Handloads: .356 Winchester

by
posted on March 23, 2021
** When you buy products through the links on our site, we may earn a commission that supports NRA's mission to protect, preserve and defend the Second Amendment. **
356winc.jpg

The .356 Win. never caught the fancy of big-game hunters, and production of Winchester and Marlin lever-action rifles chambered for it lasted only a few years during the 1980s. The cartridge’s unlamented passing has resulted in a scarcity of both factory-loaded cartridges and cases for handloading. I used to neck-out .308 Win. cases to assemble rimless .356 cartridges, but they would slip out of the magazine and jam underneath the carrier of my lever-action Winchester Model 94AE XTR. So I single-load the cartridges into the chamber by hand, and that works fine for shooting practice, although it is obviously slower.

.356 WinchesterSlow shooting is a thing of the past now because .356 Win. cases are among the 450 handgun and rifle cartridge case offerings produced by Quality Cartridge (qual-cart.com). I checked 10 of its .356 cases and found that they varied only 0.60 gr. in weight and 0.005" in length. The only preparation they required was a slight chamfer to smooth the inside of their mouths for easier bullet seating. I also found that Quality .356 cases were 18.5 grs. heavier than Winchester .356 cases and that they held one grain of water less than Winchester cases.

Speer 220-gr. Hot-Cor bullets give the .356 a big step up over the .35 Rem. Velocity of the Speer bullets was 2281 f.p.s. fired by 49.0 grs. of Winchester 748 propellant from the 20" barrel of my Winchester Model 94AE. That was about 50 f.p.s. slower than the same load fired in Winchester cases. Standard deviation of velocity was 18 f.p.s. over nine shots, and five, three-shot groups varied in size from 0.52" to 2.32".

Thanks to cases from Quality Cartridge, the .356 Win. is back.

Latest

.308 Win.
.308 Win.

Handloads: A Quiet .308 Win. For Large-Format Pistols

Of the many commercial .308 Winchester loads, few, if any, are designed for barrels shorter than 16". The one that follows helps address this gap while remaining simple to suppress and light on the wrists.

Court Approves Watchtower Firearms DIP Financing

Watchtower Firearms was granted final approval for debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas in late June.

Review: Ruger LC Carbine In 10 mm Auto

Following the success of its .45 ACP-chambered LC Carbine, Ruger realized that this platform would go a long way toward making the 10 mm Auto more controllable and fun to shoot, and a new 10 mm version was released in 2024.

The Armed Citizen® July 14, 2025

Read today's "The Armed Citizen" entry for real stories of law-abiding citizens, past and present, who used their firearms to save lives.

Favorite Firearms: A Little Stevens From Chicago

"Over the next five or six years, and before I went off to college, I fired hundreds and hundreds of rounds of .22 BB Caps, CB Caps, Shorts and Longs through this rifle."

Preview: Strike Industries T-Bone Charging Handle

The T-Bone from Strike Industries is an ideal fit for suppressed applications, as it can be configured by the user to redirect gas blowback entirely to either side ...

Interests



Get the best of American Rifleman delivered to your inbox.