The .358 NM was the first .35 caliber cartridge commercially developed and sold to the American market since the decline of the .35 Newton in the late 1920s.

Though introduced by a Swedish company, the .358 Norma Magnum was designed for American hunters, due to Norma's chief designer Nils Kvale's close contacts with American colleagues.

It is intended as a cartridge for the largest of North American game - elk, moose, brown bear, bighorn sheep, and bison, and shoots fast and flat enough to be useful to 400 to 500 yards on game the size of American elk (Wapiti).

[2] Norma took a gamble, introducing the .358 only as new empty cases for handloaders, and chambering-reamer specifications for gunsmiths who made custom rifles—there were no factory rifles available, and it was several months before factory-loaded ammunition appeared.

[3] The cartridge proved immediately popular with hunters and custom gunsmiths, and within a year the Danish firm of Schultz & Larsen chambered its Model 65 for the round, and Husqvarna its Series 1600 and 1650 rifles.