Been awhile since I posted on here but wanted to get everybody's opinion and see if it'd even work. I've been thinking about trying to make a 350 in a lever action. I have a 350 Legend AR that I built when the cartridge first came out, I also have a savage bolt action and tons of 350 ammo, target and deer loads both. And yes I know with the new 360 Buckhammer it'd be easier to just get one of those, but I don't have any ammunition for it, and I just like to be different Been awhile since I posted on here but wanted to get everybody's opinion and see if it'd even work. I've been thinking about trying to make a 350 in a lever action. I have a 350 Legend AR that I built when the cartridge first came out, I also have a savage bolt action and tons of 350 ammo, target and deer loads both. And yes I know with the new 360 Buckhammer it'd be easier to just get one of those, but I don't have any ammunition for it, and I just like to be different. So now to my question: why couldn't I just get a 223 lever action (Long Ranger or BLR) and either get the barrel bored out or a new barrel for it and be able to shoot 350? From my understanding the bolt face should be the same as I used a 223/5.56 in my AR when I built it for the 350. I'm guessing it'd need some adjustment for the headspace? I have never done anything like this so I'm sure I'm missing something, but what's everyone's thoughts?
Lever action 350 Legend?
- Thread starter Deerhunt
- Start date
P Flados said:
I would wait a bit. Henry is supposed to come out with a Lever Action Supreme rifle that uses AR magazines. It would probably be the easiest bet for a properly functioning rifle in .350 Legend. I'm sure you can make it from a BLR or Henry Long Ranger as well, but feeding and functioning would be my main concern as well. I'm not informed enough about either rifle to move on a project like that.
stagpanther
New member
Cause they're smart.
Re-barreled possibly, but Id expect you would need a bull barrel to have enough metal to re-bore.
Not easily, but possibly if you care to have enough work done.
The BLR came in .308 Win and other rounds in that family, originally, and later a long action version was added allowing it to handle the .30-06 family of rounds.
ALL these rounds use the common .473" rim size.
The .350 Legend has a .390" head and a rebated rim measuring .378", the same size as the .222 family of rounds.
SO, besides the extra length of the BLR (short) action, the bolt face is too large for the Legend case and that would have to be modified, (and likely the extractor and possibly the ejector) to fit the smaller rims.
There is, apparently, a BLR factory made in .223. This would be the only reasonable choice to use to convert a BLR to .350 Legend. All the other BLRs are too big to be reasonable candidates.
stagpanther
New member
IIRC--the extractor groove is also exceedingly long for the legend; so there's that, too.
Its not just the pressure, its also the amount (thickness) of steel left after the bore is enlarged. ,22 to .35? Probably ok, but it would depend on the specific barrel profile, I would think.
A few decades back, there was a company that was reworking GI .30 carbines to .45 Win mag, boring out the original barrels. They switched to installing a new .45 cal barrel after the first couple years, as several of the rebored carbine barrels split. They are long gone now, I just mention this as an example of a situation where they thought the rebored barrel was thick enough, but it turned out not to be.
You can have pretty much anything you want if you're willing to go to the trouble and expense to get it, the question is what is your intended use for the rifle and is it worth the trouble and expense to have one made? To get a lever-action rifle in .350 Legend, you're going to have to buy an existing rifle in another caliber and, at the very least, have it rebarreled. If you want to stay with a box-fed magazine, that means you're going to need either a Browning BLR, Henry Long Ranger, or possibly a Winchester 1895 (though that would almost certainly require more extensive gunsmithing work). None of these rifles are inexpensive nor would the gunsmithing work necessary to convert them to .350 Legend. For the prices involved, you could likely buy a less-expensive lever gun in a different caliber and still have enough left over to buy a lot of ammunition and/or reloading components for the new caliber.
You might be able to buy a more traditional tube-fed lever action for a more reasonable price and have it converted, but you're probably looking at more gunsmithing costs to do so and you'll be more limited in what types of bullets you can use. Most of the .350 Legend ammunition I've seen uses fairly pointy bullets which don't mesh well with a tubular magazine (they create the possibility of chain-fires) so you'd be limited to round-nose or flat-point bullets or, at best, some sort of flex-tip bullet like Hornady uses in their LeverEvolution ammunition (I don't know if FTX bullets are available in the proper weights/diameters for .350 Legend). Regardless, your range and trajectory are going to be more limited and you'd be unlikely to be able to use most, if not all, of the ammunition you already have if you convert a gun with a tubular magazine.
I guess the question I'd be asking is what you're intended use for such a rifle is? As I understand it, the primary reason for the development of the .350 Legend was to try to get the most effective cartridge available for AR's and Bolt-Action rifles for use in states that limit legal deer calibers to straight-walled cartridges. There are already several very good straight-walled cartridges that are more than capable deer calibers already widely available in lever-action rifles including not only the .360 Buckhammer that you mentioned but also .38-55 Winchester, .444 Marlin, and .45-70. Even pistol-calibers like .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Long Colt have demonstrated themselves to be good deer cartridges from a lever-action rifle. Of course, if the point is to have something different, then more the power to you.
You might be able to buy a more traditional tube-fed lever action for a more reasonable price and have it converted, but you're probably looking at more gunsmithing costs to do so and you'll be more limited in what types of bullets you can use. Most of the .350 Legend ammunition I've seen uses fairly pointy bullets which don't mesh well with a tubular magazine (they create the possibility of chain-fires) so you'd be limited to round-nose or flat-point bullets or, at best, some sort of flex-tip bullet like Hornady uses in their LeverEvolution ammunition (I don't know if FTX bullets are available in the proper weights/diameters for .350 Legend). Regardless, your range and trajectory are going to be more limited and you'd be unlikely to be able to use most, if not all, of the ammunition you already have if you convert a gun with a tubular magazine.
I guess the question I'd be asking is what you're intended use for such a rifle is? As I understand it, the primary reason for the development of the .350 Legend was to try to get the most effective cartridge available for AR's and Bolt-Action rifles for use in states that limit legal deer calibers to straight-walled cartridges. There are already several very good straight-walled cartridges that are more than capable deer calibers already widely available in lever-action rifles including not only the .360 Buckhammer that you mentioned but also .38-55 Winchester, .444 Marlin, and .45-70. Even pistol-calibers like .357 Magnum, .41 Magnum, .44 Magnum, and .45 Long Colt have demonstrated themselves to be good deer cartridges from a lever-action rifle. Of course, if the point is to have something different, then more the power to you.
Except for a BLR in .223, (or some other maker's lever gun in .223) EVERY lever gun you're going to find was made to handle bigger, longer and FATTER cartridges.
That means extensive shop work to allow the large action to handle the small case, and that assumes you can find a competent smith willing to try.
Such work might run you more than the cost of the rifle you wish to convert, possibly a couple times over.
Other than as a project to see if you can do it, or possibly as a show off piece showcasing the skill of the smith doing the conversion, there's no point.
The entire reason for the existence of the .350 Legend is for hunting in those few states whose game regs restrict hunters to "straight" cases of a certain length, and it has no niche where those laws don't exist.
That means extensive shop work to allow the large action to handle the small case, and that assumes you can find a competent smith willing to try.
Such work might run you more than the cost of the rifle you wish to convert, possibly a couple times over.
Other than as a project to see if you can do it, or possibly as a show off piece showcasing the skill of the smith doing the conversion, there's no point.
The entire reason for the existence of the .350 Legend is for hunting in those few states whose game regs restrict hunters to "straight" cases of a certain length, and it has no niche where those laws don't exist.
As the person who developed the cartridge that Winchester renamed the 350 legend , I can tell you will out a doubt that the reason it was made was for straight walled case states and it has no other niche is totally WRONG . That is BS and you are repeating it . It was made for Texas hog hunting . I started a line of straight walled cartridges in many calibers about 25 + years ago . The idea was to shoot pistol bullets at low rifle velocities for the most knock down power without exiting the hog and carrying away muzzle energy . The .357 version was one of the last [ besides the .40 ] and was popular with my friends that I built rifles for . Bolt rifles were first to test the round . AR's were next to give them much better hitting power than .223 . Mine version uses common .223 cases and cheap , common .357 bullets . Win changed the case head by enough so you had to by their cases and went with a "new" .355 rifle bullet even though my rifles use the same size barrels as theirs and I use .357 bullets with no problems . The 180 Hornady XTP at sub-sonic give much better performance than the 300 BO . I did this about 8 years ago by now .
stagpanther
New member
I had a 350 legend AR blow up on me due to tolerance stacking enabling that elongated case head with thin web to be unsupported by the radiused chamber face.
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stagpanther
New member
I know it's a bit hard to follow (hard for me to put into the right words), so bear with me. The design of the initial Win SAAMI specs resulted in a release of reamers and guages that could result in as much as 10 thousandths of an inch of headspace and still pass the go/no-go measurements (if, for example, your case was on the small side and chamber was at max at deltas). The problem was the extractor groove went "high" to the base of the web which was thin. It wasn't just me, others experienced the same thing including a top manufacturer of custom AR rifles. Breech face of an AR chamber can have a radiused chamfer at the opening; so if your headspace was at or near maximum it could result in the web--which was quite thin to begin with--being unsupported by the chamber. KABOOM! The legend discharging in reverse can still do a lot of damage.
Myself and Meheavy wrote about it when we jumped on the legend bandwagon.
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