350 Legend

Put one of these together for a friend that wanted a deep woods rifle. He ended up taking an average Central WI doe at 60yds yesterday afternoon. Dead center, double-lung, broadside shot. Full penetration, lots of blood and 50 yard recovery using the factory Olin/Win 180gr load.

I tested the bugger on Thurs after assembly and it shot pretty well with the Olin/Win as well as the Hornady ammo. IMHO, the 350 is like a 30 Carbine on steroids. Low recoil, good accuracy and reasonably priced ammo that is available. Supposedly maintains 1000 ft/lbs energy to 150yards which is a darned long shot inside of a mature hardwoods.

Interesting report, GR.

In this day of “long range” this and “magnum” that, I think it just emphasizes how much firepower is really necessary for whitetails.

An interesting cartridge for those with straight-walled cartridge deer seasons.

Grouse

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

Interesting report, GR.

An interesting cartridge for those with straight-walled cartridge deer seasons.

Grouse

The cartridge was specifically designed for the AR-15 platform for straight wall deer seasons.

What would be the cat’s butt would be a simple single shot like the Henry or the CVA. Then a guy could seat the bullets out long (cast bullets in particular) and gain some powder capacity. That is the problem with this cartridge…you run out of case volume.

Although some of these national champion shooters are expounding their 250-275 yard shots (cough) on whitetails, this is a cartridge that delivers 1000 ft/lbs at 150 yards. That’s it, folks.

Recoil is low, about like the 6.8SPC. The difference is that the dwell of recoil impulse is def longer on the 350 Legend. It’s more of a push instead of a sharp jab in the shoulder.

My buddy shot a doe on opening day of the WI season with the Winchester 180gr. He drilled it broadside, right through the bellows at 50yds. He had a blood trail for 50yds that Stevie Wonder could have followed. The exit hole was “quarter sized”.

I’ve seen Ruger Americans in this caliber selling handily on gunbroker.com. Thought it looked interesting but wondered how different it was from a 35rem. For someone without a deep woods option already, looks like a nice round.

It seems that the biggest hangup is headspacing the factory ammo in factory chambers. There is no rhyme or reason to the affliction other than tooling dimensions/age of a given chambering reamer…and specific lots of ammo.

The cartridge headspaces off of the case mouth and the cartridge requires good bullet tension. These two attributes don’t gel real well and cause the headspace issue. Light primer hits and general misfires are the result.

Even still, I like the cartridge for short woods work. Very low recoil in a lightweight AR platform and plenty of penetration. I’d not be afraid to tackle a 200# WT at any distance that you could shoot one to in a mature hardwoods. BUT…the darned thing absolutely must go bang when you need it to.