Among the latest cartridge releases, the 350 Legend and 400 Legend from Winchester/Browning have not only filled a niche in the Midwest, but have also become popular among hunters who aren’t bound by cartridge restrictions. Both are straight-walled designs, built within a set of specific parameters to meet the cumulative legislation for a number of states. And while they are both fully functioning deer and black bear cartridges, it is apparent that someone at Winchester/Browning thought a larger cartridge of similar design was warranted, releasing the 400 Legend last year. So, between the earlier 350 Legend and the shiny-new 400 Legend, which makes the more sensible choice, or are the differences negligible? Let’s delve deeper.
The 350 Legend was released at the 2019 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, announced as a cartridge equally at home in the bolt-action rifles as it is in the AR-platform guns. While Winchester/Browning states that the 350 Legend has no official parent cartridge, it shares enough of the dimensional attributes with the .223 Remington/5.56 NATO that it can call it a cousin. Both cartridges use the .378-inch case head diameter, and a cartridge overall length of 2.26 inches (to fit snugly in so many common magazines). But, the new 350 Legend is a straight-walled, rebated rim cartridge, using a bullet diameter of .357 inches, again to adhere to those Midwestern stipulations. The case length measures 1.71 inches, and the bullet diameter is advertised as .357 inches, presumably to make Ohio’s minimum caliber of 0.357 inches, but there is a definite issue with that figure. Any of the 350 Legend ammunition I have deconstructed use projectiles measuring between 0.354 and 0.355 inches; to circumnavigate the issue, the official bullet diameter is listed as “.357 – 0.0030.” Winchester brought the 350 Legend to market with five different loads, including a 145-grain FMJ at 2350 fps, the 150-grain Deer Season XP at the same speed (the former making a very affordable practice round for the latter), the 160-grain PowerMax at 2225 fps, the 180-grain Power-Point softpoint at 2100 fps, and a subsonic 265-grain bullet at 1060 fps. Browning also offers a 124-grain FMJ load, and a 180-grain plated bullet in their Silver Series line.
The 150-grain load proved to be a popular choice among deer hunters, as it offered a convenient trajectory. Using a 150-yard zero, the 350 Legend provides a mid-range rise at 100 yards of just 1.5 inches, while dropping just 4.5 inches at 200 yards. While it might not be as flat as a .300 Magnum, it’s much flatter than the shotgun slugs so common to those areas in years past. This load will retain just over 900 ft.-lbs. at the 200-yard mark, offering enough energy to hold a buck at that distance, yet the little straight-walled cartridge is very easy on the shoulder. It’s the kind of recoil that a smaller or younger shooter can learn how to handle effectively without the risk of developing a flinch—Winchester likens the recoil level to that of the .243 Winchester, and I can agree with statement.
April of 2023 saw Winchester offering the second cartridge to bear the Legend name, this time with a larger bullet diameter and heavier weight. Having no parent cartridge, the 400 Legend uses a bullet of nominal diameter, and a case head diameter of 0.422 inches (common to the 6.8 SPC cartridge); like the 350 Legend it has a rebated rim. The case is again straight-walled—for the same reasons stated above—measuring 1.65 inches, but using that 2.26-inch cartridge overall length to fit magazine constraints in the AR-15 platform. The 400 Legend was engineered to provide a better effective range in the hunting fields, using heavier bullets to retain energy a bit farther out. With a 215-grain bullet at 2250 fps, the 400 Legend generates 2,416 ft.-lbs. of energy at the muzzle, and retains 1,132 ft.-lbs. out at the 200-yard mark. With that same 150-yard zero, the 400 Legend’s 215-grain Power-Point bullet rises 1.8 inches at 100 yards, dropping 4.9 inches at 200 yards. Winchester has announced two new loads for the 400 Legend: the 190-grain Deer Season XP with its oversized polymer tip, and a suppressor-friendly subsonic load built around a 300-grain jacketed hollowpoint bullet. The 400 Legend betters the field performance of the 350 Legend, yet isn’t as hard on the shooter’s shoulder as the big 450 Bushmaster, another cartridge which fits the parameters of those Midwestern states. The recoil of the 400 Legend is, assuredly, more than that of the 350 Legend, but I’d put it on par with the .270 Winchester or .308 Winchester.
What we’ve got are a pair of cartridges, designed to function equally well in the autoloading AR-style guns as they do in the bolt-action rifles, both of which satisfy the amalgam of parameters set forth by Ohio, southern Michigan, Indiana (on public land, anyway) and Illinois (though they require a pistol or single-shot rifle). While the older cartridge has a wider selection of bullet styles and choices, the younger offers the heavier bullet weight and larger frontal diameter that hunters often enjoy. I feel that both cartridges give their best performance inside of 200 yards, and as their trajectories are so close as to be nearly identical, that parameter is a moot point. I’ll take that extra 200-or-so-ft.-lbs. of energy at 200 yards that the 400 Legend provides, especially if my intentions were to use the cartridge on animals a bit larger and tougher than whitetail deer. The increased recoil, while definitely noticeable, doesn’t put the 400 Legend into a category that is a true challenge to shoot, but if you are recoil sensitive, the 350 Legend will have an appeal. The felt recoil in an AR-15 style rifle will be less than that of a bolt-action or single shot rifle, as the action takes a bit of the sting out of any cartridge.
The 350 Legend has been picked up by both Federal and Hornady, further extending the flexibility by offering projectiles like Federal’s bonded core Fusion bullet, and Hornady’s polymer-tipped FTX bullet. So with four companies providing factory ammunition, the 350 Legend might be the more practical choice, with respect to the long-term possibility of keeping your rifle fed. That said, I like the numbers posted by the 400 Legend, and I’m going to score it this way: as of this writing, even though there are only three loads currently available for the 400 Legend, I like the heavier bullet and greater frontal diameter it provides. I’d be willing to wager that the 400 Legend will be picked up by more companies, with factory loads expanding over the upcoming years. The 400 Legend makes a great bear cartridge when hunting over bait, as well as being fully suited for all sorts of hog hunting. It handles all the same situations that the 350 Legend does, at the price of a bit more recoil, but I like the heavier, larger bullets it throws.
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