.348 Winchester bullet, 250 grains?

[Lone Star]

A friend who has a chance to hunt American bison wants to use his M71 Winchester for it, the largest rifle he owns.

He wants a 250 grain bullet other than the Barnes. The factory 250 grain loads have apparently been discontinued, he says.

The .348 takes an odd bullet size, and good bullets are hard to find.

Anyone know a GOOD 250 grain .348 bullet for reloaders?

How would he fare on bison if he just used a .30/06 with the Nosler 180 grain bullet? I'd think a couple of those in the lungs would soon yield a lot of bison beef... I am mindful that paleo- Americans killed them (even the large size that were long extinct before white men arrived in North America) with spears and projectiles cast from atal-latals (sp.?) Ditto arrows.

Lone Star

 

[pauli]

atlatl. neat things, and i wish i had enough land to play around with making one and testing it...

i would expect, though i am no expert, that most pre-gunpowder kills of large game were a matter of the animal bleeding out... which seems to be less than ideal to modern hunters.

 

[JimC]

The first 250 gr. bullet that comes to mind is the Barnes Original SP. High quality, not cheap, well constructed.

Midway-Barnes 250 gr. bullet

I only know one person who has taken a Bison (Buffalo). It was a controlled hunt in WY, he used a .300 Win. mag. and as I recall, it took him three shots to put it down. I seem to recall him saying that he used a 200 gr. bullet.

 

[Lone Star]

Ji-

Thanks, but as I noted, my friend does NOT want a Barnes bullet. He hates the things, as it's Hell to clean the bore after shooting them. Too many copper deposits, I guess.

Lone Star

 

[JimC]

Boy, I read right past that one. My apologies.

FWIW, the "original" is not like the "X" bullet as far as copper and at the velocities of the .348 Win., I doubt if it (copper fouling) would be an issue but...it is in fact his choice.

 

[Jim Watson]

Who knows if these small outfits are still in operation, still making the same selection as listed in Handloader's Digest 17th Ed, but...

Elkhorn
200, 250 gr .348

Hawk, Inc.
200, 230, 250, 270 gr .348
(and lighter)

Contact information is left as an exercise for the student.

 

[45crittergitter]

http://www.hawkbullets.com/P-LIST.htm

 

[256M-S]

I know your friend is looking for projectiles rather than ctgs, but since you also noted that he was looking for projectiles since the 250-grain Winchester ST factory load was discontinued, you might suggest that he take a look at the BUFFALO BORE 348 Win ammo loaded with the 250 grain J.F.N. Bonded Core at a quoted 2250 fps. It's fairly pricey at $60 per box, but then it fills a niche, too.

The BB round shoots well out of my 71 with 1-1/4 to 2-inch groups at 100 meters with consistent well-rounded groups using the old Lyman 65 aperture rear and a WIDE Sourdough foresight. Haven't tried it on anything larger than a 280-odd pound hog but it surely did both shoulders nicely. No bullet to recover though. That's no indicator of what it would do on larger critters like bison, of course, but I bought the BB ammo for a black bear hunt since I believe the 200-grain SilverTips to be too soft and unreliable based on the projectile's performance in 300 & 375 H&H. Never considered it for bison, since if I had a desire to shoot bison, I'd probably opt for one of my 45/70's in an 1886 or Rolling Block.

Still, since that's what he has, there's no reason that the 348 shouldn't work though with the BB ammo, and I don't know of anything better in factory ammo. I'd hoped Garrett would consider offering a 348 load, but had zero response to my E-mail queries---though, of course, it's out of their niche with the heavy hard lead projectiles.

I'd surely pass on a concern for using older Winchester ammo as I've had two rounds of fairly fresh 348 ammo separate at the shoulder. Of course, BB uses WW Super brass too. Surely would NOT just settle for factor 200-grain loads.

Would be interested in knowing what your friend ends up doing and how his chosen load performs on bison. The old 71's are lovely rifles and surely deserve to be used.