The Model 71 .348 Winchester
By: John Goins /akabeagle
I remember as a young lad of about 9 or 10 years of age going on weekend vacations to the mountains of North Carolina with the family. At that age, I was engrossed in everything readable and Field and Stream and Outdoor Life were available and thoroughly read as I was interested in hunting and guns in general.
One of our stops there was at a local “tourist trap” for gas and water in dad’s 1936 Chevrolet as I remember that it was overheating at the time. There was a gas station, restaurant and a souvenir shop all rolled into one. The owner had a caged, live Black Bear outside as a drawing card and I guess that’s the first one I’d seen alive and in the flesh. Behind the place he had a pen full of bear hounds. All cut up and skinny and not impressive to me as one that didn’t know very much about bear hunting.
Inside the place, the owner had his guns on a rack and I remember one was a Model 71 .348 Winchester with a couple of boxes of Peters ammunition on the rack alongside. That did impress me and I vowed that someday, I’d have one.
Last weekend, I attended a gun show and although the Winchester Model 71s were too rich for my blood, a new Browning M71 followed me home as well as did a “yard sale” box of .348 brass of dubious quality, vintage and condition.
I had previously squirreled away dies, a shell holder, moulds and sizers in .350” and .352”.
I immediately tumbled 20 rounds of the better looking brass and due to the age of it, all went through the annealing process. Later, I measured all of the brass and most of it needed trimming. Evidently, this brass had been reloaded several times before. So, be advised that .348 brass will stretch and requires trimming. Just a brief note here on trimming. I was unable to trim .348 Winchester brass in the Forster trimmer as I had no collet that would accept the .348 case rim and the collet opening was too small. I resorted to the old Lyman trimmer that uses shell holders and it worked well for trimming the .348 brass.
I had two bullets to choose from initially. One was the Lyman #350482 and the other was a Ideal #350457 HP. I chose the #350482 as all casters know that bigger is better with cast. The 348-200-FN has been since added to my mould accumulation.
This was loaded over 26 grains of 4227 and Sunday morning, I hit the range. I had neglected to run any through the magazine and they were seated too far out but they chambered and shot just fine. I got two groups of 1.5” and 2” at 50 yards with factory iron sights. I was happy with that.
Now, down to the real work.
L-R: 350293 HP, 350319, 348-200-FN, 350457 HP, 350482
These are the bullets I had to work with.
The #350293 HP and #350319 are designed for the .351 Winchester Self Loading rifle and weigh 167.2 grains and 176.7 grains respectively. The #293 HP is a plain base and the #319 is a gas check. These are a little light for the .348 but I intend to try them as plinking loads while I’m testing with Unique.
The 348-200-FN RCBS bullet is a special order mould from RCBS. It weighs 210.8 grains lubricated, sized and with a gas check. It casts about .3495” from my alloy and the crimp groove is designed for use in the Browning M71 with its short throat.
The #350457 HP is a Louverin design and weighs 239.6 grains. It loads very well in the .348 cases and I anticipate it being very accurate.
The #350482 is the workhorse and reminds me of the old favorite in the .35s….the #358009. It weighs 265.0 grains. Due to the large nose, it has to be seated slightly deeper in the case in order to feed through the magazine of the M71. During the writing of this article, one cavity of this mould was modified for a hollow point and produces a 251.8 grain bullet.
35-200-FN HP downsized to .3505”
Since I initially didn’t have a 200 grain bullet for these experiments, I was racking my brain for ideas and spied a box of 35-200-FN HPs on the bench. I lubricated and sized bullets through first, a .355” sizer, and then my .3505” sizer. The diameter of the nose on the 35-200-FN is a little large for the .348 and downsizing tends to create sizer diameter “flats” on the side of the nose. In my opinion, this isn’t desirable but doesn’t affect accuracy that much if you don’t have a .348 mould. A Lyman/Ideal #358315 will also probably work when sized in this manner but I haven’t tried it.
The table below lists the load combinations I have tried. None of them produced any pressure problems in my rifle. Most are very mild as I’m shooting paper and do not need the velocity.
|
Bullet |
Weight |
Powder |
Weight |
Aver Vel |
SD |
Sized |
Primer |
Seat Depth (OAL) |
Comments |
Feeds |
|
350482 |
265.0 |
4227 |
27.0 |
1603 |
30.8 |
.3505 |
HLP(1) |
2.795(2) |
1.5”@ 50 |
No |
|
350482 |
265.0 |
4759 |
25.0 |
1617 |
4.1 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.715 |
2.0” @ 50 |
No |
|
350482 |
265.0 |
2015 |
25.0 |
1269 |
19.4 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.640 |
1.5”@ 50 |
Yes |
|
350482 HP |
251.8 |
4198 |
27.0 |
1586 |
14.8 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.640 |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
350482 HP |
251.8 |
4064 |
40.0 |
1441 |
18.1 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.595 |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
350457 HP |
239.6 |
4759 |
25.0 |
1738 |
5.6 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.757(3) |
1.5” @ 50 |
No |
|
350457 HP |
239.6 |
Reloader 7 |
27.0 |
1610 |
25.9 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.704 |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
350457 HP |
239.6 |
2015 |
27.0 |
1665 |
108.2 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.704 |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
350457 HP |
239.6 |
4227 |
27.0 |
1694 |
52.6 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.704 |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
35200 FN HP |
198.5 |
2015 |
25.0 |
1505 |
37.7 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.615(4) |
3.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
350293 HP |
166.5 |
Unique |
10.0 |
1321 |
12.5 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.595(5) |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
|
348-200-FN |
210.8 |
4895 |
40.0 |
1777 |
26.1 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.700 |
2.5”@50 |
Yes |
|
348-200-FN |
210.8 |
4198 |
30.0 |
1858 |
14.1 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.700 |
1.0” @50 |
Yes |
|
350319 |
176.7 |
Unique |
10.0 |
1285 |
14.2 |
.3505 |
Fed 210 |
2.725(6) |
2.0” @ 50 |
Yes |
(1) Use of the Herter’s Large Pistol primer was a mistake. I detected a slight hang fire with this load. Later loads all used a Federal 210 primer as I had a large lot of them on hand and no further troubles with ignition have been detected.
(2)The “book” Overall Length for the M71 is 2.795” but with the large round nose, I was unable to get these to load into the magazine at this length.
(3) This length fed through the magazine but chambered with some difficulty as the throat is fairly short on the M71. The neck diameter on the M71 is also fairly small as I tried to load some cartridges loaded with light bullets sized .3522” and they failed to chamber in the neck area.
(4) The “downsized” 35-200-FN HP provided acceptable accuracy and could be used if nothing else was available. I obtained better accuracy with .348 bullets.
(5) The #350293 HP sized to .3505 shot and fed very nice in the M71 and would make a nice plinking load. I was pleased at the accuracy I obtained with a plain base bullet.
(6) The #350319 sized to .3505” also shot well with a light load of Unique. If available, it would make a great plinking, small game or varmint load.
If you’re starting to load for a .348 Winchester, I’d recommend the RCBS 348-200-FN bullet to start with. Even though it’s a special order mould from RCBS, they’re usually a stocked item and readily available. In my limited testing, this bullet has provided the best accuracy so far and at 210 grains is about right for our smaller deer and short hunting ranges here in Kentucky.
After initially full length resizing, all of my loads have been loaded in neck sized cases and no chambering problems have been encountered.
In conclusion, I’ve achieved a lifelong dream of owning a .348 Winchester lever action. Not the M71 Winchester that I wanted but close enough to scratch the itch.
I hope that this article will serve to get you started in loading cast bullets in the .348 Winchester. It’s not so comprehensive as to list every load but I’ve touched on enough powder/bullet combinations to get you started. If you’re looking for “bear stoppers”, you’ll have to develop your own as these were designed for punching paper but the potential is there.
As for me, if the urge overcomes this old gimpy foot this fall, you’ll find me in the woods with the M71 loaded with 210 grain RCBS bullets looking for that big buck.
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