Who has taken Whitetails or other game with model 71 .348?

[kevin in nh]

I have only taken one Deer with my 71.....dozens with other calibers, Bow etc just curious what your experiences were.........k

[86er]

In the booklet 1000 Tags Filled by Josef A. Riekers and John C. Clark the 348 Win is represented 6 times:

whitetail deer with 200 grain Hornady at 100 yds went 30 yards. Black bear with a 220 grain Barnes at 22 yds went 10 yds with a shoulder shot. Elk with a 220 Barnes at 88 yards went no-where. Moose with a 250 grain Barnes required two shots both into the shoulder and it traveled 50 yards. Bison with a 250 Barnes at 70 yards took two heart shots and went 100 yards. Hog with 250 grain at 35 yds went no-where after a heart shot. The bullets exited the elk and the hog however neither bullet exited the moose or the bison. This book is great for giving a snapshot of actual use of cartridges on game, just like you asked. You can get it at the link in my signature or by sending me a PM if you're interested. It shows 1000 shots on game with over 50 cartridges, and includes bullet brand/type - distance to game - species - shot placement - distance travelled after shot - # of shots required to bring down game - firearms - whether the bullet exited or not and other notes.

[pharmseller]

3 point mulie in 2007.
123 yards (lasered later).
Opening day.
One shot, 200 grain Silvertip, a little forward in the chest cavity (that brass bead covers a lot of animal at 123 yards).
DRT.



P

[dirwood]

I have taken 4 deer with my .348, two with jacketed 200gr Hornady's loaded to 2500fps and two with 220gr cast LBT's. The Hornadys shoot good but seem to be a bit stout for deer and don't seem to expand much. That said one of the deer shot with the jacketed dropped on the spot and the other made about a 30 yard dash straight towards me after being hit in the heart so they seem to work just fine. I decided I wanted to try cast bullets for hunting and ordered a 220gr LFN mold from LBT, I had several weeks worth of emails back and forth with Veral Smith at LBT trying to figure out the optimum bullet for my Browning model 71 and it is a winner, out shoots the Hornady's and works very well for hunting. I shot a small spike horn facing me right at the base of the neck with the 220gr cast bullet that I had made as a softpoint, a pure lead nose and a waterdropped wheel weight base, and the amount destruction was unbelievable, looked more like a ballistic tip type wound channel. The soft nose portion just blew apart and I found the remainder of the bullet under the hide on the deer's left hind quarter. The last deer I shot with the .348 was with the same LBT cast bullet and at the same velocity but was air cooled wheel weight and it work well, tore the lungs up well and showed signs of expansion. Since then I have settled on water dropped 50% pure lead and 50% WW as my hunting alloy. I took last year off from lugging the .348 but plan on carrying again this year. Just something about lugging that rifle feels right while slipping through the woods. Below is a link to cast boolits forum, I have posted several different .348 related things over there.

JW


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthr ... ght=jwhite

[RKrodle]

I've killed a few of hogs with my Browning 71, all using some Grizzly ammo loaded with 250 Kodiak bonded bullets. I was trying to recover a bullet for Mike Rintoul but the hogs wouldn't stop them. Finally recovered one from a Water Buffalo that I shot with CRS and 86er. Not quite the caliber for Water Buf but CRS was using a 405 win, and 86er a 375 H&H.

[hayabusa]

I have shot one buck with my Browning (Miroku). About 45 yards distant. He turned about 1/2 way around counterclockwise jogged about 30 yards and laid down. The ammo box reads Western Super-X 200gr. soft point Lubaloy. The ammo came with the rifle & is probably reloads. The gun came with several boxes of ammo. One shot broadside thru the lungs, one deer, and no wasted/ruined meat.
Busa

[2X22]

1 deer with 200gr Hornadys @ 2500fps

1 deer with 210gr cast @ 2200fps

2 bull elk with 250gr Barnes @ 2050fps

Both deer dropped at the shot as did 1 bull. The other bull was already running and travelled perhaps another 20 yards.

Both elk were inside of 150 yards as was one deer, the other deer was closer to 200 yards.

2x22

[kevin in nh]

There is just something special about picking thru the woods with true classic......1937 Standard long tang with good honest belly wear from the past owner (wish it could talk)....a little heavy but boy she comes up fast and right on and the action is smooth as glass. Can't wait for the first week in November in Maine to Tally one more with the .348.......

[BigSky56]

Elk,wt & mulies using the hdy bullet at 2500 it shoots thru & thru on lung/heart they all tip over pretty quick. danny

[Old Savage]

Neat stuff. This is the closest to an all around traditional levergun that I see, actually in a league by itself.

[dirwood]

What are everybodies favorite hunting loads? I have had good luck with IMR4895, RL-19, and Data 85 powders, I am at work now so I don't have my exact loads but am curious as what others are using especially with cast bullets. I have had a lot of fun with .350 round balls as well as a 220gr cast bullet loaded with 1.0cc dipper of Unique, the 220gr/Unique load is really accurate and a lot of fun to shoot. Even shot a few bunnies with it.

I got a whole bunch of my cast bullets that I inserted a strip of tin foil between the mold blocks while casting so it creates a division in the nose to improve expansion and or depending on the alloy will split off into sperate pieces. I have never tried these for hunting in the .348, I did try it in a 7.62x39 with a 165gr LBT bullet and while it worked great testing on wet paper it did not really perform well on deer, the nose portions simply broke off and did not cause a lot of internal damage. I think with the bigger bullet and more velocity it may work well in the .348, I may have to give it a whirl this year. So many loads and bullets to experiment with and only one rifle tag a year make it tough to test everything out the way I would like to. Luckliy I have a couple youngsters who I take out and are more than happy to use my rifles and ammo to get their deer with, allows me to try out more loads than I could ever do by myself.

JW

[BigSky56]

I use to use IMR 4895 53 grs with the hornady 200 for 2450 fps it is temp sensitive. I am now using AA 4350 62 grs hdy 200 for 2520 fps and a beartooth 245 HCGC pushed by 55 gr AA 4350 @ 2250 fps, AA 4350 is about half as temp sensitive as 4895. I am working on a load with Reloader 17 as it is not temp sensitive has the same burn rate as IMR4350 but more velocity well see how it works with the jacketed and cast bullets. danny

[Lastmohecken]

I havn't hunted a lot with my .348, but I have killed a lot of deer with a 350Rem Mag using 200gr roundnoses, and one nice big mature doe with my 71 in .348. Action on game seemed about the same. Both calibers seem to hit with plenty of smack down as they say.

I may use the .348 again this year. The doe I shot with it, did run maybe 30 or 40yds, but I could tell that it hit her hard, however I remember that the light was fading fast, and I had trouble making a good shot with the iron sights in the poor light. I did hit her up front, but I don't remember where, I just remember it wasn't the best shot placement I ever made. Still yet, the 200gr silvertip did a fine job.

I have since found a nice old sourdough front sight, that I think might be better in low light, in conjunction with my receiver sight for my model 71.

[2X22]

I started out using AA3100 and have stayed with it due to the incredible accuracy I get with all bullet weights no matter if it is jacketed or cast.

2x22

[Old Savage]

Big Sky - RL22 is more stable under temperature change than most and very good on accuracy but likely not as high velocity. Might be worth a try as I see AA3100 mentioned.

[Catshooter]

Paco, in his "Leverguns" book tells a good story about using his 71 in 348 to harvest game to feed his family one winter.

He used round ball powder puff loads for grouse and then two does. A full-on load for their buck. He cast all the bullets.

Good book. If you have the chance, pick one up.


Cat

[tman]

Deer and black bear with factory 200 gr. loads.