.358 Norma Magnum - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The .358 Norma Magnum is a bolt action rifle

Rifle

A rifle is a firearm designed to be fired from the shoulder, with a barrel that has a helical groove or pattern of grooves cut into the barrel walls. The raised areas of the rifling are called "lands," which make contact with the projectile , imparting spin around an axis corresponding to the...

cartridge

Cartridge (firearms)

A cartridge, also called a round, packages the bullet, gunpowder and primer into a single metallic case precisely made to fit the firing chamber of a firearm. The primer is a small charge of impact-sensitive chemical that may be located at the center of the case head or at its rim . Electrically...

introduced in 1959 by Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

company, Norma

Norma (company)

Norma Precision is a Swedish manufacturer of ammunition located in Åmotfors, in the province of Värmland, just 20 km of the Norwegian border. It is commonly referred to as simply Norma.- History :...

. It is closely related to the smaller .308 Norma Magnum

.308 Norma Magnum

The .308 Norma Magnum cartridge was created by Nils Kvale at Norma, Sweden. Like the larger .358 Norma Magnum it is based on the .300 H&H Magnum. The length of the case is the longest that would fit in a standard Mauser action. While it appeared to have a bright future initially, it was soon...

. Both calibers share the same dimensions of the case head as the .300 H&H Magnum

.300 H&H Magnum

The .300 H&H Magnum Cartridge was introduced by the British company Holland & Holland as the Super-Thirty in June, 1925. The case was belted like the .375 H&H Magnum, and is based on the same case, as also is the .244 H&H Magnum. The belt is for headspace as the cases' shoulders have a narrow...

. The length of the case is the longest possible that would comfortably fit in a standard Mauser action. The .358 NM was the first .35 caliber cartridge commercially developed and sold to the American market since the decline of the .35 Newton

.35 Newton

The .35 Newton is a catridge introduced in 1915 by the Newton Rifle Co.-Details:The .35 newton was listed in the Newton Rifle Co. catalog in 1915, which presumably is the year it was introduced. It is the .30 Newton case necked-up to the 35-caliber. The Western Cartridge Co...

in the late 1920s. The case was designed and intended to fit in any rifle sized to chamber the 30/06.

Uses

Though introduced by a Swedish company, the .358 Norma was designed for American hunters, due to Norma's chief designer Nils Kvale's close contacts with American colleagues. It is a superb cartridge for the largest of North American game

Game (food)

Game is any animal hunted for food or not normally domesticated. Game animals are also hunted for sport.The type and range of animals hunted for food varies in different parts of the world. This will be influenced by climate, animal diversity, local taste and locally accepted view about what can or...

- elk

Elk

The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...

, moose

Moose

The moose or Eurasian elk is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic configuration...

, brown bear

Brown Bear

The brown bear is a large bear distributed across much of northern Eurasia and North America. It can weigh from and its largest subspecies, the Kodiak Bear, rivals the polar bear as the largest member of the bear family and as the largest land-based predator.There are several recognized...

, Bighorn Sheep

Bighorn Sheep

The bighorn sheep is a species of sheep in North America named for its large horns. These horns can weigh up to , while the sheep themselves weigh up to . Recent genetic testing indicates that there are three distinct subspecies of Ovis canadensis, one of which is endangered: Ovis canadensis sierrae...

, and bison

Bison

Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...

. While it is needlessly powerful for deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

-sized game, it can be used, at least with the heavier (and therefore slower) .358 bullets on such game without destroying too much meat. It would work well, with properly designed bullets, on most large African species. But laws prohibiting the use of bullets smaller than 0.375 inch (0.009525 m) on dangerous game, in most African countries, limit its use to "plains game," including the largest antelope

Antelope

Antelope is a term referring to many even-toed ungulate species indigenous to various regions in Africa and Eurasia. Antelopes comprise a miscellaneous group within the family Bovidae, encompassing those old-world species that are neither cattle, sheep, buffalo, bison, nor goats...

; the one-ton eland

Common Eland

The common eland , also known as the southern eland or eland antelope, is a savannah and plains antelope found in East and Southern Africa. It is the largest antelope in the African continent...

.

Norma took a gamble, introducing the .358 only as new empty cases for handloaders, and chambering-reamer

Chamber reamer

A chamber reamer is a specific type of fluted reamer used by gunsmiths and firearms manufacturers to cut the chamber of a handgun, rifle, or shotgun. The chamber reamer is inserted into the bore of a barrel and held stationary while the barrel is turned around it...

specifications for gunsmiths who made custom rifles—there were no factory rifles available, and it was several months before factory-loaded ammunition appeared. But the cartridge proved immediately popular with hunters and custom gunsmiths, and within a year the Danish firm of Schultz & Larsen

Schultz & Larsen

Schultz & Larsen is a Danish rifle and silencer manufacturer that originally was located in the city of Otterup, but as of 1994 have been located in the city of Rask Mølle on the island of Fyn....

chambered its Model 65 for the round, and Husqvarna

Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag

Husqvarna Vapenfabriks Aktiebolag was a Swedish firearms manufacturing company in the town of Huskvarna by lake Vättern.-History:...

its Series 1600 and 1650 rifles. Numerous American gunsmiths have made (and continue to make) custom conversions of suitable rifles, so numbers of factory rifles don't tell the full tale of the .358 Norma's popularity.

The .358 Norma would be far more popular but for the .338 Winchester Magnum. Introduced in 1958, the .338 Winchester was slow to take off, but has probably become the most popular medium-bore cartridge in the world, certainly in the U.S. The .358 is slightly more powerful, but the .338 is chambered by every American and most European gunmakers, and has the advantage of bullets with higher "sectional density"--the bullet's weight in pounds divided by the square of its diameter, so, essentially, pounds per square inch of frontal area—than are available in .35 caliber. All else being equal, the higher the sectional density, the deeper the bullet will penetrate. Nonetheless the .338, the .358 Norma, and the ballistically-similar .340 Weatherby Magnum are all excellent cartridges for anything smaller than Cape buffalo. But for those laws prohibiting sub-.375-caliber rifles on dangerous game, any of them would do anything the world-standard .375 H&H (Holland & Holland) Magnum will do.

The .338 Winchester and .358 Norma are "short magnums," designed to work in "standard"-- .30-06-length—rifle actions; many 30/06 rifles over the years have been rebarreled to the much-more powerful .358 Norma. The .340 Weatherby and .375 H&H require longer, heavier "magnum" actions. Norma's factory ammunition for the .358 Norma drives a 250-grain bullet at 2880 fps, about as fast as the .30-06 can launch a 165 grain bullet. The .358 Norma produces more than 4,600 ft-lbs (foot-pounds) of kinetic energy at the muzzle, and can deliver a foot-ton 500 yards downrange. It's recoil is pretty much identical to the .338 Winchester and other medium bore magnum rifles driving similar weight bullets at similar velocities. But for elk, moose, bear, kudu, eland, and the like, it is all the gun most hunters would ever need. The gun was referenced as the main rifle in the 1974 novel

Novel

A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....

Deathwatch

Deathwatch (novel)

Deathwatch is an American 1972 novel written by Robb White. The book was awarded the 1973 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile Mystery from the Mystery Writers of America....

.

The handloader

Handloading

Handloading or reloading is the process of loading firearm cartridges or shotgun shells by assembling the individual components , rather than purchasing completely assembled, factory-loaded cartridges...

can easily make cases by necking up and fireforming cases from any similar magnum: the .338 Winchester Magnum, .308 Norma, etc. Norma continues to make factory cases for this rifle. One advantage many handloaders enjoy is that the bore, being .358, allows inexpensive handgun bullets to be used for plinking and shooting for enjoyment, as well as light loads with bullets designed to expand at lower velocities that emulate lesser cartridges for deer, something that cannot be done with the .338's and .375's.

Uses

See also