Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Guns N Gear Gun Brokers sellers

Are most Gun Broker sellers firearm illiterate? I have been hunting off/on for an odd caliber rifle (358 Norma), and the rifle being appropriately heavy and barrel weighted properly is important to me for shootability. To gauge barrel contour I’ve been pinging sellers asking “what is the barrel OD at the muzzle”. One told me 0.323”. When I explained in detail what I meant and how that couldn’t be true, they said “well I remeasured and it’s 0.358”. “. Another seller told me diameter was “about 2” “ at the muzzle.

It makes me think these aren’t even really “gun people”. Of course all my questions about the actions being rebarreled and manufacturing marks seem over their heads.

Ugh. Just venting

Does make you wonder if they don't know what ,,OD,, means if they really know how to use calipers

My beef with GunBroker is that they don't require a caliber to be selected, and they let folks who do enter a caliber call it whatever they want.

No way to sort and see all the rifles in a certain caliber.

Try guns international there is a Remington in that cartridge at cabelas somewhere for 659$ you can call them and have them sent it to the bass pro/cabelas of your choice for free

They do have caliber selection to enter when you list and you can search by caliber

Thanks for the heads up!

Absolutely correct, but since it's not required, sellers often don't list it. That was my point, that sometimes when you try to use the filters, there might be 15-20,000 rifles from a particular maker, but only 7,000 or so will be accessible by the caliber search.

Edited to add - Just checked Howa bolt action rifles. Caliber filter says there are 50 chambered in 25 Creed. There are actually about 175 Howa bolt action rifles listed now in that caliber.

Just a little frustrating when I am chasing a particular caliber, that the search function that's supposed to make it easier, actually hides more than half of what I want to see.

Interesting; because when you start a new listing for a rifle, required fields are make, model and caliber.

I found these under 25 Creed
Results for howa in Bolt Action Rifles
Save this Search
1317 Items Found

I’ve never been pleased with the GB search function.

I found these under 25 Creed
Results for howa in Bolt Action Rifles
Save this Search
1317 Items Found[/quote]

I tried a dozen combinations, and never got that many results. Creed vs creedmoor would change the results significantly.

I actually checked about 10 different combos and typed the results, but the "4 deep" quote bullshit killed my post, and I ain't digging that deep again. Suffice it to say, the order of the search parameters should never change the quantity of positive results, and a range of 3 results to several hundred should never happen just by rearranging the search parameters. And changing "creedmoor" to "creed" should increase the results, not reduce them.

I do agree that GunBroker is better that any other current resource, and have been using it for over 20 years. That doesn't mean it couldn't be better than it is today.

I prefer Guns International over GB but still search GB occasionally.

I may wait to see if no one bids on that Mauser-based 358 Norma on GB now then take a flyer low bid offer to the seller. I have no reasonable story for wanting a gun in this caliber. I just want a sort of howitzer-style weapon in an odd caliber to overkill paper and hogs with. And maybe a Nilgia one day.

Did you see this one?

https://www.gunbroker.com/item/1181077140

Thank you - I did see it, and thought about it. I’m a little leery of potential recoil with an original 7mm Mag barrel being recut to 35 caliber. Maybe I should think harder about it.

I had a Ruger 77 tang safety that began life as a 7mm mag that was woefully inaccurate so I snatched the barrel off of it and sent it to Douglas and had them duplicate the taper in a .358 barrel chambered in 358 Norma. I am a handloader and it you aren't you should be if you want a "Big Swede". I used 338 Winchester brass necked up to ,358 and it worked fine. I loved the rifle and it shot 250 gr Noslers very accurately with IMR 4350 powder.
That rifle you are looking at on GB is done up by Jesse Ocompaugh and I know Jesse. If it wasn't safe to rebore it, he wouldn't have done it. He uses the tried and true cut rifling method. It is time consuming but it is the absolute best method to rifle a barrel and leaves no stress in the metal. He has done them for me and the results are very good. I have a Belgium BAR that was a 30-06 and it wouldn't hit a bulls ass but he bored it to 338-06 and it shoots great now. If you buy a 358 Norma, you can load it with 200 gr bullets to the 2200 to 2400 to help with the recoil. If you have an old 7 mag or 300Win laying around, he can rebore the barrel for about $400 and you will be assured that the barrel will fit in the stock without having to do stock work. GO FOR IT. BTW, Nilgia are known for their toughness but the 358 will knock them flat of their butt!

Thanks Murf, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one interested in the big 358 nowadays. Well, the original rifle I was interested in based off the old German Mauser action, someone bought it out from under me. I was sort of surprised at that price. Oh well. The other one, I’m not worried about the safety aspect, it’s more the recoil with a lightweight rifle.

I’ll keep looking. Eventually I may just have someone build me one, it’s just hard to find someone knowledgeable that works on CRF rifles now. At least without a really long lead time or high cost.

BTW - what was your experience with the recoil of the 358 when using 250gr bullets?

It's got some but I was not particularly recoil sensitive when I owned the rifle. I would compare it to a 12 ga 2 3/4" high brass in a shotgun with same weight as the rifle. The thing about recoil is that with a rifle, you are hunkered down on a bench looking through sights/scope, trying to concentrate when the gun goes off. A shotgun can kick you the same amount but the shooting conditions are totally different. If you are hunting, the adrenalin is high and you don't feel it as much as you would on the bench. Remember, there is always a Lead Sled.