what about the 35/358 BR?

[Alan in GA]

anyone done a Whisper in .35 caliber using the BR case? I like .35,,LOTS of bullets to play with,,and the BR case is big enough,,and lots of .308 bolt face rifles out there. I would fit it to my Ruger 77 Mark II switch barrel.
I'm guessing a big problem is: no one has cut quick twists in any .358" bore barrel.
What think?
Alan in Ga.

[d-mon]

Hello,
Any barrel maker that does cut rifling, can make a barrel for you in 35 with the twist that you want. I got my 300 whisper barrel from www.border-barrels.com in Scotland.
But you should easily find what you need in the US as well.

ND

[Greywuuf]

Take a look at the 338 Whisper (#1 or first design) it is just a long throated version of the 7 br necked to .338. I Too am a big fan of .357/.358 and called and talked to JD himself. He said he had done about every caliber size he could think of on that case. All worked but he could see no reason to produce them as there was so little diferance. Also the .358 is actually lacking a serious heavy for caliber long slick bullet. the 338 has a factory available bullet (albeit expensive) in the 300 gr sierra Boat tail.

Personally I would love to see you do it ! ( I have a .358 win barrel on a FN/FAL) because I have considered it myself so often.

[Murmur]

Hi Guys,
After shooting a 300 Whisper for some time with 240gr MK at sub speeds with a suppressor I soon found out that that bullet BC doesn't matter. Regardless of bullet shape or BC anything past 100yds is going to have a huge drop....like throwing bricks. On game results is like shooting nitting needes unless major bone is hit. Because the bullets don't expand and very rarely tumble.. the only way to get better performance is larger diameter. So a 358 whipser or to my thinking a 375 with a big flat point bullet would be the way to go. I'm toying up bewteen the 375 whipser (I know it will be super accurate) or by using a pistol cartridge like the 45 colt.
To me the 358 or 375 might be the way to go as it will be an improvement on the 300 with neglible increase in sound signature. I'm thinking that a 45 cal bullet flight could be quite noisey with all that frontal area.

[Greywuuf]

I have found out just recently that if you go slow and in small steps ( I went 257 7mm 300 and then 358) that you can get a 223 WSSM up to 358, it looks pretty impressive, though in all honesty I think taking 458 SOCOM brass down would be better and it would at least have a .473 bolt face.

Alan if you are at all interested I am thinking on having a reamer made for this one, shoot me a PM if you are interested in using it ( or maybe even splitting the cost or helping out.... it would sure make my descision easier)

Dang I wish I lived next door to a freindly tool and Die guy.


hmm how many guns now do I have that NO ONE makes ammo for ?
My wife is convinced it is a sickness with no cure

[GREYGHOSTt]

Just how a heavy 35 cal do you want woodliegh makes a 310grn???

[Alan in GA]

I picked up a new toy last year.
It's an H & R Handi Rifle in .357 Magnum. Barrel is a heavy sporter contour 22" long. Plenty of room for threading on the muzzle and a compensator if I want to.
I was going to run a .357 MAXIMUM reamer into the chamber, just like I did with another same rifle a few years ealier. That rifle was sold by a friend that just HAD to have it. When I saw this one dusty but new on the local gun shop rack I thought maybe I could finish all the tests I had wanted to do with the other rifle I let go too soon.
Anyway, if any of you are like me and somehow 'accumulate' ammo you don't use, think of how much 38 Special ammo there is around! MOST of it is subsonic in a rifle barrel if not all but the +P stuff. I decided to hold off using the MAXIMUM reamer being that the rifle just might be perfect as it is. If I ever wanted to take deer then the maximum reamer may get the go-ahead.
But this little rifle is a hoot to shoot and I've got enough 38 Spl and 357 Mag ammo to choke a horse.
I"ve offered it's use to a buddy who is Class III and threads barrels for a local Class III shop. He has a 9mm can that just might work. Think about how this could be the perfect low/NO noise coyote rifle!
I'm waiting on a Fed CIII permit as we speak. My first ever can is waiting on me at a local shop. It's a 22 Long Rifle 'only' and will go on my 10/22 Heavy straight barrel [Shilen] rifle. It is already capable of 1" groups at 100 yds. I beleive I'll leave it at the 18" lenght it is now when threaded.

[fireball168]

I have found out just recently that if you go slow and in small steps ( I went 257 7mm 300 and then 358) that you can get a 223 WSSM up to 358

I've got one 358 BFG(WSSM) built now, another barrel on order for the second build.

For what you can pick up the WSSM push feed model 70's right now, its not worth it to me to deal with the feeding issues of the SOCOM's rebated rim in a bolt gun.

As long as you hold to magazine length, the 358 feeds perfectly using the 180 SSP and Nosler 225 BT(the only two I've tried thus far).

No problem exceeding 358 Winchester velocities by bit with a 22" barrel.

I've been stepping up to 8mm and 338 along the way, and annealing at 30 caliber and again at 358 before I turn my necks to .012". Those necks look like hell after necking up(much like the interior of the necks look like on the 223 WSSM factory new brass).

[sdswp5]

New to the forum, but I've just got to kick in my .02 here. I know it is rather anemic in most guises, but the mild mannered 35 remington makes a great subsonic 35. The round can be subsonic with Trail Boss with the 200 and 250 grain pills and Red Dot for the 300 grain plus pills (the benefit of this size of case is a near 100% charge density is possible resulting in great consistency). The fast twist barrels are easily available from McGowen Precision down to a 1 in 5" twist. The components and dies are easily accessible and reamers can be rented or purchased without fuss or mechanical drawings. On the other side of the scale, the 250gr bullet can easily be driven near 1900 fps for a more substantial punch when necessary. It's not the 510 but it works with a little tweaking.

PS. While no one currently offers a .358 vld that I'm aware of, they can be made with the proper equipment from solid copper. I've got to finish my build before I can offer real-world BC, but the modeling software predicts in the neighborhood of 1.4 when subsonic. The bullet weighs 335 gr in it's current shape and I'm thinking of stretching it a bit and getting around 365gr, because I can. While it's not designed to expand currently, it has that possibility with a 330-340 gr finished weight. We'll see where it ends up.

[anthony haynes]

I'm getting ready to get a sweet deal on unchambered 9mm barrels that are profiled for an AR. I'm going to make mine a 9x39/.443case head with a 30deg shoulder. Necked up w/o blowing out the shoulder. If anyone else wants one of these barrels I can get them for $100 apiece. They are 16 inches with barrel extentsions ported and pin holed with 5/8-24 thread on the muzzle. In the white. ( not blued/ raw steelbarrels). I need to order 10 to get that price. When I get ten people to pony up, ill make the order.

[amafrank]

I've done a few .338BR rifles and found them to be outstanding. Bullets are available from 160gr up to the SMK 300gr. Lots of choices. Thats what is lacking in the 358 though we considered working one up. Here in Indiana its legal to deer hunt with any cartridge with over .357 dia bullets and a case length of less than 1.8" (this year) last year it was 1.625" case length. The .358 WSSM was pretty hot for the last few years and I know a couple rifle makers who built over 150 of them for the market here in IN> The case is a bit big for subs but works well for high velocity stuff. Now they are doing the .358 WSM-IN which is .125" longer and a little faster. Some are shooting 180gr bullets at over 3000fps. Once again the case is a bit large for subs. So we looked at doing the BR case with the .358's but the bullet selection sucks right now and I'd guess a jump to .375 might be a better idea. At least you can get back up to 300gr bullets in that dia. I think I'm going to stick with the .338 and let my friends do the deer hunting. We still can't hunt with suppressors in Indiana though I keep hearing that they're working on that for next year.....



Frank