Winchester 400 Legend

[barnabus]

nothing but hype

[cwlongshot]

So far yes...

[JoeJames]

I hate lubing, resizing, and trimming bottle-neck rifle cases. I would not mind easing over into a straight wall rifle cartridge where you could use carbide dies. I have looked at the 360 Remington, which can use converted 30-30 cases, and a normal size bullet. The 350 Legend has its own special proprietary case and has a weird bullet size - so that one's plumb out. But all things being equal; I'll just stick with my old 308 here in the Arkansas.

[TD1886]

I hate lubing, resizing, and trimming bottle-neck rifle cases. I would not mind easing over into a straight wall rifle cartridge where you could use carbide dies. I have looked at the 360 Remington, which can use converted 30-30 cases, and a normal size bullet. The 350 Legend has its own special proprietary case and has a weird bullet size - so that one's plumb out. But all things being equal; I'll just stick with my old 308 here in the Arkansas.

Please let me tell you that you can use larger diameter bullets in the 350 Legend. The chamber had a very very short freebore in front of the case mouth of .357 diameter. Just for the sake of making things simple lets assume you have a SWC mould. You can size it .357 and that front can stick out of the case about 1/16 to 3/32nds and still chamber. If you load a fatter bullet then none of the bearing ban can protrude at all. I shoot .358 cast from my Legend. Don't worry about shooting a fatter bullet out of a tight bore. That has been happening for decades. An example is the Colt Python. I can tell you that many of them have or had .354 grooves. So did some Smith's. Over the years they have been all over the place. Same with 35 caliber rifles. Get on SAAMI and look at the specs. The fastest bullet my Legend will chamber is .359 and I don't shoot it because it's tight. The .358 loads drop right in. I shoot 3 bullets from and one is jacketed. I happened into a few boxes of the old Remington .358 round soft nose jacketed. They shoot pretty good. The two cast is the LEE 200 grain and the Mihec 217 grain hollow point. Both sized at .358.

[cwlongshot]

I have ZERO concerns shooting "fat" for caliber cast bullets. As a matter of fact all too often best accuracy comes from
Fattest bullet that can chamber... But the key is the "will
Chamber" part. I have had three Legends. Still have a bolt and AR. NONE would chamber a .357 dia bullet. YES, with A CAST, I could have forced the bolt and single shot and they would have shot fine. But not the case in the AR. WINCHESTER FUDGED these up royally choosing to make what should have been called 9x45.

BTW, I have three friends with 350's and NONE of there will chamber .357 dis bullets either.

CW

[TD1886]

I have ZERO concerns shooting "fat" for caliber cast bullets. As a matter of fact all too often best accuracy comes from
Fattest bullet that can chamber... But the key is the "will
Chamber" part. I have had three Legends. Still have a bolt and AR. NONE would chamber a .357 dia bullet. YES, with A CAST, I could have forced the bolt and single shot and they would have shot fine. But not the case in the AR. WINCHESTER FUDGED these up royally choosing to make what should have been called 9x45.

BTW, I have three friends with 350's and NONE of there will chamber .357 dis bullets either.

CW

Oh oh, do I have a fat chamber? I think I got my upper from Aero Precision. I'll have to look at it again. I also think they use Faxon barrels which aren't too bad. Don't quote me as I'm not positive.

[cwlongshot]

Oh oh, do I have a fat chamber? I think I got my upper from Aero Precision. I'll have to look at it again. I also think they use Faxon barrels which aren't too bad. Don't quote me as I'm not positive.

My AR is built with a Faxon barrel. First was a lemon second shoots great. Neither would chamber .357 or larger dia bullets.

[TD1886]

My AR is built with a Faxon barrel. First was a lemon second shoots great. Neither would chamber .357 or larger dia bullets.

When I get to it maybe I'll do a pound cast of my Legend chamber and I'll shorten the brass some so I can get a measurement of the area the bullet will lay in on a chambered round.

[TD1886]

Here is the 350 Legend chamber from SAAMI.

[murf205]

As far as the straight wall madness goes, I believe that it boils down to your action type. For you AR guys, the Winchester 350 and 400's with their rimless cases work fine but for the lever gun tribe, I truly believe that the 360 Rem will be the better option especially since they had the good sense to make the barrel a.358. I, and a lot of other people are still scratching our heads over Winchesters decision to make a .355 barrel. When more power is needed there is always the 45/70 or 444. A Ruglin 1894 in 357 Maximum would be my very next purchase if they made one and I don't have to have a straight wall case in my state.

[Kerry Conklin]

Well, I have all my parts sent to MOS-TEK to build, fit, and test my 400 Legend upper for my AR. Should be about 12-ish more weeks at most if there are no bottlenecks that happen on builds in front of mine. As mentioned in other posts, I hate the bottleneck reloading. I will only be reloading a bottleneck for my .264" 6.5 carcano. I already have all my reloading part for the Dillon 550. Cannot find used or new brass so I bought some commercial winchester 215Gn ammo. I will use that to get data at 50/100/150 before I start reloading powder coated bullets. I cannot find any reload data on the 400L yet. Has anyone else??

[cwlongshot]

Im waiting for someone to actually make and offer a AR Barrel!!!!

[dverna]

It will be obsolete rather quickly, so stock up on brass.

It appears not to have a parent case, so that is a huge nail in the coffin.

Just did a search on Ammoseek, and found less than one page of hits. The .350 had 5 pages.

You can buy .350 FMJ ammunition for $12-14/box to get brass. Nothing under $22/box for the .400. But that only impacts reloaders so not a huge deal for Joe deer hunter.

IMO murf205 nailed it in post 30. Winchester made a mistake with the .350 and another with the .400. They are so "smart", I expect them to use a transgender person to sell their next new offering.

[cwlongshot]

Its parent is a 6.8 spc or a 30/32 Remington case.


CW

[FergusonTO35]

More cartridge choices are always a good thing, but manufacturers still can't keep up with demand for tried and true rounds and reloading components are still very hit and miss. I wouldn't advise someone buying their first and only big game rifle to go with this one or any of the other niche cartridges, especially if they don't reload. The only straight wall big game cartridges that are reasonably in stock around here are .45-70, .350 Legend, and .44 Magnum. The latter is still not consistent and .357 is pretty rare indeed.

[dverna]

Its parent is a 6.8 spc or a 30/32 Remington case.


CW

those are really popular here. Hundreds of boxes in stock everywhere

[cwlongshot]

those are really popular here. Hundreds of boxes in stock everywhere

Haha no doubt, but the response was referring to your claim, of no parent case. Cases can be had. Time will tell what support Winchester will give us re loaders.

It is a worthwhile concern.

CW

[dverna]

Frankly, cases are just another way for this grumpy old man to "kick the cat". A guy can buy 10 boxes of ammunition for a meager $250 and have 200 cases that will last a lifetime of hunting. There are other ways to plink and practice.

But that is what a smart reloader would do. Joe Deer Camp does not think that way. He is the guy who ends up with a gun that will be challenge and/or expensive to get ammunition for. And by that time, cases will be tough to get even if he wants to reload.

Look at the wonderful little .35 Rem. 10's of thousands of guns chambered for it over many decades. Just did a search on Ammoseek and no brass is available. Only a handful of places to get ammunition and it is $60-100/box.

This will be another Winchester loser.

[Kerry Conklin]

Im waiting for someone to actually make and offer a AR Barrel!!!!

None that I find commercially available heck, I could not even find a bolt gun available in 400 Legend (all out of stock), this is the reason for MOS-TEK making mine.

[ulav8r]

The 400 is apt to go the way of the 450 Marlin and the 30RAR.