The Nula Model 20: An Exciting .358 Winchester Revival

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Those who read my 2024 report in Shooting Times on the acquisition of New Ultralight Arms by Bill Wilson of Wilson Combat may recall that I was surprised by the availability of the .358 Winchester chambering in the NULA Model 20 rifle. Mystery solved. During a later conversation with Bill, I learned that the .358 is one of his favorite cartridges, and he has used it on various North American and African game. I too have long been fond of the .358 and still have a Winchester Model 88 lever action chambered for it, but most of today’s hunters have either forgotten the cartridge or have never heard of it. Such a pity because it packs a mighty blow and does so from short-action rifles. The .358 Winchester story begins decades ago.

In the Beginning

Long before the final shots of World War II had been fired, the decision was made to improve the M1 Garand rifle in several ways, with the most important being full-automatic capability and a 20-round detachable magazine. Chambering that new rifle for a cartridge that was shorter and lighter than the .30-06 Springfield but quite close to it in performance was also a priority. This would be made possible by the development of a new Ball powder by Olin Industries. Several “T” prototype rifles were developed, with at least one of them chambered for the .300 Savage. Production of the final rifle design, designated M14, began in 1959 at Winchester, Harrington & Richardson, Thompson-Ramo Woodridge, and the original Springfield Armory, where firearms for the U.S. military had been built since the Revolutionary War. By that time, the .300 Savage case had been lengthened, given a milder 20-degree shoulder, and designated 7.62x51mm NATO.

Winchester played important roles in the development of the M14 rifle and the 7.62 NATO cartridge and wisely introduced the round to the commercial market in 1952 as the .308 Winchester. It was first offered in the equally new Featherweight version of the Winchester Model 70 rifle, and while the .308 Win. took awhile to catch on with hunters, it eventually became one of the most successful cartridge introductions made by Winchester.

The company hit another screamer out of the park in 1955 by necking down the .308 case and introducing the .243 Winchester in the Model 70 and adding it to the Model 88 in 1956. During that same year Winchester necked up the .308 Winchester case and introduced the .358 Winchester in those same two rifles. It was loaded with 200-grain Power-Point and 250-grain Silvertip bullets at respective velocities of 2,530 fps and 2,250 fps from a 24-inch barrel. The intent was to improve on the performance of the Model 71 lever action in .348 caliber that was scheduled to be discontinued by Winchester in 1957. Velocities of the two cartridges are about the same, but the .358 shoots a bit flatter and delivers more energy downrange because its bullets are more streamlined in shape.

Whereas the .243 Winchester immediately began to sell like solar-powered electric blankets in an Eskimo village, sales of rifles in .358 proved to be disappointing, to say the least. In 1957 Winchester ceased production of Model 70 rifles chambered for it and dropped it from the Model 88 in 1962. The 22-inch barrels of the Model 88 and Model 70 Featherweight have the same contour. With a Burris 1.75-5X Signature Safari scope in a Conetrol two-piece mount my Model 88 has worn for many years, it weighs a couple ounces shy of 8.5 pounds. Its serial number indicates 1959 production.  Of just over 283,000 Model 88s built from 1955 to 1974, fewer than 13 percent were in .358 Winchester.

In addition to the two Winchester rifles, the .358 Win. has been available in the Savage 99 and Model 77 and American rifles built by Ruger. While writing this I was informed that it is still offered in the lever-action Browning BLR, but availability is limited. The only foreign-built rifle in .358 Win. I have examined through the years was a beautiful Mannlicher-­Schoenauer full-stock carbine with a 20-inch barrel. Over there the cartridge is known as the 8.8x51mm.

New Life for the .358 Win.

Factory ammunition loaded by Winchester has long been virtually impossible to find, so its availability from Lehigh Defense is good news. Bill Wilson also owns that company, so it should be on the shelf and ready to ship for a very long time. The ammo also is available from Buffalo Bore, HSM, and Hornady.

The .358 Winchester is an excellent candidate for handloading. Due to the limited capacity of the case, a powder that does not exceed 50.0 grains for a maximum charge with a particular bullet weight is highly recommended. I had not tried Hodgdon Benchmark until Bill Wilson mentioned the excellent accuracy he was getting with it and Lehigh Defense bullets. As I soon discovered, it has the correct combination of density and burn rate for loading bullets of all weights in the .358 Winchester. Alliant Reloder 7 does a great job with 180-grain bullets, but I long ago settled on Hodgdon H322 for bullet weights ranging from 180 to 250 grains. Since it and Benchmark are members of Hodgdon’s Extreme family of propellants, both are excellent choices for loads that will be subjected to wide swings in ambient temperature in the field.

Starline is the best bet for unprimed cases, and in addition to being of excellent quality, they are usually in stock and ready to ship. Standard primers, such as the Federal 210 and CCI 200, do a fine job of lighting the fire, even at the frigid temperatures often experienced during a hunt. If I were forced to choose two bullets for the .358 Winchester today, they would be the Lehigh Defense 180-grain Tipped Controlled Chaos (TCC) for deer and its 200-grain mate or the Barnes 200-grain Tipped TSX for elk and moose. While shooting the two rifles I had just enough Lehigh Defense ammo loaded with the 200-grain TCC to zero my Model 88 three inches high at 100 yards and then shoot three shots at 300 yards. At that distance they landed only nine inches below point of aim.

The .358 Win. Wilson-Style

When discussing the NULA Model 20 in .358 Winchester with Bill Wilson, I made no mention of barrel length but did state that I would be shooting it suppressed, so he sent a rifle with a 16.5-inch barrel. Overall length is 36.25 inches. The other barrel length option for the .358 is 20 inches. The barrel on my rifle tapers to a diameter of 0.70 inch and then increases to 0.745 inch for the last 1.5 inches to accommodate standard 5/8-24 threads and to leave a sufficient stop shoulder for a suppressor. Two opposing flats on the thread protector make it easy to tighten or loosen with a small adjustable wrench. The rifle arrived with Talley one-inch lightweight rings attached, and my digital postal scale indicated a weight of two ounces over five pounds. A Zeiss Diavari C 3-9S 36mm scope and four rounds in the magazine added 20 ounces.

For the benefit of those who missed my 2024 report on the NULA Model 20 rifle, I will touch on a few more details here. With a cylindrical receiver measuring 7.75 inches long and 1.22 inches in diameter, the entire action weighs just 20 ounces. It is drilled and tapped 8x40 for lightweight Talley rings that weigh 2.2 ounces. Metal finishes are Armorlube Diamond-Like Carbon on the receiver and bolt and Armor-Tuff on the barrel. The two-lug bolt has a mechanically attached handle with a tactical-style knob, a Sako-style extractor, and a plunger-style ejector. With the firing pin cocked, a bright red band on the cocking piece is exposed at the rear of the bolt shroud. Pressing down on a Model 70-style release at the left side of the receiver tang allows the bolt to be completely withdrawn for cleaning. The Timney Elite Hunter trigger has an adjustment range of two to four pounds, and its curved fingerpiece is 0.385 inch wide. Bolt rotation is blocked when the two-position safety is in its engaged position.

The Type 416R stainless-steel barrel is button rifled by Wilson Combat, with its bore lapped for smoothness and chamber­-to-muzzle dimensional uniformity. The two barrels I have checked (the other in 6.5 Creedmoor) with a Lyman Borecam had extremely smooth lands and grooves, which is no surprise since through the decades I have looked inside many 1911 barrels in .38 Super and .45 ACP made by Wilson. Barrel length options for NULA rifles will vary among the calibers, but they are 16.5, 18, 20, and 22 inches. As all factory rifles should have, the rifling twist rate is marked on the barrel, and it is 1:14 for the .358 Winchester.

The barreled action rests in a carbon-fiber stock made by AG Composites that weighs 27.5 ounces. One thing that caught my eye was machined inletting as precise as it can possibly be. The action is pillar-bedded in the stock with the barrel floating free. The grip of the stock has a circumference of five inches, and the trim forearm measures a bit less than four inches around at its centerpoint. Stock finish options are charcoal gray and two camo patterns, Canyon Rogue and Kodiak Rogue, with the latter on the rifle used for this report. Quick-detach sling-swivel posts are at the front and the rear, and the cushiony Pachmayr recoil pad does work. As is to be expected on a featherweight rifle, the bottom metal is aluminum with a black anodized finish. Pressing a button located at the front inner surface of the roomy trigger guard releases the hinged magazine cover for cartridge removal. The steel magazine box holds four rounds, and it has an interior length of three inches.

The NULA Model 20 has a sub-MOA accuracy guarantee, and while the rifle in 6.5 Creedmoor I shot back in 2024 did so with seven handloads and two factory loads, I had doubts about such a light rifle in .358 Winchester living up to such a demanding billing. And while the .358 is an excellent short-to-medium-range big-game cartridge and plenty accurate for what it was designed for, it is not known for tack-driving accuracy. So much for negative thinking. The NULA Model 20 averaged less than an inch with four handloads and one factory load, and not a single average for all powder-bullet combinations exceeded 1.50 inches, with many not exceeding 1.25 inches.

The NULA Model 20 built by Wilson Combat is one of the very best things to happen to the great little .358 Winchester cartridge since its introduction in the Winchester Model 88 and Model 70 rifles. And my thanks to Bill Wilson for making the ammunition readily available. 

NULA MODEL 20 SPECS

• MANUFACTURER: Wilson Combat, wilsoncombat.com
• TYPE: Bolt-action repeater
• CALIBER: .358 Winchester
• MAGAZINE CAPACITY: 4 rounds
• BARREL: 16.5 in.
• OVERALL LENGTH: 36.25 in.
• WEIGHT, EMPTY: 5.13 lbs.
• STOCK: AG Composites carbon fiber
• LENGTH OF PULL: 13.25 in.
• FINISH: Armorlube Diamond-Like Carbon bolt and receiver, Armor-Tuff barrel, black anodized aluminum bottom metal, Kodiak Rogue camo stock
• SIGHTS: None
• TRIGGER: Timney Elite Hunter, adjustable from 3 to 5 lbs.
• SAFETY: Two position
• MSRP: $4,200

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