Browning BLR Takedown in 358 Winchester has a new load

[SJPrice]

I will apologize in advance for the long post, but I have been away from shooting for a while and I am pretty happy with how today’s project turned out. I wanted to share my success.

I found some Barnes 180 grain TTSX bullets and decided to try working up a new load. I used WW brass, Winchester large rifle primers and H 4198 for powder. I seated the bullets to have the base stop right at the bottom of the case neck and as a result the taper crimp was right at the top of the highest groove over the driving band. I loaded three rounds each with 43, 44 and 45 grains of H 4198. These are mid to max loads per my Barnes #3 manual. I fired my test rounds at 100 yards on a 85 degree day with mostly calm wind conditions. 43 grains gave me a 3 shot, 1 and 3/4 inch group with an average velocity of 2624 and a SD of 42. 44 grains dropped it down to an inch and 1/4 at 2713 and the SD dropped to 33. My max load of 45 grains produced a single hole a sliver under 3/8ths inch for 3 shots. The velocity average is 2784 and the SD was 18 FPS. I think I have a winner here. 45 grains fills to right at the base of the case neck and so my seated bullet is sitting right on the powder. I set them up to be 2 1/4 inches high at 100 yds so I should be dead on at 220 and roughly 7 inches low at 300.

I am curious if anyone here has experience with the Barnes 180 grain 358 TTSX on game and how it performed? I suspect this load would be fine for anything up to and including elk?

[Ray]

I'm not much of a fan of the blr but anything .358 win. gets my attention......

and it is also good to see 4198 being used.....despite the different speeds, 4198 is to the .358 what 3031 is to the 30-30.....

as for the barnes, perhaps some of our californios will advise, especially those who are forced to offer lead-free corpses to the holy buzzards......

[Tycer]

Nice! Thank you!
Have not tried the Barnes, however the long bearing surface and ballistic coefficient should make that a really nice round. I have one box and have never loaded any. That sounds like a worthwhile try for me. Thanks again!

[SJPrice]

I'm not much of a fan of the blr but anything .358 win. gets my attention......

and it is also good to see 4198 being used.....despite the different speeds, 4198 is to the .358 what 3031 is to the 30-30.....

as for the barnes, perhaps some of our californios will advise, especially those who are forced to offer lead-free corpses to the holy buzzards......

I was never a great fan of the BLR either. This one was a gift many years back. A couple of years back I decided to give it a try. I made a few changes. It has a Leupold VX R Scout scope 1.5 to 5 with an illuminated red dot. It is mounted in quick release rings so I can easily switch to the Skinner peep sight. The front blade is a polished gold. It makes for a very fast close range sight. And with the scope off it makes a great saddle gun. I had a problem with the trigger but about 2,000 cycles of the action and trigger did wonders. It is still a little heavy but it is smooth and clean now. I also added flush mount quick release sling swivels and a braided horse hair sling. Finally I did some stock work. I shortened the LOP and stripped off the shiny polymer finish. It now has a rubbed linseed oil finish on the walnut. While it is still a modern looking action, it looks older and slightly more classic with the oil finish. Now that I have a workable load that delivers sub MOA three shot performance I find it more appealing even if it is a “BLR”.