Hooray for me; I was able to aquire a mint .356 94 Big Bore today!! :D I topped it off with a 2-7x32 Nikon and feel I now have my "ultimate" eastern whitetail/black bear woods rifle.
Life is very good my friends!
whizzum300

Good deal whizzum... crank that dude up for PMII!

Congrats on the new rifle! bolt guns are nice, but leverguns are more fun!

Good for you,thats a great rifle.I saw a post on 24 hour campfire someone selling 11 boxes of 250 grn. factory ammo.That was yesterday.Good luck with the new rifle!

Sounds like a fun gun to shoot. Like Ranch Dog said, crank that baby up for the postal match. Have fun.

Congrats Whiz,

Sounds like you got yourself a fine working man's rifle. I know it will give you good service. I've just laid hands upon some 220 Grain Speer flat heads, expect that this bullet would be hard to beat in the 356. (or the 358, for that matter)

I haven't tried mine out yet- but they are fixin to get sacrificed in pursuit of the Postal match.

Let us know how it shoots.

Steve

Forgive my ignorance, whizzum, but I assume this is the .356ER?

Forgive my ignorance, whizzum, but I assume this is the .356ER?

Sidespin,

That would be a Marlin. No, My rifle is a Winchester model 94AE Big Bore. Nothing to forgive my friend; I'm still trying to figure out what a postal match is, I'm probably assuming wrong that it has something to do with CAS??

As a fan of .35 calibers I have all kinds of Spire points for my .350 Rem Mag, and roundnoses for my .35 Rem, but so far only have the Speer 180 flatnoses that I also used in the .35 Rem. I'm ordering the 220Speer flatnoses tonight.
It's recommended to use flat points with this caliber/magazine as to avoid detonating rounds in the mag under recoil. I believe Speer even says to avoid roundnoses in this gun.

whizzum

Whiz,

I agree with your assessment, and think I would leave the roundnoses out of the tube. The good news, as you mentioned, is that you have two loads that are tailor made to near any application, 180's for deer, and 220's for bigger stuff. I am trying to remember if that 250 Speer Grandslam has a flathead on it. Do you know?

Ranch Dog has graciously volunteered to host the postal match, which has the rules and targets in up in the leverguns (general) section. Basically, we copy the targets, shoot them at 100 yards at 4X with five rounds, and mail them to R.D.

I am personally very excited about the match, I can't think of a better motivator, and I'm sure it will sharpen my skills tremendously. Not that my rifles are match accurate, best all time out of all three was a shade under an inch, and I about did cartwheels. Could end up being a recipie for insantiy, but a fellow will sure get the shooting in.

If you decide to shoot your 356, you will be shooting against me, as I will more than likely shoot my 358, or one of the other two darkhorses that also start with a "3". I'll look forward to it.

Good luck,

Steve

Congrats on a very fine rifle. I bought mine new in 1992 and it has been my favorite gun since. I have a Williams FP sight which works good for the ranges I shoot it at. This is a good site to be on for people with experience with this and similar 35 calibers.

Congrats on the rifle, sounds like your good to go. now all you have to do is drop something with it LOL ;) Aim small hit small. RAMbo.

Whizz,

Thanks for the info on the Winchester. I have the ER (Marlin) .356. Have not shot it but probalby will in the Postal Match. An excellent description by Whitehunter35. Like you I have an affenity for the "odball" 35's. Don't know why but that's not important. I do know they are a lot of fun.

I shot rather poorly in the Postal Match last year. I had time for only 2 cards, but discovered something I would not have thought, my 336CS .35 sends 150's down the range a good deal more accurately than 200's. I do not reload so I can't cook my own but I got 5, 150's on the 3x5 index card @ 100yds with no problem at all at 4x.

I plan to enter the .356ER and my M375 into the contest this year. We'll see what happens.

I encourage all to enter, it's a lot of fun to compare with everyone else.

Steve, the Speer Grand Slam, and the Spitzer spire point 250 grs. are both Spitzers. Nice for my 673 .350 Rem Mag, but dont help out the other guns.

Sidespin, I can't encourage anyone enough to get into reloading. Anybody who tells you that it makes ammo cheaper has been doing it for a very long time, or has stuck to few calibers.( It takes awhile to recoop the equipment costs) But you will almost always find more accurate loads, always be able to find the particular weight bullets that you want to shoot, and have a **** of a lotta fun doing it. I started with all used equipment brought into the gun shop by an old timer who feels he has enough rounds loaded to last the rest of his shooting life. I've gradually upgraded this equipment so the cost was never all at once. I'll be willing to bet you that you could easily get your Marlin to shoot those 200 or even 220 grainers better than the 150's due to the heavier bullets better ballistic coefficient. I hope to oneday welcome you into this endeavor.

To everyone involved in the postal match -Thanks cause whizzums been waiting to go postal, and now I'll have my chance!! :D

Still waiting for the dies for the .356Win, so I shot the factory Winchester 200grs today. All 50yd groups (3-shot) were touching and my 100yd groups were 7/8in.(3-shot) and 1.25in.(6-shot) respectively. My only regret is that I ran out of ammo before I could shoot my postal match targets, and the groups were about 1-1/2in off the bull. Can't wait to get this puppy reloaded!! :)
Whizzum

Whiz,

Congrats, ain't it great when a plan comes together?

I had none too much joy on my first Postal attempt, had a real screaming case of the 5th round flyers. Looking forward to the next iteration, though, and I did shoot two of the best three shot groups in the history of that rifle. Hope springs eternal.

I also had some functioning issues with those 220 Speers. I may try to push them a little deeper in the case, and see if that fixes the problem, and if not, they will go to the 350. I kind of hate to see that, really, as in the bolt gun they will end up just being range fodder, and I saw these as great hunting bullets for the 358. Oh well, such is life.

This match is good business, Its amazing how much a fellow can improve when "just" good enough, isn't good enough anymore. Praise the lord for higher standards.

Steve

Steve,

Be careful pushing those into the case; you may not have enough of the cannelure for your crimp. What type of .358 do you have? Just curious 'cause the .356 200gr. factory stuff cycled great in the model94; wondering the same about those 220's becoming range fodder for my .350.

whizzum

Whiz,

Mine is a older BLR. I have noticed that with extremely long projectiles there is a little hitch when the action is worked, and a little of the same hitch with the 250 grain Horn RN. I seated the 220's a little further out, trying to get a little closer to the rifling, so I am hopeful that pushing them in a bit will solve the problem.

I like Speer bullets a whole bunch, and figure for the money they are sure hard to beat.

Good luck.

Steve

Steve,

Don't hate me for this, but I have to say hooray for me again;
Found a guy today that has several Browning model 71's in .348Win new in the box still. I have a Win.71 rifle in good shape, but couldn't resist that brandy-spankin' new Browning carbine. He has a couple of carbines still new in the box if your interested. He sold all the full-size rifles,and the high grade ones already.
Whizz

I originally bought a Win. 94 in .356 for myself but now have given it to my Grandson. We live in the Tug Hill plateau area of upstate N.Y. and I have always loaded the 180gr. Speer for whitetails and when going out west to hunt we load it with 220gr. bullets. It's a great cartridge and fun to shoot. Respectfully, M.R.

M.R.
Was actually up that way once looking for property. Decided it was a little too far from my corner of NW Jersey,and bought some land in Otsego Co. instead. Nice area up there though.
whizzum

I was sad to see the .356 vanish from Winchester's catalog. Yet I'll admit I did not help sales one bit as I never bought one. So it goes.

I think you'll like my post about "Why I like the 35 Remington". .356 will do anything the 35 Remington will do but ADD an extra 150 yards or so. The 180 grain Speer is one hard hitting bullet and you might consider it for whitetails and mulies.

Good hunting to you.
TR