.348 Winchester

The .348 Winchester is an American rifle cartridge. It was introduced in 1936, and developed for the Winchester Model 71 lever rifle. The .348 was one of the most powerful rimmed rounds ever used in a lever rifle.

Performance
It is excellent for any North American big game in woods or brush, if the 250 grain bullet is used, but not especially suited to long range, as a result of the need to use flat-nose slugs due to the Model 71's tubular magazine. (Factory-loaded, midrange trajectory at 200 yards is 2.9 in for the 150 gr bullet, 3.6 in for the 200 gr round, and 4.4 in for the 250 gr slug.) The 200 and 250 gr loadings are preferred for anything past 100 yards.

In 1962, Winchester dropped the factory 150 gr and 250 gr loads, retaining only the 200 gr. No other rifle ever was ever offered in .348, and it has been supplanted by the .358 Winchester (in the Model 88). (The Model 71 was discontinued in 1958.)

In 1987 Browning produced a modern version of the Model 71 in Japan. These have different thread sizes in places, most notably the barrels, and many parts will not interchange with the originals. The Browning version was a limited production model only.

The case of the .348 is used to produce the 8-348w wildcat, used to rechamber World War 1-era rifles such as Lebel or Berthier, instead of the original 8x50mmR, still considered war materiel in France and therefore strictly regulated. The .348 is also the basis for the .348 Ackley Improved and .50 Alaskan.