Building a .358 Winchester rifle

It's up to you what you want . You definately want a short action . Barrel can be a major consideration too . Wood stock if you want fancy can also get up there . I'll tell you what I did . Had a post 64 Win 70 push feed in 308 with a worn out barrel& since I already had 2 30/06's decided to go with a different caliber & decided on 358 Win . Went with a Douglass # 4 contour since stock was already channeled for a heavy target barrel . Picked the 1 in 12 twist vs the 1 in 14 . Already had mounts / rings & stock had already been pillar / Devcon bedded all I had to do was get action face trued , lugs lapped & new barrel chambered , installed / headspaced . Left handed actions don't grow on trees either . Cheapest possible scenerio I could think off would be a Savage action , prechambered barrel which you could screw on & headspace yourself . Just about any stock you get will have to be bedded , even if you get one with bedding block it'll still have to be skim bedded . 358 is a handloaders cartridge & also performs very well with cast bullets . All that said you'd probably come off cheaper buying the new upper for your AR .

Intrepido said:

So I was toying around with the idea of building a .358 Winchester bolt action rifle and I found myself a left handed custom .308 action from Northwest Action Works.

How would I go about building a custom gun? What parts would I need to build this? Any suggestions? I'm trying to keep this build cheap (under $1000 bucks if even possible) with a wooden stock.

Click to expand...

Is your action complete? The three traditional parts of a gun are the lock, the stock and the barrel. The action, which you have, is the "lock." Now you need a stock and a barrel.

The modern practice is to mount a scope, and forget about iron sights. To do that, you need bases and rings in addition to the scope.

Midway has an ershaw barrel kit for a Savage for $200. Find any old Savage action short action in the right bolt face for 400 or less, add the barrel kit, and you have plenty left over for a custom stock or scope or whatever.

Sell me your action at a huge loss.

Or keep your action and see if you can find a remage barrel from criterion or mcgowen or somebody.

Ok, so if im reading correctly you already have a trued 700 action on hand? If not than youll be tight on 1K, and if you REALLY want that .450 id go with that instead.

If you DO go with the .358, and are trying to be cheap about it, i would suggest sending your aciton to ERshaw and having them install a barrel, cost will be 350-450 installed (cm or stainless), less than youll pay for most Remage barrels.

After that look for a used remington ADL stock some can be had that are very pretty, and ill give you the magazine box, spring, and follower youll need.
If you want a new stock and are ok with doing the finishing work Richards Microfit offers a very good deal on decent wood, BUT be aware that youll have to do quite a bit of work before youll be hitting the range.
Those options SHOULD bring you in close to 1k including the cost of the action if you dont already have it

If you want a BDL, or DM, then id highly recommend cruising ebay for wood takeoffs, if your diligent you can get them for under 100, but youll spend another 100 on bottom metal. The cheapest DM kits im aware of are howa/legacy kits, I have one on my 6x47s and they are cheap plastic, but mine is reliable and it wasnt much work to fit.

I vote sticking with the .358 win but only because it’s a sentimental favorite of mine. I have a BLR cambered in it but I’ve always thought a bolt action would be nice. You could also get an AR upper in .358 win as well.

As an aside, I recently bought some 225g Nosler BTs from a guy on the internet. I’m anxious to work some loads up with them to hunt with next year. Maybe I’ll get off my butt and do it earlier and not wait 1 week before deer season like I usually do

Built mine on an Interarms Mark X long action as I got it cheap. I'd second the vote on the ER Shaw barrel. You could also check with Bell & Carlson for a synthetic stock that should keep you enough under your goal for some optics of some type for it.
Mine likes the 200 gr Spire point Hornady's at 2500 or so. Death on all the critters I've shot with it. Fun cartridge and fairly easy to load for.

You could always buy a Lefty Ruger GSR in .450 Bushmaster since you mentioned a substitute being a .450 AR upper. One member here @AyyDudee30, was considering one and has a thread about it.

https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/ruger-gunsite-scout-in-450-bushmaster.831763/

How cheap do you want to be?

• Savage 12 Cabela’s $269 after $100 rebate
• Boyd’s stock, pro Varmint, DBM, nutmeg, high gloss, 1” decellerator $200
• PT&G bottom metal $170
• Shilen drop in chromoly $375
• Magpul Pmags $35 each

So you’re all in, before optics, for about $1,100, and no fees to a gunsmith. Won’t have the highest pedigree, but it’ll outshoot a lot of rifles which do...

i bought a remingtom 700 left hand 7mm08 for under 500 dollars some years ago that could be rebored and rechambered into .358. but in 7mm08 its to nice a shooting rifle to do that and I don,t think I,ll shoot the barrel out in my life time.

eastbank said:

i bought a remingtom 700 left hand 7mm08 for under 500 dollars some years ago that could be rebored and rechambered into .358. but in 7mm08 its to nice a shooting rifle to do that and I don,t think I,ll shoot the barrel out in my life time.

Click to expand...

And THAT is why you should NEVER shoot the donor!

only if they give you aids.

Yep!
I bought a Remington Mod-7 in 7mm08 in '04 intending to rechamber it to .284win. I shot some PMC 139gr -Hornady bullet loaded factory ammo that chrono'd 3,000fps. That's what I was expecting from a .284.

It's not terribly accurate, but it's a brutally effective big game slayer. Easily my favorite bolt action rifle. Col. Askins was right when he said a 2moa rifle was easily a sufficiently accurate big game rifle.

Nature Boy said:

You could also get an AR upper in .358 win as well.

Click to expand...

Where from? I've been looking at making an AR 358 using KAK and DPMS parts for about $1500. I didn't know pre-made uppers were available. What platform are they an upper to?

look into a jes rebore, bout 250 on top of whatever donor gun you choose

goose, try to load some 120 nosler BT bullets with varget. my rem 7mm08 loves that combo. eastbank.

I would just get a savage in whatever trim you want and put the $200 ER shaw prefit on it.

zymguy said:

look into a jes rebore, bout 250 on top of whatever donor gun you choose

Click to expand...

That's probably what I would do, you can find cheap new or used .308s all over, and pretty easily keep your total under $1k with a $250 re-bore. Personally, I'd be tempted to start with a left hand SS .308 Tikka T3x ($629 shipped from Whittaker guns), probably $30 for shipping to JES, and $250 for the rebore, you'd be at $910 all told for a new rifle. The blueprinted action you mentioned will run you $735 once you add a trigger, and then you'd have to fit your barrel/barrel mounting cost and stock into the remaining $265... Pretty tough to get either one for that, much less both.

Ru4real said:

Where from? I've been looking at making an AR 358 using KAK and DPMS parts for about $1500. I didn't know pre-made uppers were available. What platform are they an upper to?

Click to expand...

I had thought there was an outfit that was making .358 win uppers but a cursory search netted nothing. There's plenty making the necessary components to build one (barrel and gas system), which has become a fairly common option for an AR10 platform.

Edit:

Here's a company claiming to make a DPMS compatible upper in many calibers, including .358win

http://www.ar-10-rifles.com/index.php