the 200 grain hornady spire point for accuracy and work great on deer. For bigger critters the 200 grain barnes tsx is a great choice.

Imr 3031 is my favorite powder for my 358 BLR and the 200 grain Remington RNCL is an outstanding bullet that holds together and expands at 2500 fps to do anything needed in the 358. Second favorite bullet is the 250 gr. Speer. This bullet expands and penetrates deeply but I mostly use the 200 grain bullets in my 358 and the 250's in my Whelen.

Congratulations on a fine rifle in a great caliber. I use RCBS dies with standard full length resizer, & have never had a problem. I also use a Lee Crimping Die. You should not have a problem developing good loads. The best bullets for me are: 180 Speer FN, either 200 from Hornady, 225 Sierra {almost an honest moa load in my BLR}, 225 Partition, 250 Speer Hotcor, & 250 Grand Slam. Good powders are: either 4895, AA2520, TAC, 4064,& 748. Buy lots of brass, because you are going to love shooting this rifle. Mine is zeroed at 150 yards. This puts me on hair, not air out to 250.

I've got a stainless BLR in a 358 win also and love it. Took me several months to find one. Those that get em, hang on to em. I'm sure you will too.

I've taken 25 + bears with my little Blr in .358. I only use plain speer bullets

I ordered an 81 with a straight stock yesterday and I am about to burst waiting for it. I am trying to assemble all the needed supplies to get some rounds loaded. Brass seems to be a little scarce with the correct headstamp.I ordered 100 and now that I think about it I probably should get some more. This is my first BLR and my First 358,so I am hoping I will not be disappointed.

Thank you for all the replies. maddenwh your correct about now that I finally have one it is not going anywhere. razor1 trust me, I don't think you will be disappointed.
I loaded 20 rounds last week and went to the range to shoot my new toy. I loaded 10 with w748 at different weights and 10 with Varget at different weights.The bullet was the 200gr RN Hornady in each round. The gun shot ok considering I was using a peep site. I had the target at 100yds. But I could not see the target good enough to get an idea of how it was shooting. I moved the target up to 50yds. so I could see the bulls eye better. I was shooting at the target with the 5 bullseyes on it. the gun was grouping high and I did not have a screwdriver to adjust the rear peep site. I want to put a scope on it to see how well it will group at a 100yds. But I would also like to use the peep site to hunt with on morning hunts in the woods. I will more than likely put a scope on it to develop loads, then go back to the peep to hunt with. At least until I kill a deer with the peep site.

You guys are going to love your .358's.

I load only 225's in mine so far. It's a dedicated elk rifle, that may get turned on an occasional deer or whatnot.

My load is 48 gr of W748 in win .308 cases. I use that load with both Sierrs 225 bt's and the Nosler partition.

The Sierra thinks it's a match grade bullet and groups very well. It's a fairly soft bullet IMO and should work really well on deer and black bear size game. I killed one bull elk with it.

The Nosler is probably the best all around bullet for that cartridge...again IMO. Soft enough to expand at the longer ranges and hell for stout when the shot is quick, close and maybe not exactly by the book... One elk kill with that one gave excellent results, but it's just that...one kill.

Good luck with yours and have fun.

One of the really nice things about the .358 Win., and .35 Whelen for that matter is they do not need overpriced premium bullets to work properly. I only shoot 200 gr. bullets for deer and 250 gr. bullets for the bigger stuff in both cartridges and even with my fairly hot loads, I have not seen any need for the premium bullets.
Howeevr, if that is what floats your boat, have fun. Regarding dies,mine are the RCBS. They originally came with a normal expander which did not work all that well when converting .308 Win. Brass. I caled RCBS and they sent me a tapered expanderand brass conversion is now a snap. I just run them through the sizer and trim just enought to square the necks.
I found a fellow at a gun show that was selling components and brass. he had just a bit over 600 rounds of new Winchester .358 brass and I bought the whole lot. it'll be a long while before I have to convert .308 brass again. But then again, I am feeding five rifles chambered to the .358 Win.
Paul B.

quote:

Originally posted by Paul B:
he had just a bit over 600 rounds of new Winchester .358 brass and I bought the whole lot. it'll be a long while before I have to convert .308 brass again. But then again, I am feeding five rifles chambered to the .358 Win.

Paul, which is your favorite 358 and why? I've been musing on rebarreling a 700 ADL with a magnum contour tube in the 22 inch range. Don't figure I'd ever need anything heavier than a 225 Partition so the usual twist ought to do and still let a fella play with pistol bullets. Your thoughts?

Well, in the leverguns it's six of one and a half dozen of the other. The savage 99 has the better balance and the BLR is slightly more accurate and weighs a bit less. I understand the newer BLRs are supposed to have better balance though. So far, the leverguns are outshooting the bolt actions by quite a margin although as I play with them, they are improving. two are Ruger M77 tamg safety models one all original and the other in a McMillan stock and the last one is a Kodiak Mauser.
From what I understand Kodiak bought up a bunch of 89 milsurp mauser actions, rebarreled them to sporting rounds and put a IMHO, butt ugly stock made of Maple. I once had one in .243 that I gave to the kid of friend of mine that was a tackdriver. The next one I saw was in, of all things, the .308 Norma magnum. it too was a damned accurate rifle but had a very nasty recoil.
I found mine at a gun show for $200 so I figured what the hell and bought it. The other two had replacement triggers and shot fine. This one still had a crappy military ywo stage that I fixed enough to remove most if the first stage, but I haven't been able to get it lower than 6 pounds. I bought a Timney to replace it, but just haven't found the time to make the change. Come to think about it, I haven't even had the time to load up any ammo.
Paul B.

I'm going to pick up my BLR in 358 win.tommorow after work but unfortunatly won't be able to make it to the range till the weekend.I'm pumped and can hardly wait to get my grubby hands on it. I have been looking for a scope,but don't know if I'll scope it or not. Depends on how good I can shoot it with those factory sights.Any suggestions on aftermarket sights?

Williams makes a set of firesights. I have those on mine. I did scope it though. I went with a burris 1.75x5 with a lighted reticle. I mounted that via leupold quick detach base and rings. So if need be I can quickly have use of the open sights. Only problem is my blr is on its way back to browning. I have yet to even take it in the woods. Last time at the range I discovered a very ugly problem. The bolt is full of rust pitting. I cannot figure it. I treat this gun no different than any other rifle. No rust anywhere else on the gun just the bolt. Not a spot of rust on any other gun in the same safe. Oh well hopefully browning will make things right.

I loaded some 200gr Hornady soft points with imr 3031. Load data says 2.765 min. when these are loaded to cannalure they are way short and when moved out to 2.765 they are barely stuck in the case. What did I do wrong? Are the shorter ones safe to shoot? Load is 44gr and is not compressed when seated into cannelure. Am I missing something here? BTW I picked my BLR today and it is beautiful,let's hope it is a shooter.

Load it to where you like it as you must be using the RN version. 44.0 grains of 3031 should be a good load to start from. you can easily go up 2-3 grains safely. I would be more concerned about whether or not the bullet is engaging the rifling.

yes they are kinda short,but seem to shoot ok.I only got to shoot them at 50 yards but did make a nice 2" cluster around the bullseye which is pretty good for me since I haven't shot with open sights in years. Off hand too. I will play with seating depth and get to a real range instead of the backyard. I got lots of time till next hunting season to get it tweaked although I would like to get a pig with it soon. The trigger is damn heavy with a little creep,but I have been working it trying to get it to smooth out a little and mate the surfaces.All in all I'm real happy with it.

I got everything worked out I must have been awful tired cause I can't believe That threw me for a loop.DOH!