Winchester has developed many of the finest hunting rounds in the world including the 30/30, .270, .308, .300 Magnum and several Winchester Short Magnums. This group of cartridges is an all-star list which has taken game worldwide. In 2019, Winchester introduced another new cartridge; the .350 Legend. When I first heard the name of the cartridge, I immediately thought of moose, elk, the big bears and large African plains game. Boy, did I miss the mark. Here is why the .350 legend was birthed by Winchester.
Why The .350 Legend?
There are a number of states, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio are examples, because of their high density population, shotguns with slugs or muzzleloaders have been required to hunt deer for quite some time. Over time, however, restrictions in these states have been relaxed to allow straight-walled rifle cartridges for deer hunting provided they meet certain criteria.
Michigan’s regulations, for example, in the lower half of the lower peninsula, state a .35 caliber or larger rifle loaded with straight-walled cartridges with a minimum case length of 1.16 inches and a maximum case length of 1.80 inches. Straight wall rounds such as the .45-70, .450 Marlin, .44 Magnum, .450 Bushmaster and others have become popular for deer hunting but are hard-recoiling and more cartridge than really needed. Enter the .350 Legend.
“The 350 is a high-performing, straight-walled cartridge that dominates in velocity, energy, recoil and affordability, all of which are vital to our customers,” says Matt Campbell, vice-president of sales and marketing for Winchester Ammunition.
.350 Legend DNA
The .350 Legend harkens back to the days of “plain-Jane” cartridges with no shoulders to give them a “sexy look” like today’s modern cartridges or the even “sexier” belted magnum cartridges. The .44-40 Winchester and .45-70 Government are probably the two best known rifle cartridges of the late 1800’s with the .45-70 still in use today.
With the increased interest in straight-walled cartridges over the last several years, particularly the .450 Bushmaster, Winchester engineers decided to develop a more shooter friendly cartridge designed for deer and mid-size game. Winchester decided on using the .223 Remington case as the basis for the new cartridge with the ability for it to be used in single shot, bolt-action or AR platform rifles.
The .350 case is similar to the .223 Remington but modified and cannot be used interchangeably with it.
“The .350 brass is similar but definitely not the same as .223/5.56” says Nathan Robinson, Winchester’s media relations manager. “The .350 Legend has a larger body diameter just above the head than the .223 Remington. The increased diameter ensures sufficient taper for proper feeding and extraction, and .223 Remington brass, therefore, will be undersized in a .350 Legend chamber.”
.350 Legend Ammunition
Winchester has five different loads in their .350 Legend ammunition line for this year: Deer Season XP 150 grain Extreme Point, Super-X 180 grain Power Point, USA white box 145 grain full metal jacket, Power Max Bonded 160 grain jacketed hollow-point, and a 265 grain Open Tip Super Suppressed subsonic load.
The Deer Season XP ammunition is expressly designed for deer hunting at shorter ranges and woods hunting. Winchester data reports the 150 grain Power Point bullet leaves the muzzle at 2,325 feet per second with muzzle energy of 1800 foot-pounds and still delivering 903 foot-pounds energy at 200 yards. Importantly, it does it with light recoil and mild muzzle blast which is important to new and/or young shooters.
If you enjoy long range shooting (hunting) then these ballistics are not too impressive for you. However, the hunter hunting mid-sized game at 250 yards or less, the .350 Legend offers plenty of killing power.
.350 Legend Muzzle Blast And Recoil
Over the years of being at the range or in the deer woods, I feel a significant percentage of hunters are missing deer because of being “gun-shy” caused by muzzle blast and recoil. They flinch when they fire their rifle; I’ve seen flinching happen even among “seasoned” shooters.
When it comes to causing bad shooting habits, muzzle blast shares the blame with recoil. Muzzle blast is caused by the pressure of the gas inside the barrel when the bullet exits the muzzle. The .350 Legend has less muzzle blast than the .223 Remington because of the volume of the bore with the .350 Legend at 1.92 cubic inches and volume of the .223 Remington is .76 cubic inches.
The .350 Legend produces light recoil; only 8.52 pounds in a 7 pound rifle. The classic deer cartridge the 30-30 Winchester has about 10 percent more recoil and the very popular .243 Winchester has about 20 percent more recoil than the .350 Legend. The light recoil comes from having the same powder capacity and same case head size as the .223 Remington.
And The Winner Is…
Anyone who needs a rifle with light recoil and muzzle blast and hunts the woods or fields with 250 yard shots or less should be thrilled with this new cartridge. And it is very affordable to shoot so there is no excuse not to practice with your new .350 Legend at different distances to learn how your bullets perform.
