who here hunts with the 356 Winchester?

Mr. Friendly

Mr. Friendly

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there's not a lot of information out there about it, aside from the sad state of it's lack of favor. is there something wrong with the cartridge or was the competition tight at the time of introduction or what?

and for those of you who do use it...how do you find it for taking an animal down?
 
I use and really like the .356 Win., mine is a '94 AE and I load it with a 250gr. flat point, gas check, cast bullet, to about 2100fps. It is accurate, it does lack the "smack" of the bigger cals. that I prefer, but is flatter shooting and I wouldn't hesitate to use it on deer to 300yds. if necessary.
With it's capability to shoot flat, it is the only lever/single shot/bigbore gun of mine that wears a scope, a simple 2 3/4 power. With it's power and availability in light,slick, lever actions, this is one cartridge that deserves a better fate.
 
I had a Winchester 94. Liked it a lot, and used it for a couple of whitetails, one moose and one elk. The moose was shot at exactly 250 steps away, as it trotted along the far side of a frozen beaver pond. One shot through the liver, one shot through the spine. Both expanded well and exited. Speer 220 grain handload at 2300 fps.
The two WT deer and one elk were all shot at very close range ( about 15 yds) with the 250 grain Win. factory load. Lung shot deer ran about 10 yds and keeled over. The bull elk was neck shot with predictable results. A buddy also use;d the same rifle / bullet to kill a calf elk, dropped on the spot ( about 100 yds) with a chest hit.
That's all my experience. I found the rifle/cartridge combination to be handy, powerful, adequately accurate, and fun. It had no more to teach me so I sold it. But I do believe it to be a better cartridge for tubular magazine lever action rifles than any other cartridge. I currently have two extremes at either end of the spectrum, a Marlin 1895 in 45-70 and a Rossi M92 in .357 magnum. I feel the .356 is considerably more practical for most hunting. Handles like a .30-30 and IMHO it's more effective on game larger than deer without beating you up with recoil. Too bad it's semi-obsolete.
 
Interesting, I just noticed my old rifle is currently offered for sale on the EE. Hasn't sold for a while by the number of bumps. It was a good rifle.
 
I use one in a win mod 94 AE. I use a williams FP peep sight. I have only shot 1 deer with it at about 75 yds. Spine hit so dropped right there, but I would have had the same results with any rifle. I really like it.
 
My Marlin 336ER has killed several moose (previous owner) and several bears at my hands. It thumps bear dead VERY efficiently - good bear cartridge. I had to consciously make myself give some of my other 35s a chance in the field as it was my "go to" default woods rifle for years. Great for handloaders but no good for others. I use Speer 250HCs with the nose clipped flat (247gr) at around 2100 or 220SpeerFNs at 2300 - both work well.
http://35cal.com/loading.html#336er
http://35cal.com/photos.html
marlin1.jpg
 
A 250 grain bullet at 2,100 or 2,300 fps? ..... There is nothing wrong with the 356. It's kinda like making it big in country music ..... for every star, there are a hundred out there just as good who simply did not get the break. That is the only reason the 356 didn't make it big. It simply did not get the breaks.
 
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