357AR (Max-Rimless) AR15

[Moleman-]

Forster, They'll even make custom ones if you want. I trim and ream the starline cases in one step. Think this pic shows a reamer pilot for a 44, but it's the same setup.

[Hamish]

Forster, They'll even make custom ones if you want. I trim and ream the starline cases in one step. Think this pic shows a reamer pilot for a 44, but it's the same setup.

Looks like someone was paying attention,,,,

[Moleman-]

Interesting huh? It's hard to say for sure how long the case is but it sure looks similar. Hope it's 1.6" so there's a source of factory ammo for me! The article wasn't supposed to be out until Shot Show. I suppose we'll have to wait until Tuesday to find out the specs on it.

[P Flados]

Moleman likes the idea of factory ammo for his 357AR.

As I have stated elsewhere, my bet is that Winchester is trying to sell bolt guns in the straight wall hunting areas and has gone closer to 1.8" for the case so that it will not work properly in a AR-15 based gun.

[Moleman-]

Probably right, but if it is 1.8" I'd be tempted to go ahead and stuff one in an ar15 just for spite.

[Moleman-]

https://www.outdoorhub.com/news/2019...ew-350-legend/ 1.71" case length. Won't gain anything with 180gr +pointy bullets due to COL limits of the mag, but would with lighter bullets. Pretty sure it would just require me to ream one of the barrels I already have .11" deeper.

[rockrat]

I see my next caliber upper for my AR!!!


Moleman--Who ground your reamer for you?

[Moleman-]

Manson, Dave is a nice guy to do business with.

[Michael J. Spangler]

Sign me up!!

[Tonto]

Looks interesting but that projected $9.99 a box ammo sounds strangely the same as when the 300 BLK was released. THAT said, it looks like a fun round for an AR

[dragon813gt]

Will be interesting to see the SAAMI specs. And if Starline starts making brass I shouldn’t have to ream brass anymore. Not like it’s hard to do. Just that I’d rather trim a little and be done. I have all the parts coming to put together an upper in 357 AR, barrel arrived last Friday. Putting it together is the easy part. Finding time to get to the range is the hard part.

[P Flados]

Over at MDWS, they have the standard 357AR barrels in stock for $325. I am sure that they could run their existing reamer in the extra 0.11" such that you would be up and running with a 350 legend AR in no time. However, act fast or you will have to wait on another batch.

https://www.maddogweapons.com/store/..._Products.html

If you miss out on a batch, they do have a guy (Bruce, a.k.a Biggdawg) that has the reamer and does the one at a time work. My 357AR was a one off by Biggdawg. The one at a time jobs are good, but are not real fast.

[P Flados]

Rockrat,

PT&G look like they have allready set up a part number of 350 legend reamers. However, there is a good chance the 350 legend will be more than a little different than the 357AR since it was designed for factory ammo and for bolt guns.

For an AR-15 based hunting gun that can shoot the 350 Legend, the existing 357AR reamers are probably a better bet if you really want your own. If you just want a gun, see the previous post.

[hollywood63]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io4Lw1Ln6qc

[cwlongshot]

This guy says 9MM in a 556 case...

Yet, directly from CMMG in emails to me:

"Technical Support
Wed, Jan 30, 3:17 PM (2 days ago)

CW,

From everything I've heard form our R&D guys, who have been working with Winchester, this IS a 357 bullet, actually. Are you sure you looked at the right drawing? I've attached a .pdf of the ammo drawing for you, just to be sure. I'm seeing .357 as the bullet used in these drawings."

Remember BOTH this email and the Video are from CMMG. Truth and continuity in journalism at its finest.

IMHO, its this ignorant 9MM does everything mentality. the current nearly unanimous Bullet LOVE for the 9MM and, so hope to ride on that with 9MM followers... I have see written and chuckled, but ,must agree, they should have named it 9MM Creedmoor and it wouldn't matter what ballistics or dimensions it had... it would probably be accepted with open arms.

I know, I know, its the world today and I'm old/old school. If I go this route, I'll go with Molemans version. Its a bummer cause it shure had me a lil excited.


CW

[pmer]

This guy says 9MM in a 556 case...

Yet, directly from CMMG in emails to me:

"Technical Support
Wed, Jan 30, 3:17 PM (2 days ago)

CW,

From everything I've heard form our R&D guys, who have been working with Winchester, this IS a 357 bullet, actually. Are you sure you looked at the right drawing? I've attached a .pdf of the ammo drawing for you, just to be sure. I'm seeing .357 as the bullet used in these drawings."

Remember BOTH this email and the Video are from CMMG. Truth and continuity in journalism at its finest.

IMHO, its this ignorant 9MM does everything mentality. the current nearly unanimous Bullet LOVE for the 9MM and, so hope to ride on that with 9MM followers... I have see written and chuckled, but ,must agree, they should have named it 9MM Creedmoor and it wouldn't matter what ballistics or dimensions it had... it would probably be accepted with open arms.

I know, I know, its the world today and I'm old/old school. If I go this route, I'll go with Molemans version. Its a bummer cause it shure had me a lil excited.


CW

I think you're fine here is a link from Winchester, they are calling it a .357 the guy on youtube is probably off mark.


https://winchester.com/350-Legend

After suffering my El cheapo .458 SOCOM I'd be more skiddish about how tight the chamber/throat is.. Have them send you a fired case! LOL

[Michael J. Spangler]

Here you go.

https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads...troduction.pdf

[McFred]

Hey, whatever the diameters/lengths are I'm just excited that there might be a a pile of inexpensive .355-.357" 1:16 twist barrels I can use for my own wildcat projects! There might also be a resurgence in pointy middleweight 35cal projectiles to support this cartridge too. You Levergun enthusiasts might not be very interested but bolt gun guys like me are happy to have more product selection.

[P Flados]

Over at the other thread (link below), I already noted that from the SAAMI specs, it looks like the 350 Legend is 0.357" ammo fired in a 0.355" gun.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...New-35-caliber

Now for an update on some 357AR (357 Max-Rimless) Boolit progress.

I have been working with my MDWS supplied barrel and my made at home mold for custom 180 and 200 grain cast boolits for right at one month.

I have gotten most of my function problems beaten down (I think) and am working on accuracy issues. The gun seems to want to be accurate, but has been plagued by POI shifts and/or flyers. However, I still have achieved more than a few sub 2 MOA groups from PC coated, non-gas check 180 gr bullets in the 2000 -2100 fps range.

For this gun my focus has been PC coated, NLG, non-gas check small meplat boolits intended for smoothing feeding in the AR. My boolits also incorporate what I call "forming" in lieu of sizing. I first discussed using this process to get near perfect boolit bases last March in post 4 of:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...73#post4309073

Updates on my use of "forming" included post 22, 30, 32, 36 39 of:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...waged-boolits!

With "forming" working pretty good for my 120 gr and 160 gr boolits in my 357 Max handgun loads, I had hoped they would also work well in the 357AR. The bottom line was "not really". The 357AR is hard on some boolits and it is picky for feeding. It jams or beats up boolits with meplats over around 0.180" and it does not like anything with a SWC type of shoulder.

My answer was to make my own reamer and use a Lee blank mold. I was trying for boolits shaped a lot like the Speer 180. For my own use I am using my "forming" to get the final shape and the near perfect edge on the base. Here is a photo of some early test boolits:



I also adjusted the reamer and cut a second 180 / 200 gr mold to be used as a loner for others to try.





Some as cast 180s



Some as cast 200s



I have a lot more details on the above over at:

https://mdws.forumchitchat.com/post/...5573?trail=100

[P Flados]

I really struggled early one.

I am convinced that my biggest problem was combination of no "hot small rifle primers" and a batch of "hard to ignite" H110.

Shopping around I found some deals on primers and powder and eventually found a combination that shows promise.

Today the gun did well, the loads functioned great, and a least one load is now reliably under 2 MOA.

I think I will be able to "fine tune" in some improvement, but I am much happier.

The other "good news" is that I have just under 24 lbs of this powder and just under 15K of these primers. And since I make my own boolits, I am not going to have any supply problems for feeding this gun.

The downside for the moment is that with 180s, the gun is shooting better down at 1700 fps. With both 180s and 200s, I have been over 2000 but my best groups at near max are closer to 3 MOA.