350 Legend or 450 Bushmaster?

[dyl]

Now that hunting season is over, I might get into a straight walled AR cartridge to hunt in Ohio with, as the prices for parts would be lower. When I look these two calibers up, I get posts from a couple years ago saying that projectile availability and brass availability are poor for both, but the general idea is that they both have similar range limitations and placement is key.

Has anything changed - aside from panic unavailability of projectiles / primers? Does anyone load either of these enough to say which is economically advantageous or in terms of performance? I'm not terribly recoil shy, I have a 458 Socom and strangely the 500 grain projectiles are the gentlest for me (Limbsaver pad helps.... cheating, I know)

If I do a "build", it would probably be with Aero Precision and Ballistic Advantage parts.

 

[GeauxTide]

450 all the way. The Legend is another Winchester marketing wet dream (see Winchester Short Mags). I know a lot of people have them, but the round is handicapped by using 150-180grain bullets. The 450 is an honest 200 yard big game round. Using Hornady's recommendation of Lil'Gun and 250FTX, 2200fps can be had in 16". Accuracy is 5 shots into one hole. Recoil is like a 20ga shotgun. Absolutely love my 450AR.

 

[mulespurs]

Just my experience

I have a 350 legend. I bought a 125$ med wt ar-15 barrel from midway.

Screwed it on an ar-15 that I had. Loaded up some bullets I cast and powder coated. Shot a bunch of practice rounds over the summer.

Shot a really nice buck at 200 steps, 1st shot completely flattened him, wrote it up on cast boolits forums.

Buddy has a Ruger American and has shot repeated 3 " groups at 300 yds and killed a number of deer with it.

I like mine

 

[mehavey]

[350 Legend] round is handicapped by using 150-180grain bullets.

...which is of course why I shoot these....

And as far as "limited" goes...
https://www.marlinowners.com/threads/350-legend-update.592589/post-8071827

I don't think the deer care.

 

[TruthTellers]

What are you hunting? If it's deer, .350 is perfect, if you're hunting bear, or other larger game the .450 is better. If you reload, the .350 will be a lot cheaper to shoot due to less expensive bullets.

 

[dyl]

Yep, it's deer so far.

Darn it, good reviews for both I suppose I should be happy about that.

For 350 Legend, can one use hard cast powder coated 357 magnum bullets? That would be pretty cheap.... But for hunting, since I don't cast, any commercial projectile you normally use?

Or for the 450 bushmaster, can one just use hard cast 45 ACP bullets?

GeauxTide, what is your setup? What barrel?

Due to small rifle primer and hopefully using 357 mag bullets, I'm leaning towards 350 Legend. I can always get a 450 BM upper later....which would give me an excuse to get one later....

 

[mehavey]

For 350 Legend, can one use hard cast powder coated 357 magnum bullets? That would be pretty cheap....

Sure -- No problemmo. Just make sure they'll chamber at, say, a nominal .358 diameter (they "should")

But for hunting, since I don't cast, any commercial projectile you normally use?

The SPEER 180FP works extremely well (But) you need to buy a Lee 356/7 sizer and reduce the diameter just a tad (use case lube)
https://www.amazon.com/Lee-Precision-90046-SIZING-356/dp/B00162UJN4

https://www.marlinowners.com/thread...ge-8#lg=attachment_xfUid-1-1610387497&slide=0

For reference only.
Work up your Load in your own rifle

 

[dyl]

mehavey, who made your barrel?

 

[mehavey]

CMMG

 

[Nathan]

450 Bushmaster is a non-std(rifle) 0.452” bullet in an exclusive case. 250gr bullet at 2200 fps. I think folks consider this a positive as the 0.452” bullets for 45 Colt, 45 Auto, etc can be loaded in the 450 Bush case, but the velocity ranges are so different that generally best performance would come from the few 450 Bush bullets.

The 350 Legend is a non-std case and 0.355” bullet. It shoots a 180gr bullet at 2100fps. It uses a range of bullets from 145gr-180gr. There are 0.355 bullets, but the heaviest is 147gr and the velocity range is way off to be effective. Reloaders are resizing 0.357 and 0.358” bullets, but why not just shoot the bullets made for it. Everybody making 350 Leg bullets, brass and ammo seems to be working under a plan not to pass off development costs initially. Ammo was cheap, bullets plentiful and normally priced, cases the same. Ammo seems actually pretty value priced.

IMO, recoil and rules are the deciding factors. There are states with rules requiring shotgun or straight wall rifle under/over a certain caliber. That narrows the choice a lot. Then you shoot these things like slugs, 45-70, 375 Win, 450 Bush....the recoil maybe ok for a tough guy, but what about normal people, or your 12 yr old who wants to hunt.

Then you shoot the 350 Legend....decent ballistics for whitetail deer hunting and low low recoil. This and how they have suppressed costs make 350 Leg the winner.