Thoughts on 350 legend ammunition?

[bucksanducks12]

Killed a few with my fathers 22” Ruger American using 180gr winchesters, all have fell sub 60 and had ok to good blood trails.

This is my first year hunting with my 350L AR build. Running 170gr American whitetail. Two does so far, one dropped instantly (my son was thrilled). Second was hard quartering to at 50yds, through chest cavity and out. Not a big exit hole but never hit any bone besides clipping a rib on way out. Plenty of blood, 40yd track.

Next year I look forward to mixing it up. I really wanna try the Bear creek 140 coppers as long as they feed good. Sounds like guys have been having good luck with them! Glad I stumbled onto this post. Good luck to everyone test of the season!

 

[Leaf Litter]

When I used one I shot 3 deer with the 150gr Deer Season XP. Very accurate, VERY fast expansion/fragmentation, very poor penetration through muscle and bone. Shoot lungs/heart only and you'll be great, but if you try angled shots or shooting through the shoulder or brisket, you will regret it.

If I were to do it again, I'd do the 140gr Bear Creek ammo or 160gr Cutting Edge Raptor ammo from Choice Ammunition

 

[Beorn]

My hunting group has been very happy with the Bear Creek 140s too (non-HV). Shot opportunities were close range, so complete pass through with good blood trails.

 

[Butcher44]

My kids use the winchester 180s. They kill but it almost seems like they are going too fast to expand. The blood trails have been less than stellar.

 

[Bets]

I have shot 22 deer with the 350L over the past 6 years. FTX bullets have been the best blend of penetration and grouping.

Winchester deer season XP have the best groups.

180 grain Power points (Winchester and Federal) seem to have the best penetration.

I have yet to lose a deer with the 350 legend, but that is more shot placement. I will say Deer Season XP have the worst blood trail due to the hollow point fragmenting on impact.

 

[bucksanducks12]

I killed 4 this year with Hornady American whitetails.

First one I don’t have pics. Hard quartering too, through and through, 35yds from tree stand. Entering just at shoulder crease between ribs, exit took out last rib. Exit wound wasn’t anything special, roughly size of quarter. Surprisingly good blood trail, made it 60yds.

Second deer was with my son. Had a group of 8 come in right under us, he got real excited and made some noise and they bailed. Shot her on a dead sprint at roughly 50 yds hard away. Bullet entered left cheek, destroyed pelvis just above the ball. Torqued her left leg enough to break femur 4” down from ball in two places. Bullet went through pelvis, snapped spine and exited front crease of opposite hind quarter. After getting down and over to her required a follow up shot to put her out. Pics are pretty self explanatory, beer can sided wound channel.



Entry

Exit

Third deer: saw a group behind the house an got the nod from the wife. Pulled the rifle out of the safe and snuck around back to the hedgerow. 210yd shot from the ground, held a little too much. Spined it right behind shoulders and folded it.
Required a finishing touch when I got across the field to it. Hit right at base of spine, blowing the ridges up through the hide and out. Looked like a slightly larger than golf ball rod went right through it. No pics.

4th deer was also from the ground, had a string of them come right to me. 25yds hard quartering too, through front shoulder right at the scapula to humerus joint. The entry from the leg into the chest cavity was pretty impressive, water bottle for size reference. Took out three ribs clean in half on the way into chest cavity. Bullet penetrated till front of tenderloins I’d assume due to bruising on the tips of the loins I had to cut out. Must have came out in the guts cause never found it.

Deer only ran about 30yds but hardly any blood. This makes sense with no exit and a frontal ground shot.


Inside of front shoulder (arm pit) and entry to chest cavity


This season was my first running these bullets. Have killed three with 180 winchesters prior to this. With the amount of deer around here figured it would be a good experiment in ballistics. The whitetails have ran well for me, recovered all 4 deer I’ve shot them with, but look forward to more experiments next year. Likely FTX’s and bear creeks from what this forum has deducted!

 

[iburns]

Wife and I have been using the 170gr Hornady American Whitetail for a few years now. We’ve shot 6 deer with them and all have died within 50 yards. Decent blood trails and very accurate in the Ruger American.

 

[mcfd45]

Shot 4 deer with this ammo. 3 were recovered. The 4th ran onto a neighbor’s farm and apparently he’s crazy. So I wasn’t able to recover it, but he did die quickly. I could fit my fist in the one wound.

 

[wesfromky]

Like I posted above - i have had great results from the bear creek 140gn. I just ordered a couple of extended coal .223 mags for my tikka .350, and should be able to use these hv loads without issue. On paper they carry a couple hundred more fps at 200 yards.

350 Legend 140 Grain Ammunition HV

This 140-grain 350 Legend ammo was designed to optimize single shot rifles. Engineered to achieve the true performance the 350 Legend is capable of when chambered in a single shot rifle.

www.bearcreekballistics.com

To follow up on this - none of the extended .223 mags would reliably feed the .350 rounds, standard or the longer HV. @pods8 (Rugged Stitching) printed a couple of .350 specific extended mags and they feed perfectly. So, if you have a.350 tikka and want to run longer ammo, hit him up.

 

[Ringbill27]

So, I’m bumping this thread because I’ve had inconsistent feeding with my 350 legend in an AR. I am very familiar with ARs and have been shooting and building them for years. It seems that some 350 rounds just do not feed well. So far I’ve tried the following: Winchester defender 160gr, Hornady 165ftx, fort Scott munitions TUI 125gr copper, and Hornady American whitetail 170gr.

I am not discussing their internal or external ballistics in this post, just their reliability during cycling. Of these four, Winchester defender and the 165ftx feed most reliably. Although I’d still estimate about 10-20% failure to feed or seat fully into battery. I did notice a good bit of unusual markings on most cartridges after feeding then ejecting. I have ruled out issues with over/under gassing. I have tried different magazines (dura mag and Winchester) with consistent feeding issues with both. The barrels I use DO NOT have M4 feed ramps which are known to have feeding issues with 350 legend. They have the wide open feed ramps.

My best guess is that it is a result from multiple issues compounding. For example, heavier cartridge weight, interference with feed lips or front of magazine, bullet shape, not using a ton of line on BCG.


Anyone had similar issues and found a solution or tricks to get them to run more reliably?

Curious if the O ring was the issue? I’m home built AR was a jamomatic in the beginning. Seemed really ammo specific. The cartridge would bind coming out of mag and jam into the top of chamber.

I heavily modified the ruger mag I have and switched to an adjustable gas block. Still jams once in while.

 

[Bluefish]

Has anyone tried the 160g cutting edge er raptor? I have used the full 35 cal with good luck. Built a 350L ar for a nephews first hunt this year.

I am also considering the maker 125g tipped. Druid hill offers it as a 2450 MV loading for the ar. I have used the 205 maker sub and it’s awesome. Lots of blood and a short run.

 

[Chris in TN]

Has anyone tried the 160g cutting edge er raptor? I have used the full 35 cal with good luck. Built a 350L ar for a nephews first hunt this year.

I am also considering the maker 125g tipped. Druid hill offers it as a 2450 MV loading for the ar. I have used the 205 maker sub and it’s awesome. Lots of blood and a short run.

Yes.

They're very accurate but the less-dense all-copper slug takes up a lot of powder space and leads to chambering issues trying to balance filling a case with lil'gun versus the ammo still fitting in the chamber/throat.

I probably shot less than half of the 50-count box I bought and sort of gave up on the project. But, yes, they were very accurate. Just finicky.

At the end of the day the 165FTX really is the easy button.

 

[Chris in TN]

I think there’s room to improve .350L projectiles, perhaps a 160-180 grain boat tail to squeeze all the BC possible, but I’m not sure the potential increases are worth it. Ours is relegated to ‘woods gun’ and that’s about it. I like single shots for training kids for safe hunting in tree stands because they’re quiet to load and unload. Beyond that, they’re not really my thing.


A picture will demonstrate the problem with the copper 160 Raptor in a case that already struggles with limited capacity:

160 Raptor, 180Fury, 165FTX:

 

[Bluefish]

Yes.

They're very accurate but the less-dense all-copper slug takes up a lot of powder space and leads to chambering issues trying to balance filling a case with lil'gun versus the ammo still fitting in the chamber/throat.

I probably shot less than half of the 50-count box I bought and sort of gave up on the project. But, yes, they were very accurate. Just finicky.

At the end of the day the 165FTX really is the easy button.

Thanks. I wondered if that would be an issue. It is for the .357 ones I load as well, but there I also get bit by the fact that the ogive is more rounded and they run into the lands sooner. In my 358 socom, I have to run a .060” shorter oal due to the ogive shape. Still found a decent load that is 300 fps faster than the standard 200g ftx load.

 

[Eship]

Curious if the O ring was the issue? I’m home built AR was a jamomatic in the beginning. Seemed really ammo specific. The cartridge would bind coming out of mag and jam into the top of chamber.

I heavily modified the ruger mag I have and switched to an adjustable gas block. Still jams once in while.

I think it mainly just has to do with 350L being a straight wall which causes it to ride high into the chamber and get caught in the top of the groove where the bolt face lugs lock. The solution would require round to be feeding straight into the chamber instead of popping up from the magazine at an angle. If the top of the magazine was near level with the bottom of the chamber (which is not possible in an AR) would be required. Certain rounds feed better based on length and shape of the bullet though, but it’s not a permanent fix