.358 Norma Magnum
When Norma introduced the .358 Magnum in
1959, it was the first commercially loaded .35 caliber magnum made available
to American hunters since the .35 Newton had bit the dust in the late 1920's.
When the .358 Magnum was first introduced, no factory rifles were available
for it but Norma assured its standardization by furnishing chamber drawings
and chamber reamers to any U.S. gunsmith who received orders for custom rifles
in this caliber. Eventually, Shultz & Larson and Husqvarna rifles in
.358 Norma Magnum were imported into the U.S.
The .358 Norma Magnum is an extremely powerful cartridge with ballistics
quite close to that of the famed
.375 H&H
Magnum. Had Winchester not introduced its
.338 Magnum
in 1958, the .358 Norma might now be one of our more popular cartridges.
But, most hunters chose the American designed cartridge and allowed the Swedish
cartridge to fade away into obsolescence. Eventually, the Norma.358 Magnum
factory load was discontinued and, except among handloaders, it was a dead
cartridge.
Cases for the .358 Magnum are easily formed by necking up
.338 Winchester
cases to .35 caliber. RCBS,
Redding,
and Hornady furnish full length resizing
dies with tapered expander buttons for this purpose. However, since
Federal reintroduced the Norma
250 grain factory load to the U.S. market during 1989, forming cases is no
longer necessary. As this is written, Ultra Light Arms is the only U.S. company
offering rifles in .358 Norma Magnum, but with factory loaded ammunition
once again available, other rifles makers may take a second look at this
fine cartridge.
Although the .358 Norma Magnum is a bit much for hunting deer size game,
the 200 grain Hornady and
Remington spire points, and the 225
grain bullets available from Nosler
and Sierra are good choices for
this purpose. For all around use on moose and elk, the Speer and
Hornady 250 grain bullets are better
medicine. As a brown bear cartridge, the big .358 is probably seen at its
best when loaded with the Nosler 225
grain Partition, the Speer 250 grain African Grand Slam, or the
Barnes X-Bullet in its heaviest
weight. H4350 is an excellent .358 Magnum powder, as are
H414,
Reloader-19,
W-760, and
IMR-4350.
Source: Hodgdon Data Manual, 26th Edition
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