I have made it a goal this year to dust off my Grandfather's old 351, work up some hand loads (this will definitely be the biggest challenge), test accuracy, and harvest a deer with it this year. I thought some on here might find the rifle/ cartridge interesting.

The rifle is a Winchester Model 1907 (mine was made in 1908) in 351 WSL. Ballistically it falls between 357 mag and 357 max. The rub is that ammo hasn't been manufactured in about 40 years and with the current ammo crisis projectiles and cases are very hard to acquire. It's a straight blowback action with a substantial counterweight so its heavy for its size but it's very handy and somehow manages to balance nicely.

I've got a good supply of 357 maximum brass and they're the ideal candidate to convert to 351. just need to shorten it, remove about half the rim and cut an extractor groove.

for the projectiles (they're .351 diameter for jacketed) I purchased some Lee sizing dies and I'll draw down an assortment of 180gr .357 and .358 projectiles to load and test. I'll update when I've made some more progress.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/XV0LL39.jpg?6[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/TPRVtbn.jpg?4[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/29McmNz.jpg?4[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/L7AERao.jpg?3[/img]

[img]https://i.imgur.com/YHyoVbb.jpg?3[/img]

You've already has it checked over by a gunsmith who declared it fit to shoot? .357 Max is no shrinking violet pressure wise.

He's right you know

Beautiful rifle and good luck with your quest!

Nice rifle!

She’s a beaut!

I didn’t mean to imply that I’ve never shot it, I’ve shot it multiple times over my life and the rifle has seen semi-regular use. I still have some original ammo for it, I just don’t want to count on that for hunting. Im a home shop machinist and gun builder and I’ve researched these guns extensively so I’m very comfortable shooting it. I’ve replaced the recoil buffer, recoil spring and verified that there are no frame cracks. It’s direct blowback, so there’s nothing that locks up or holds pressure other than a spring and the mass of the bolt/counterweight assembly.

That’s a really cool old rifle. Hope you can get one with it this year and put the finishing touches on a great tribute to your grandfather

That’s really cool!! Hope ya get one with it!

In that case look into medium burners.

Very nice rifle. Old guns have a style and feel all to their own.

I'm confused by your initial post.
Are you going to be using .351 diameter bullets or .357/.358?

I read it as he is resizing .357 to .351 and I'm assuming cast bullets.

You are correct sir, except I'm resizing jacketed bullets. The 351 is designed to shoot 180 grain .351 diameter bullets, the closest thing that exists (other than custom bullets for Hawk) are .357 and .358 projectiles so I'll be drawing them down in sizing dies.

Youre on the money with that one. IMR 4227, Accurate 4100 and Alliant 2400 seem to be the most popular and luckily I've got some 4227 in my stash. Len Speckin, the guy who literally wrote the book on this rifle seems to favor the 4100 loads, so I'll keep an eye out for that

Ok. I understand now.
I was hoping you weren’t going to try to push a .357 projectile down a .351 bore

Is that a problem? Asking for a friend...

Not sure if serious, but if you are I'd say it's ill-advised at the least... particularly with a jacketed bullet. Even with cast bullets that's quite a bit of excess to try to stuff down the bore. some people claim to have success shooting .355 diameter cast bullets without resizing but even that seems foolish when the sizing dies are so inexpensive and currently available from Lee.

Yeah, I am kidding. Poor attempt at sarcastic humor. I (and apparently everyone else in America) am waiting to find a set of .459 molds for the ,45-70, Plan on sizing with a gas check.