350 Legend
 

I loaded up some rounds for the 350 Legend out of my Savage Axis to see how they shoot. I used Speer .358" 180 grain jacketed bullets and sized them down to .356". Wow what a bear reducing them down only .002"! I even sprayed them with Hornady One Shot to lube them up a bit and I still had to really push on the press handle.
I used 24 gr of Hodgdon LilGun and CCI 400 primers. Not much range between starting load and max load with that powder. 23.5 to 25.5 gr.
I'll get out some day this week and try them out.

You’re sizing in the Lee push through die, correct? I tumble in Lee Lube-Alox, but I’d honesty expect One Shot should have been slippery enough.

I’ve sized a bunch of the 180 Hotcors - with the Lube Alox, I’d generally gauge (with my not-so-highly sophisticated and insufficiently calibrated fingers and failing memory) that the sizing pressure is lighter than sizing 30-06 cases. Definitely less pressure than small base sizing 6 creed brass. Even on my old wiggly bench (Black & Decker Workmate with an MDF top), and in a relatively low leverage Lee Classic Turret press - pictured below ~5yrs ago.

I'm going to get my boy (7 years old) a .350 legend this year sometime. It'll be legal for both Ohio and PA. So it's perfect for him.

Looking for a youth model. Let me know how you like that Savage Clem.

-Jake

Jake so far I do like it. It was shooting about 1.5" groups (after I tightened the big nuts that holds the rings to the bases!!!!), And that was with the "lawyer trigger". I believe it will shoot much better with the handloads and the MCarbo Pro trigger kit. I believe you can buy the same stuff in the kit at a good quality hardware store though.
This kit consists of 2 stainless washers used for shims on either side of the trigger to greatly reduce the side to side wobble, a SS set screw that replaces the screw in production trigger spring, a lighter spring and a tube of synthetic grease.
After installation everything functions as it should but the trigger is now about 2 1/2 lb. with zero creep.

a couple of my buddies aka hunting partners have built a 350 in the ar style . & claimed they are tack drivers. but they said when you reload them you gotta spec them out to a t otherwise they have a terrable time feeding. & both of them saiid it's hard to trim them to the spec.

Thanks for the heads up Tom. I also have an AR in it so I will shoot my factory ammo in it (I bought 7 boxes on sale) and safe the reloads for the Axis.

I'm not sure why you would mess with resizing 180's when there are 170's out there, unless the answer to that is "why not" which I've done more than a few times. Get a forester trimmer, set it to length and it's not a problem keeping them in spec. I get right at 2300 with lil gun and have a bunch of loads with 296 and 110 (same powder different name) it's suppose to be +2200 and i have a bunch of that powder. 9 mm bullets shoot out of them too but it's pushing them really fast for hunting but for range play they work ok. all 3 of mine (ruger american, encore with a mgm barrel and a savage 110) shoot the 170-180 loads a bunch better than the 145 fmj.

Because if the 180s didn't work I could load them up for my 35 Rem.
I want to be careful with these bullets because they are sized at .356". Bullets loaded for the 350 Legend are .355". That extra .001" will produce more pressure. How much more I'm not sure.

I'm not sure on the pressure either, maybe someone else would have a clue, You might (I've thought about it not 100% sure it would work) take your 170 .355 horns and use them in your 35, they do work ok in my 358 and shoot pretty dang good, but there is no velocity gain from my 180's so it was a not productive experiment . when i try using the 35 die there isn't enough neck tension to hold them so if I was going to do that I would get a separate die and put a 9 mm resizer in it. and then you could use the same bullet in both.

Factory ammo for the Legend uses .355” bullets because they have the luxury of doing so - and they’re making the brass. The Winchester spec for the chamber does not allow standard neck thicknesses when using a minimum chamber dimension coupled with their max spec’d bullet dimension. So instead of making brass to fit the appropriate bullet dia, they just made the bullets smaller.

However, the bore - that which dictates the actual peak pressure - is spec’d the same as every .357 magnum or maximum ever built. Same groove and bore dimensions. So you’re not really “increasing” pressure by using a .357” bullet, but rather are “decreasing” what it really should be running by using an undersized bullet when running .355-.356”.

Ultimately, we smash bullets a lot harder every day in other cartridges than we’re talking about in the Legend. Do your load work up, watch for signs, same as everything else.

Also of considerable note - the 180grn Speer HotCor has a considerably shorter bearing surface than any of the .357” revolver bullets which could be used in the Legend. I put more powder under a 180 Hotcor with lower pressure, running 150-200fps FASTER, than I can get under a 158 XTP-FP. I can dump a grain and a half more H110 in a B&D case under the 180 and not even see craters than the lighter load under the 158, which produces craters with primer flow (total top hats!) and sticky extraction. So it ain’t all just about diameter and mass - the shank design and profile play a huge part in establishment of the pressure curve.

OK NoMercy let me see if I got this straight. You're saying that the bore/groove diameter of my 350L and my Ruger Blackhawk 357 mag are the same?
If that's the case than I should have zero issues with my .356" sized Speer Hot Cor bullets. I noticed that with freshly resized brass and after seating the .356" bullets the brass exhibits a slight bulge down to the bottom of the bullet. My seating depth is .020" longer than factory ammo but chambers easily in my Axis.
BTW if you want ever buy a Savage Axis or Edge and want a sweet trigger for about $25 get the MCarbo pro trigger kit. This kit replaces the heavy factory trigger spring and shims for either side of the trigger to prevent the side to side wobble and a stainless steel set screw. Trigger pull went from a 5-6 lb trigger to about 2.5-3 lb. Super sweet and only about a 10 min job.

.350 Legend shares the same bore and groove spec as 357/38, the same as 9mm parabellum as well, for that matter.

Thanks Nomercy. One more question now that I know I will have no issues with it in my Axis. But how about my AR? Will the slightly higher pressure effect my cycling much like using a hotter load? It seems that the designers used a differently shaped bullet for the reason you mentioned earlier to reduce the bearing surface. The Speer Hot Cors I am using are very similar to the ones in the factory ammo. I would imagine that using a standard .357 pistol bullet would alter the cycle pressure too causing the buffer/spring to take more of a pounding than necessary.

Not at all - AR’s aren’t blowback operated, so max pressure seldom matters for reciprocating speed - only port pressure and flow.

We’re not targeting a narrow +/-50psi pressure band for port pressure - we have the luxury of a wide tolerance for port pressure and dwell time. The case is small, and the pressure curve drops off relatively swiftly. Even running a pistol length gas system, the “throttling” of gas by the gas port diameter significantly limits the operating pressure exposed to the carrier.

The difference between two bullets in this case will yield FAR less difference in port pressure than changing bullet weight or changing powder type, for that matter.

So when we use a revolver type bullet, or a copper solid with a long bearing surface (high bore drag), we end up hitting our max pressure earlier in load workup, meaning a lower charge weight hits the same max pressure - which invariably reduces our port pressure later down the bore.

You can actually see the counterintuitive response in several cases - another example is running a fast powder which will hit a high pressure max early, aka, lower charge weight, earlier than a slower powder which would yield a higher port pressure after the same max peak. So we consider that charge weight as “max”, but then the charge weight is low enough such the pressure won’t be sufficiently sustained downbore, and the curve has subsided too much by the time it reaches the port and it doesn’t have the oomph left to cycle the action.

Thanks...I can't wait to try out my reloads in the Axis.

For giggles I picked up some .357 140 ftx just to try. The winchester loaded boxes (both 150 and 180) says .357 for the bullet diameter. Loaded them on top of lil gun (24 grains). They shot and loaded really well, and shott less than .5 at 50. the trick is not to run the brass threw the resizer and it loads like a champ. Note: I used winchester brass, other brass might vary in thickness. I'm going to try the 158 next

apon futher testing the 357 bullets work well with my encore (358 loads good to, haven't shot them yet) ruger american and it's a 50-50 deal with the savage. the savage might be a deal with a really tight headspace, so I have more experimenting to do

I have a question on bore snakes for the 350 Legend. I have two new rifles. A Ruger Ranch and a Savage Axis 1 with no accutrigger. I'll put the MCCarbo pro kit in shortly.
My Question is I have a Hoppes Bore snake brand new (24018D) that is for .35 - .375 Caliber. I'd be curious on your thoughts on whether this would be appropriate. I know most are saying to use a .357 or 9mm but I'd like an opinion from someone who uses them on their 350L. Since the bullet is a .355 I'm thinking it may be ok.

New to the board so thanks you for your comment in advance.

The bore for the .350 Legend is the same groove and bore diameter as any .357mag on the market.

A brush spec’d for .35-.375” bores might be very tight in a 35cal bore, regardless of whether that’s a Legend or not. Might take a few passes to break the brush down enough for smoother, easier pulls.

This is what I was wondering. I sold my 35 Rem Marlin and had this lying around. Probably best to buy the 357.
Thanks for your response