Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Thoughts on 350 legend

Thinkg bout getting one

I got a Bear Creek upper from Santa. It put five of the Winchester 180 gr. Loads under an inch at 100 at around 2020 FPS. I think that will do. It didn’t shoot the federal 180 or the Winchester 150s as well, but still under 2”. Seems to be a decent round.

Old70

Biggest downfall to the round is the .355 bullet. Limits options for reloading.
Similar performance to 357 maximum.

I built a 357 rimless (.223 basic brass cut 1.79” and .358 bullet) in an Encore and a Remington 700. Finally getting around to the 700. Killed a doe with the Encore.
180 Hornady SSP at 2600 FPS absolutely hammered her. Quarter to me shot for far shoulder. 15 yard nose diving run to a end over flip without a wiggle. Shattered off side shoulder. Watched it through the scope.
150 gr corelokts were 2870 ish. (Never shot these for groups.

The 357 Rimless is longer oal than standard.223
The length is standard.223 oal.
My cousin built 357 AR straight (standard.223 length but .358/.357 bullets)

They are fun to shoot.

My bud's nephew kid shot an 8 pt.in Nov.with it and it never had a chance.

It is easy for young ones to shoot.

Set one up for my mother this year. Ruger American topped with a Trijicon 3-9. She killed a large body whitetail at 120 yards. Seems to be effective with proper shot placement. She complimented its low recoil and said it was easier to shoot than her Encore 20ga.

I bought a Winchester XPR bolt gun in 350 Legend last September. I bought Lee dies and Starline brass but haven't started reloading for it yet. Waiting for good bullets to hit the market. After a proper break-in and repeated cleaning with Kroil and JB bore paste, I got 1.1" 3 shot 100 yard groups with Winchester Deer Season XP factory rounds. Shot a big doe opening day at 47 yards. Entered front of lungs and cut the top of the heart. She went 31 paces and fell over dead. Shot an 8 point at 65 yards during our "bonus" weekend in Ohio. He was between trees and I held a bit farther back than I should of and made a liver shot. He sprayed blood in the snow for 110 yards and fell over dead - which is what happened in the past with a liver shot on a buck with my 45-70. Exit wound on this buck with the 350 Legend was impressive. I chose the Winchester XPR rifle because I like the longer barrel and stock. In hindsight, if I would have know that the Deer Season XP rounds performed so well, I wouldn't have bought the dies. Also, the magazine feeds flawlessly in the Winchester rifle and the 3 1/2 pound adjustable trigger is excellent. I used to shoot high power service rifle and I can say, this is a very good deer rifle. Agree that the recoil is very mild.

As soon as I looked at the round, I knew where Win got it from . They say it has no parent case but just compare it with the WIN 351SL from 1907. used in the Win Mod 1907 self loader. The 351 above the extractor grove it is only 8/1000" less and 17/1000" wider at the rim. . It is 1/3" shorter and uses a 351 not a 358.bullet and ran at almost the same psi. as the Legend. Its a good thing that other brass makers are doing brass. With Wins reputation of just stop making some of theirs brass. When was the last time you saw 225 Win or 307 Win brass for sale. It didn't just hurt the people that had the rifles in those cartridges but there was a lot of people that had aftermarket barrels for Contenders with wildcat chambers based on 225 and 307 cases. Just my thoughts.

As a long time fan of the Maximum I had to have a Legend and bought one as soon as they came out. RARR bolt gun.

First two boxes of factory ammo down the tube and I had smeared flat primers, blown out primers and one case head separation!! This was with FMJ ammo.

I found case lengths ALL OVER THE MAP!!! Now I wont shoot factory Winchester ammo. I pull re use powder. Trim cases and seat re sized Hornady 140 FTX over few tenths less powder then factory. Results are SUB MOA accuracy.

CW

Some factory loads are overcrimped, leading to headspace issues and pressure spikes. Some die sets are being sold with roll crimp dies, for a case that headspaces on the mouth.
The whole year of this cartridge has just been a comedy of errors.
Ruger should have jumped ahead and designed their own.

I think a nice, light weight bolt gun in 350 Legend would be fun.

It will and does kill deer and like any other cartridge if used with a proper bullet, distance and placement.....

Just don't understand why Winchester made a case that is unique to it self and just didn't use a .357-.358" bullet it would have made more sense....theres always going to be a limited amount of different bullets available....

It would have been very simple to have made the cartridge remove the rim on a 357 Maximum too .378"....no special dies would be needed....

A question to you who currently run 350 Legends. Is the case head the same diameter as the 223, or can a 223 bolt rifle be re-barreled to 350 Legend without doing some work to the bolt?

The bolt face and head size is the only part they got right. That is the same as 223. But it is a rebated rim. So you can't use AR15 standard mags, 223 brass, or 357 bullets.

They did it to sell factory ammo and/or bullets. There are no 9mm bullets suitable for rifle hunting, and they knew that.

I'm thinking about converting a 223 bolt gun to 350 Legend. Hornady and Speer have 165 and 170 grain bullets respectively and I think that will make a nice short range walk around gun.