Birth of a Legend
Winchester Ammo has something special up its sleeve.
by Slaton L. White
Pike County, Missouri, is classic Midwest whitetail country, consisting of rolling hills, timbered draws, and alternating fields of corn, soybeans, and turnips. As such, it is the perfect place to test a new centerfire cartridge from Winchester Ammunition.
Kyle Masinelli, manager of centerfire and rimfire new product development for Winchester Ammunition, invited me to hunt with this brand new cartridge just before its debut at the 2019 SHOT Show. He figured the big-bodied bucks we would be hunting would test the mettle of the cartridge.
He needn’t have worried. On the third day, with a pair of big bucks hanging in the cooler, we settled down to talk about how the cartridge came to be.
“Cartridge development is sometimes a solution in search of a problem,” he told me. “Not this.”
That said, he admitted that “the .30-caliber arena is a really crowded market, and it’s hard to come up with something new.”
But Winchester did. It’s the 350 Legend.
WHAT IT IS
“The 350 Legend, which will be part of the Deer Season XP line, is a straightwall cartridge,” he said. “The idea when we began work on this 18 months ago was to develop something really new. Even though there have been a lot of cartridge introductions over the past 10 to 15 years, we felt there was a void out there that nobody was filling. We believed an affordable straightwall-compliant cartridge—one that was accurate, relatively quiet, and had low recoil—would interest a lot of hunters. Clearly, the round will appeal to hunters who live in straightwall states, mainly in the Midwest where this type of cartridge is allowed, but it has appeal far past that segment.”
If you’re not familiar with the straightwall concept, it’s essentially a non-bottlenecked centerfire pistol cartridge. By design, the range is limited to 250 yards. Many of the states that now allow straightwall cartridges for deer didn’t allow (or severely restricted) centerfire hunting. The worry was a bullet that might travel more than 500 yards. That was part of the appeal of limitedrange muzzleloaders and slug guns.
“But lower-power straightwalls, and the 350 Legend is no different, don’t have the range or trajectory of a .308, which keeps our cartridge in compliance with applicable state regulations,” Masinelli said.
In other words, a straightwall cartridge gives muzzleloaders and slug gunners the option of centerfire performance.
Going this route allows muzzleloaders and slug gunners to up their game, as the 350 Legend has a much flatter trajectory than that of a Foster slug or even a sabot slug shot through a rifled barrel.
Then, too, there is what Masinelli calls the round’s “overall shootability.”
Recoil is just slightly more than a .223 Remington or a 300 Blackout, but the terminal performance exceeds both.
“In a 20-inch barrel this cartridge delivers about 1,800 foot-pounds of energy,” he said. “Compare that to a .223, which is around 1,150 to 1,200 foot-pounds. We’re getting a substantial increase in terminal effectiveness. In fact, it’s the full weight of a classic .30-caliber deer load, but with far less recoil.”
It’s also a relatively quiet round. “A .308 will have 43 to 45 grains of powder in each cartridge,” he said. “The 350 Legend has only 21 grains. So, you have half the amount of propellant, but with a bigger bore diameter. That means the exit pressures are very low, the concussion is very low even though it’s a fully supersonic full-power cartridge, and the report is minimal. And, of course, the recoil is very light.”
This is a light-shooting round that packs a powerful punch. The five of us in camp took big-bodied, heavy-antlered mature deer at distances between 25 and 75 yards. Four of the shots were broadsides that opened gaping wound channels. Those deer all went down within 10 yards. My deer, a ten-pointer, took a quartering shot into the left shoulder, staggered upon impact, and ran into the woods. He only went 50 yards, and we recovered him with little effort.
The Extreme Point bullet consists of four features: a large-diameter polymer tip that accelerates expansion, resulting in rapid impact trauma; for lethal penetration; and an alloy lead core optimized for maximum energy transfer and impact power. At 200 yards, the bullet will drop 8.5 inches; at 300 yards, 31.3 inches. But if you zero the rifle at 150 yards, you can hold dead on at 200 yards because the drop is only 4.5 inches. That will still put the bullet in a deer’s vitals.
Masinelli says the round is perfect for recoil-sensitive shooters, young or old. And because the recoil is so light, it allows the shooter to re-acquire the target quickly if a follow-up shot is needed.
But maybe the best news of all is price.
Because the rimless 350 Legend combines a modified .223 Remington parent shell case with a .357/9mm diameter projectile, it doesn’t require extensive re-tooling to manufacture. It also requires fewer steps to make—for example, no annealing, as is the case with bottleneck cartridges. Fewer steps translates into lower manufacturing costs, savings that Winchester intends to pass through to the consumer.
With a degree in mechanical engineering, Masinelli oversees the design, development, and implementation of new ammunition products for each of the trade channels supported by Winchester Ammunition. During the course of his work, he has secured the award of severalutility and design patents (both U.S. and foreign). He says his most rewarding accomplishments have centered around developing new products that help provide a solution to bring new shooters or hunters into the industry. Masinelli says the ideas that drive innovation come in many forms, whether by addressing a very specific customer need or while out enjoying his own passion of waterfowl hunting. He is most excited about the rapid growth of first-time shooters in the recent decade, and that these shooters will help identify new needs that will lead the way on many advancements in ammunition.Winchester executives are pleased with consumer acceptance of the cartridge. “The 155-year-old Winchester brand is built on integrity, hard work, and a deep focus on its loyal customers, “says Matt Campbell, vice president of sales and marketing. “Winchester puts a significant emphasis in developing innovative ammunition products. Our recent caliber introductions with 350 Legend and 6.8 Western have far exceeded expectations. We’re always pushing ourselves and our brand to exceed expectations.”
THE OTHER HALF
A cartridge without a rifle is akin to a stone without a sling. So, Winchester Ammunition turned to its licensing partner, Winchester Repeating Arms, to provide the shooting platform. Glenn Hatt, Winchester Repeating Arms product manager, got the assignment, and his choice was the polymer-stock bolt-action XPR.
“The XPR is all about value,” Hatt says. “It’s rugged, reliable, and accurate, and it combines the proven attributes of the classic Model 70, but in a more affordable package. The Model 70 has been around for 80 years. It’s a legacy; it’s ‘The Rifleman’s Rifle’ for a reason. The XPR is a more utilitarian tool that’s less expensive to manufacture, which helps us get it into a lower price point. For example, the XPR relies on a less-expensive center-feed design, rather than the controlled-feed design found on the Model 70. At the same time, the XPR does have the same MOA trigger found on the Model 70. That’s because we won’t compromise on accuracy.”
Hatt says the XPR required only a few minor modifications to accommodate the new cartridge. “Because we’re dealing with a straight-wall case, rather than a bottleneck case, we did need to make a couple of minor modifications to the barrel. We also needed to modify the follower to give it the right amount of lift to handle the 350 Legend’s heavier bullet.”
Hatt sees a real advantage to the 350 Legend-XPR combo. “Right now long range is all the rage,” he says. “We’re seeing shots atgame out past 400 yards. But the average guy is going to kill a deer between 75 and 150 yards. The 350 Legend’s performance puts us right in that wheelhouse.”
Hatt also took a big deer on this hunt, and when I reported a shoulder shot, he hiked out to the shed to take a look.
“Any time you have a new cartridge you want to see how the bullet performs,” he says. “I wanted to see what kind of penetration we have in such a light-recoil gun, and I was curious to see how it handled a shot through the shoulder of a big buck.”
Was he re-assured by what he saw? “Absolutely, especially at the distance at which you shot it,” he says. “It went through the shoulder, got into the chest, and did its job. You can’t ask for any more than that.”
To seal the deal, he says retailers should emphasize that the XPR has “a premium Inflex pad that directs recoil down and away from the cheek, a great trigger, and an accurate barrel. So, from a firearms standpoint you’re starting out with a great platform in which to put the competitively priced 350 Legend. All this should make it easy to sell to new hunters who want to get into the game. You should also emphasize the lack of recoil. This is a gun-and-ammo combination that should appeal strongly to younger hunters and smaller-stature shooters as well as any hunter who has tired of the kick delivered by some of the popular magnum loads out there.”
Lastly, talk price. The XPR lists for under $600, and a box of 350 Legend will go out the door priced like a .223, but capable of delivering far more performance. What’s not to like? (winchester.com)
BRANCHING OUT
The success of the cartridge has spurred Winchester to expand the product line to include Deer Season XP Copper Impact and Defender personal defense loads. The Copper Impact product is loaded with a 150-grain Copper Extreme Point bullet that features a hollow-nose cavity topped with a large-diameter polymer tip. This bullet offers accelerated expansion for enhanced energy transfer while achieving deep penetration and maximum weight retention. The solid copper projectile also provides hunters the opportunity to use the 350 Legend in areas that do not allow traditional lead projectiles.
The new 160-grain 350 Legend Defender provides a bonded protected hollowpoint bullet that delivers an ideal balance of terminal-performance characteristics for home-defense situations. Its bonded-core technology helps assure a combination of high retained weight and massive energy transfer. Loaded with a nickel-plated shell case, the cartridge functions in a variety of firearm platforms that are common for defensive applications.
