.358 Winchester reloading woes

[AkRay]

I've been working on some .358 Winchester reloads and I have some questions. I bought a '79 BLR which is my first Browning and a well made rifle. I brought it to show a gunsmith here in town. While I was in his shop, I also bought 4 boxes of Winchester factory .358 brass and a set of RCBS reloading dies. I already had a box of Speer 220 gr .358" FLAT SP bullets to load.

I've read the instructions that came with the die set and adjusted the die to crimp the bullet, but the seating stem is really mashing the soft lead tip. In an attempt to avoid this, I was seating the bullets with my vise and then crimping them with the seat/crimp die. I originally went to seat the bullets with the seat/crimp die, but they would get caught in the seating stem and it would pull them out when I seated and crimped them. I next tried a seating stem from an RCBS .357 magnum die which took care of the bullet pulling problem, but that was smashing the tips even worse. I might need to buy a Lee Factory Crimp Die, but it there's something else any of you can recommend, I'll try that first.

[Ben_Rumson]

Sounds like the necks must be pretty tight..Are they getting expanded?

[Jeff Quinn]

You do not have to crimp them.

[Tycer]

You can adapt seating plugs with a touch of knead-type epoxy. It works well on lubrisizers also.

+1 on Jeff Quinn's do not crimp suggestion.

[AkRay]

The bullets I'm loading are a flat base design and wouldn't enter the case mouths easily so I expanded the brass with the expander plug from my .357 magnum dies. I expanded them just enough so the bullets would go without catching the case and crushing it. I'll shoot these loads and the next ones I load I won't worry about crimping them. I thought about modifying the nose of the seating plug with something too, but I won't do that if it's not necessary. Thanks for the good replies.

[Hobie]

I've found that the RCBS seating stem shape doesn't always correspond with the bullet shape. The epoxy fitting works ok, but I have extra stems with different shapes and swap them out as needed.

Also, the flat base bullets seat much more easily for me when I chamfer the case mouth. You didn't mention that.

[AkRay]

Thanks for the tip about chamfering the case mouth, Hobie. I haven't tried that. I might also go and see if I can get another seating stem in a different shape, or if the same shape, to epoxy. The next loads I do will be done without worrying about crimping the bullets. I might even try some of the Speer 250 gr. bullets that don't have a cannelure.

[victor]

what type seating plugs do you have on hand,and what type have you tried?my .357 die set comes with 3 types,one for flat point,one for round nose and one for spire points.I recommend the spire point plug for the speer bullet your using.It puts seating pressure on the sides of bullet instead of the soft flat point.

Are you sure the seat/crimp die is adjusted properly?maybe the die is crimping to soon and causing excessive tension on bullet before fully seated.
As stated,you don't need to crimp but do remove the case flare if you do flare the case mouth.

[AkRay]

I backed the seating die off several turns to make sure the case isn't being crimped too soon, and I took the seating stem from my .348 dies to seat these bullets with. So far it's working great. I took the rifle out and shot it last night, and so far I like it. The recoil is there but is not too bad, and there's a lot of power in this medium size package. I'll have to shoot it some more, but so far things are great.

[RKrodle]

AkRay, I had the exact same problem today setting up my dies for the 348. I was crimping to much. I backed off the crimp and all was good.

[Rafe Covington]

I just took a seating stem out of another set of dies set up for a spitzer bullet, had the same problem you had with my encore 358 Win.

[Leverluver]

It appears that you found a seating plug that works. If you feel the need to crimp (and the 358 you don't need to), 98% of all problems can be solved by seating and crimping in two separate steps. )This goes 10 fold for the 348). A lot of the drag (ergo deformed tips) comes from crimp ledge becoming engaged before the bullet has reached it's full seating depth.

[Doc Hudson]

Here is another trick to try if you haven't already.

Screw your crimp die out far enough that it won't crimp at all.

Lever a cartridge into the die and adjust the seating plug to seat the bullet at the depth you desire. Then screw the seating plug as high as it will go and screw the die down to remove flare and give a light crimp. When you get the amount of crimp you desire, leave the finished cartridge in the die and screw the seating plug back down so that it touches the bullet point. Tighten all locking rings and give that a try.

If after the above, you are still having problems, use a two step process of seating all bullets and then crimping them.

Good Luck!

BTW, you might want to give Hornady's 200 grain Spirepoints a try along with a good sized dose of IMR 4198. My BLR gives stellar accuracy with that bullet and powder.

Doc

[Hobie]

That's exactly right Doc and what I do with all my cartridges. Never have had a lick of trouble with crimping or "needed" a Lee FCD.

AKRay, I'm glad you're up and running. That's a pretty good cartridge for your neck of the woods!

[Doc Hudson]

That's exactly right Doc and what I do with all my cartridges. Never have had a lick of trouble with crimping or "needed" a Lee FCD.

AKRay, I'm glad you're up and running. That's a pretty good cartridge for your neck of the woods!

Hobie,

IMNSHO, the .358 Winchester is a mighty fine cartridge for any neck of the woods.

It might not shoot the wings off a mosquito at 800 yards, but I can't see a man at 800 yards much less a skeeter, and I don't shoot at deer much beyond 200 yard. For my style of hunting, a .358 Winchester is about as good as they come.

[HEAD0001]

You should be shooting a cast bullet in that rifle and cartridge. The heck with those jacketed bullets in the 358 Winnie. That rifle is screaming for cast bullets, so you need to buy a mold and get on with it. Tom.

[Doc Hudson]

You should be shooting a cast bullet in that rifle and cartridge. The heck with those jacketed bullets in the 358 Winnie. That rifle is screaming for cast bullets, so you need to buy a mold and get on with it. Tom.

Maybe, but it his rifle is like mine, he will be using Hornady 200 grain Spire Points exclusively after he gives it a good testing. If cast bullets shot any better in my rifle than 200 grain Hornadys, no one would believe me when I told them.

[AkRay]

I have some factory ammo coming, and I think it's all the 200 gr ammo. I'm going to scope it eventually too, but will probably have to wait until next hunting season to do that. I want to set this rifle up to be my moose hunting rifle.

[CowboyTutt]

I'm sort of surprised that everyone is complaining about buying a Lee FCD. They are only $15 from Midway. I load my 358 Win on a Dillon 550 B and seat and crimp in separate stations and have had outstanding chronograph results with Varget and a CCI BR-2 Priner and Lapua cases. I also totally believe that Doc's load would also perform very well as I have used 4198 in my 11mm Mauser with outstanding results. It is an excellent powder.

You will very much enjoy your rifle when you get the load figured out. It will shoot very, very well for you, and is a very capable cartridge. Friends who have shot my BLR with aperture sights have picked-off a soda can at 110 yards!


Tutt

[AkRay]

I've been thinking about using an aperture sight too. That would preserve the handling qualities of this rifle. I do want a scope for the low light conditions that I will encounter, but an aperture sight might fill the bill too. My father in law used a peep on his A3-03 for years, and shot several moose in the early morning hours with it. What kind of sight do you have on your BLR, Cowboy Tutt?

[CowboyTutt]

Ray, its a Williams reciever sight (the WG model, I think) with Brownells Twilight Aperture Sights that are mounted on the bottom of the stock. These aperture sights are neat as they have a brass circle around the hole for better visability in low light. The front sight is a Williams Fire Sight (fiber optic) in red. The two work very well together! The rifle was modified by Mic McPherson for me.

-Tutt