Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Winchester's 350 Legend

I am still looking for a rifle for my very petit young daughter for her first hunting season. I was looking to get a 6.5 Grendel and still may, but since the 350 Legend came on the scene and now Ruger has their compact American Rifle chambered for it, I am considering that too. My question for those who may have tested it is, how is the recoil and with the available bullets how far to you feel it will be effective on deer?

Thanks

I just received my Ruger Ranch in 350. I haven’t had it out yet due to the extremely wet weather but it would seem to be proportioned for a young hunter depending on how the stock fits her. It certainly is a light-weight. A scope gets it up roughly to the +/- 7 lb range.

I can’t imagine that the 350 L would cause too much ruckus in that weight rifle as it’s just a “lengthened 357 mag.” Even with the very stubby barrel I think it will serve well in the 150-200 yard range with one of the loads Win shows for it.

Thanks

For a slightly build youngster, I'd look at a .243, one of the small 6.5s, a .250-3000 or something in that power level. If you're going to be limited to shots under 200 yards, there are several bolt action .30-30 rifles floating around out there (the Remington 788 and the Savage 340 come to mind, but there are others) that could be loaded with 135 grain bullets and be pretty low recoiling as well.

As in '357 Max.'.

Seems to me to be a bolt-action (not to mention an AR-15) friendly version of the 357 Max, Which is a good thing from my perspective as I had a contender in 357 Max years ago and thought it one of the best chamberings in that platform. Though regarding experience... I never killed any big game past about 75-80 yards with my contenders.

I do not feel there is anything wrong with it for your purposes, same goes for your other choice 6.5 Grendel or even the .243 or 250 Savage that 40X mentioned. Don't see any wrong answers except rifles in 250 are much harder to find and more expensive than Ruger RAR's.

Jerry

On another post the 6.5 Grendel is said to have less recoil than the .243, but still have good killing ability.

I can attest to the 6.5 Gendel with a small sample of 3 wild boar one shot kills using 129 Nosler Accubond along with a couple hundred target shots The recoil is very mild and trajectory seems on par with the average .308 Win with factory 150 grain loads. One boar was shot a little over 300 yards away. The rifle belongs to my neighbor with whom I hunt hogs most evenings and every so often at night. We hand loaded the 129 Nosler LRAB but have not chronographed the load. We use SRB 118 powder which is a discontinued powder produced in the 1990s by AA. I find the .350 Legend interesting and would like to try one, but not so much that I would come up off the price to get one. It's hard to justify when I've never had a hog escape that was shot with my .223 . The .223 is what I carry at night, .30-06 in the daylight in case of long shots on big animals.

Well, I put an old Zeiss 4x Diavari scope on the little Ranch rifle. This petite scope and power seem appropriate for the intended use. I also see 350 Legend ammo becoming available — I have two boxes of the 145-gr FMJ stuff for sighting in and paper-punching and two boxes of the Win 180-gr load coming.

When it arrives I will get out the “lie-detector timer” and see how fast the little boutique “357 Long Mag” shoots. I was tempted to go the 450 Bush route but frankly I am tired of recoil at this point especially as might be in the little 6 3/4 lb RR rifle. Another sucker for a new designer cartridge. 😏. We’ll see.

I did get a kick out of Win’s marketing claims for the cartridge: https://winchester.com/350-Legend. It reminds me of their claims for the WSM’s as they were coming out, particularly the 270 WSM if memory serves. Now days, it’s called “spin.” There are more colorful words.

Try slightly reduced loads for a Marlin 30-30. Remington offered Managed Recoil ammunition a couple years ago for all the 30 calibers.

30-30 is a keeper!

Sherwood

Grendel, all day over the .350. Would only go with the .350 in the states it was designed for. There are some light, tough bullets for the Grendel that will reduce recoil even more and shoot pretty flat. No contest IMO, for general purpose use.

Thought of that, but she is so small she couldn't work the action or reach the trigger comfortably.

Again, this cartridge falls within the parameters of the state-mandated regulations of several states, including mine, and is the only reason I’d be using it.

EDTA: and in Iowa (one of the states) that spells “no bottle-neck cartridges.”

Grendel for sure

If your state doesn't require you to use a straight wall cartridge, I wouldn't use one. Go with the Grendel for very low recoil and good killing ability using the proper bullets.

If I were in your position, I would get either a 6.5 Grendel or a .300 Blackout. One friend of mine bought a Blackout for his small grandson, but wound up using it himself after he had chemo and radiation for cancer. He simply couldn't handle recoil any more. Another friend bought a 6.5 Grendel for his son and it quickly became his own go to rifle because of the accuracy and stopping power.

6.8 Rem also low recoiling. Should be effective on deer.

I think within ordinary ranges it's a tossup for deer. Farther out, the Grendel rules. Rifle choices for the Grendel seem better too.

I keep thinking I've bought my last rifle, but if LSI ever gets the Howa Minis with floorplates in, I might have to dip my toe in the Grendel pool again, since I have enough stuff in hand to shoot for free for a good while.

Resurrecting the defunct .351 SL, upping the pressure and dropping bullet weight doesn't sound very legendary, since game laws are the only real reason for it existing.

Better options for low recoil rounds if you aren't mandated with sillyness.

222's and 223's kill deer sized stuff all day long, many in trim packages.

The 450 Bushmaster in the Ranch carbine with break is not a heavy kicker. My then 14 year old son used his to take a Yukon Moose..one shot and Mr. Moose fell in place. Much more versatile round, as is the 6.5 Grendel which unless you live in a jurisdiction with an extended season for straight cased cartridges is a very solid choice. That said the Legend would do as a deer round to 150-200 yards with minimal recoil and would be a fun little bugger to play with.

Wonder how'd it perform with some hard cast bullets?

But we knew that.

I have shot and seen shot deer with fast 22s. I am not impressed. Of the deer I have seen killed with only one shot was a head shot and heart shot. The heart shot deer kept walking like nothing happened until it fell over. 2 season ago my son shot his first deer with a .223. 4 rounds later, all of which should have been killing shots, the deer finally just fell over. Little internal damage and lacked penetration. I have yet to see a deer shot from a bigger diameter bullet act the same way or have the same erratic results.

Having said that I am willing to try the 52g TSX in the .223 if something else doesn't work out.

Its not .357" bullets are .355" (9mm).....not many good .355"bullets out there now.....I see it as a mistake like the 348 Winchester and 351 Winchester Self-Loader only Winchester is making ammo, bullets and brass....handloaders for now only proper custom bullets are available....there's no other cartridge you can form brass from.....

Winchester would have been smarter if they would have made it .357".....Clymer is making reamers to use .357" barrels......

SAAMI spec says .357........as does Winchester.......

And the 348 is no mistake.........mine has been working for 77 years. Just sayin

Hornady has added it.

Where are you seeing the .355 vs .357 specs?

I have pulled bullets and other people from Winchester 145 gr. FMJ bullets measure .355".......order a barrel from X-Caliber it will be .346" bore/.355" groove and every other custom barrel maker....

.https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/350-Legend-CC-Drawing-Website.pdf

Ha! Maybe I'm a bit biased for some reason, but the .348 was, IMO, hardly a mistake, with a 20-year run and still a number of happy users, though sadly not me at present. Time ran out on the rifle for a couple of reasons, but when it came out, handloading wasn't much of a factor in the market.

Not sure why they went 9mm on this one, but you can bet there's a reason, and again handloading considerations likely aren't on their radar for their rather small target market- deer hunters in areas with restrictions on rifle cartridges, not Loonies.

I suspect they went .355 to get a couple more thousands case taper for extraction, feed.

Sounds good to me!

While I need another rifle like I need another winky, I'm thinking maybe a re-bored Howa Mine .223 would make a nice little woods-walker, though .223s are perfectly legal here for everything.

Oh, I don't know. There were these twins in Baltimore for whom a second winky would've come in handy that night...

As you noted, BULLETS! I've had quartering pass throughs on hogs with the TSX, while obvious varmint class .224 bullets fail, since they were made to fly apart. Lacking penetration lands squarely on the bullet design.

I'd take a 222 class cartridge with a bullet that digs WAY before buying some niche, expensive goofball creation that will penetrate less than a stellar .224 bullet.
Practice with the 222 class is on the cheap as well, if you are inclined.

Most of the bullets were varmint type bullets years ago, but the ones my son used were Winchester 64g Power Points. I have read good things about the TSX in the fast 22s and have some ready to load. If I use them I will be the one shooting them so my daughter doesn't have bad results on her 1st deer should they not work well.

2 thou is nothing as long as the throat isn't tight.