You would never be sorry with a 358. There is tons of 308 Win brass around that can be necked up to 358. As already mentioned you could use the 200 gr bullets for deer and 250's for elk moose and bears. Or you could just load a 225 gr bullet like the nosler partion or the Barnes TSX and shoot everything with the one bullet. While lighter calibres like the 7mm08 will stop large game the heavier bullet of the 358 will out penetrate on a quartering shot when you have to shoot through a heavily muscled front shoulder on a moose or elk. The 358 is not just a short range thumper either. Especially with the 225 gr bullets at approx. 2500 ft/sec. That yields approx. 3100 ft/lbs of muzzle energy. A 200 yd zero will be 2.6 inches high at 100 yds and only 10 in low at 300 yds. Or if you prefer a 100 yd zero you would only be 5 in low at 200 yds. That would not be a bad combination in heavy bush.
Big Woods rifle conundrum - 358 Winchester and 7mm-08
- Thread starter buckchaser
- Start date
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Why wouldn't you go with both?
Cuss we all ain't biggly'un.
Pack'n kupple chewter's owt in the bush all day could be a pain.
Then the uppertewnity kums 'long an which wun to chewt.....
Decishuns decishuns...............
Cuss we all ain't biggly'un.
Pack'n kupple chewter's owt in the bush all day could be a pain.
Then the uppertewnity kums 'long an which wun to chewt.....
Decishuns decishuns...............
You are supposed to make the "decishun" before you go into the woods... then the only "decishun" is when to squeeze.
7mm-08 & .358;
Get em' both...
You don't take this kit with you?
Yep... but I mount the barrel I want for the day, before heading into the woods... I don't bring both with me... unless it is a long trek or remote camp... but if that is the case, one stays in the spike camp... my decision on which barrel to mount is usually based on terrain more than quarry.
Northman999
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Southern Yukon
Personally I can't see this even being a close one; .358 hands down.
If you had said you occaisionally shoot antelope at 350 yards then you'd have something to talk about, but otherwise, no discussion needed.
And these cartridges are far enough apart that the BOTH argument is fairly valid, but get the .358 up and running first.
If you had said you occaisionally shoot antelope at 350 yards then you'd have something to talk about, but otherwise, no discussion needed.
And these cartridges are far enough apart that the BOTH argument is fairly valid, but get the .358 up and running first.
If your a one gun guy and moose and elk are possible the 358 is a dandy choice. 7MM-08 will do the job with premium bullets for the big ones and you already own it. You could set it up with a dandy low power variable and save a few bucks.
However there is no shame in owning a deer rifle and a moose rifle! I grew up around hunters that had a tractor rifle, often a 30-30, and a moose rifle, often a 303. The gun nutz of the time often had a 30-06. They all laughed at my 444 "cannon"!
My choice for many years was a 444 Marlin for just such hunting. Bigger bore heavy bullets work well for deer or bigger game. The 358 gives decent ballistics and handloading it would be a sensible idea.
However there is no shame in owning a deer rifle and a moose rifle! I grew up around hunters that had a tractor rifle, often a 30-30, and a moose rifle, often a 303. The gun nutz of the time often had a 30-06. They all laughed at my 444 "cannon"!
My choice for many years was a 444 Marlin for just such hunting. Bigger bore heavy bullets work well for deer or bigger game. The 358 gives decent ballistics and handloading it would be a sensible idea.
Just curious what you would do, per say, fly in lake or a major drive and bring this kit only with you and the
rear arf fruck's up?
Lost, stolen, run over, fell in the water, bernt in the camp fire, grizz ate it............... "............" yer tail?
Now yer down two chooters.
Just an observashun..........don't take it tew hart.
I'm not the sensitive sort...
But I do have an answer to that question...
Pretty tough to muck up an H&R receiver, but dropping it overboard sounds like something I might do... and for the moment I would be SB&T... but as soon as I got back to the shop I have a couple dozen SB2 receivers and twice that many stock sets to fit the barrels to... in about ten minutes I would be back up & running... if per say one did not have access to the receivers that I do $300 buys you an entire third firearm to which you fit your other two barrels and now have a three barrel swap set... the wonderful simplicity of the system, becomes evident in just such a situation... if one was the worrying sort, on a fly-in trip you could bring a second fitted receiver and in five minutes do a "switcheroo" and be chewtin' agin...
- Location
- Prince Albert, Sk
Get the 358, if you handload I can't see that you would be dissapointed with it. Bullets from 180 to 250 commonly and as others have said, you would likely see less meat damage than with the 7-08. I suggest a good load with a 225 grain (partition or AB) for everything from deer to moose. In a 18-20" barreled rifle I think you would fall in love with the 358 ;-)
Keep the 7-08 for the times you feel like carrying it, or sell it after you become enamored with the 358!
just the fact of low bullet weights with low velocity ...270, 270 wsm , 308 , 284 , 7 rem I believe out do it with very little recoil too ...Hey look there's a beauty 6 pt bull ..at 285 yds ..now what do u wish you had in your hands ...hmmm
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
There's more than a little logic there, a repeater eventually has to be reloaded too. In the Thunder Ranch Shotgun video, Clint Smith lays down some impressive fire with his H&R 12 bore, with the advice, "I don't need a thousand dollar shotgun, I just need to know how to run the gun I got!" His technique is to reload with the gun at the shoulder; he cocks the hammer, then breaks the action, reloads, closes the action, and fires, then repeats. Due to the smaller chamber of a rifle barrel, it might be a bit trickier than with a shotgun, but with practice . . .
- Location
- Somewhere on the Hudson Bay Coast
Normally I side with the big bore choice, but lets look at this another way. Would you shoot an elk with say a 160 gr Partition in a 7mm magnum? It seems to me the big 7s have a pretty good reputation as elk slayers. If so, why would the 7-08 loaded with the same bullet be a mistake, the lower impact velocity should actually increase penetration, ditto a 140 gr TSX.
