Yup. Ruger. My dedicated muskrat and beaver gun.
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Think of it as the 38-55's Kid brother...
optimized for companion use in an AR.
https://i.postimg.cc/ydPSq2TZ/38-55-vs-Legend.jpg
mehavey, when you load the 200 grain bullets meant for 35 Rem, you just load so that the crimp groove is on the edge of the brass?
Brewer, I effectively ignore the crimp groove location since I'm seating as long as I can for the AR (short of 2.265"-ish),
and letting the 357/358" shank extend past the mouth just short of the engaging the lands.
Then I'm using the sizing die to uniformly taper the mouth/case back to 0.378'" for reliable headspace stop.
Once established/set up, my OAL for that bullet became 2.266"
See also https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...=1#post4761307 for the heavy SAECO #352_245gr bullet where I used
the same setup process. OAL there is 2.235"
Length is going to be determined by your own gun. I had dealt with 3 of them and there are HUGE differences between all of them. Size to 0.356" for one.
OK, made it to the range. 6.5, 7.0 and 7.3 grains of Trail Boss were all unimpressive. I tested 7, 8, 9 and 10 grains of Unique. 7 grains was the clear winner. I also shot a group of the factory fmj I was using in the field all winter and whacking the snot out of swimming muskrats at 40 yards. The 7 grains of Unique load shot about as well as the fmj and had way less blast and recoil. Feeding was not quite as slick as I would like. I think my next round of testing will be to shorten OAL just a smidge to get better feeding and try 6.5, 7.0 and 7.5 grains of unique with bullets sized at 357 (what I tried) and 356.
The boolits were tumble lubed with Ben's Liquid Lube and the bore was shiny with no trace of leading when I was done.
Looks like it took me almost a month to get to the follow up test, but I did so today. Shot 6.5, 7.0 and 7.5 grains of Unique with 180L plain base bullets sized at 356 and 357, all seated to 2.10" to ensure easy feeding. This is out of my Ruger American Ranch with a 4X fixed scope at 25 yards. The 356 bullets only shot well in the highest charge. I suspect they needed to slug up under pressure to really fit the bore well. The 357 loads, heck, I could do no wrong. All three were great, with the 7.0 ahead by a hair. At 25 yards off a sandbag with a low end scope and low end vision the best group was less than a half inch, with the other two not far behind. That tells me that the band of accuracy is pretty wide so if my powder drop is off by a thousandth or two it won't matter. I shot a 4 round group of factory FMJ (all others were 5 round) and I got a heck of a lot more noise, recoil and blast (indoor range) for my trouble and the group was about the same size as my 7.0 grain 357 5 shot group.
Looks like I have my muskrat and beaver load. Suppose this would also work for small game. I will have to load some of this up and see how it does at 50 yards, but the 25 yard group tells me that I should be in good shape for the typical 25 to 40 yard shot I take on these critters.
Well, I figured I might as well bump this thread. I finally got out to shoot my supressor. So I'll breakdown what I have so far. shooting an ar pistol platform with 7.5 inch 350 legend barrel
The original load I developed for subsonic shooting was a powder coated 232 gr noe "ranch dog" over 10.7 grains of lil'gun. That was the lowest charge I could reliably get to operate the action. IIRC the velocity was about 1140fps. As tested the rounds are going supersonic. The good news is I have plenty of port pressure to operate the action. In fact I adjusted my gas block down and still had good functioning.
I know mehavey has raised issues with lil' gun especially at low load density, and may be caused by powder migrating through the flash hole. I haven't had any issues and have a suspicion it may be two factors. 1. I store my loaded rounds bullet down and 2. The 232 noe mold had a large portion of the bullet as shank. Increasing the relative load density. I would be interested to hear of anyone else's thoughts.
Bullet seating depth is taking up case capacity. You need to measure the amount of capacity the case has with that load. Even that little can turn into a bomb with ball powders.
Im no fan of lil gun... Im less of a fan of running these small quantities of powders highly recommended NOT TO REDUCE more then a few percent.
Yea I know folks do it but it remains NOT RECOMMENDED and VERY VERY FEW of us have the equipment to KNOW what pressures are created.
There are other powders to get you where you want. 1680/CFE BLK are tow off top of my head.
Glad you didnt have issues.
On my own subject. I was gifted ZINK BULLETS cast in the Lyman 358429 mold. They are beautiful!!! Super crisp and sharp lines! Im quite impressed. They weigh 103/104g. After lube and re size to .356, I loaded them in 350 cases on top of a starting load of 4198 for the 357 Maximum. I know its light for the legend but I fired it in a bolt gun so no worries. Vel was 1600 surprised as with a 170 tgat would be pressed to hit 1200! Accuracy was aweful but thats load not bullets. I decided to try in a ar and it ejected a few but fed none. BUT accuracy was 2" @ 50 yards.
CW
CW,
I wish I could get ahold of either 1680or cfe blk. The ammo and components situation seems to be easing up somewhat, with Remington ammo plants back up. So fingers crossed. Until then the only other reasonable powders I have are blue dot and I happened into a can of HS-6 the other day. Lil'gun is the only powder I have been able to get in any quantity period.
Accurate 11FS is about the right burn rate (listed just below H110 in one chart) for the 350L and the 8 lb jug looks to be in stock at Natchez.
Edit: This looks to be a new powder with very little load data. Nothing from Accurate for the 350L yet.
STRONGLY suggest Norm-200 for the Legend.
Nothing else even comes close.
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/sho...=1#post4996332
https://thefiringline.com/forums/sho...5&postcount=11
https://www.thehighroad.org/index.ph...#post-11343634
Wasn't that the powder that gave you case head expansion issues?
Problem I am seeing all over the net are guys running this cartridge way too hot. Especially the guys on the Facebook groups for the 350. One guy w a running the 165gr hornady at 2700fps. He was way way over on charge weight for the 165 and was claiming no issues at all with his brass. But he would not answer if he has reloaded the brass. I wonder why????
I can tell you I have way less issues in my bolt gun than I had in my ar15 in 350. Much more available powders for the bolt. I don't have to worry about the too low or high port pressure like a ar has. One of my favorite loads right now is 9gr of unique with pretty much anything cast. Would never be able to shoot that in my ar. That's why it is gone now.
H110/295 and LilGun were the spikers/head expanders (in the AR)
And I agree that a bolt gun makes things much more flexible/forgivable across a very wide spectrum.
Bolt guns are bears and eat anything.
Gas guns are Goldilocks
AA11FS is VERY similar to W296. I would not use that in 350 legend.
As Mehavey mentioned a really good powder is Norma 200. I've finally settled on my Accurate 35 - 180 LG with Norma 200 as my primary 350 legend load. It doesn't give the highest possible velocities, but it is super accurate in every measure.
I've been out of town this week and stopped in a gun shop. Lucked into a pound of reloader 7 when I get home I'll plug it into quickload and see if I can find something that works.
Got a chance to work up a few loads using RE7. Its a no go. Incomplete burn even with the supressor. And velocities were very inconsistent. It did cycle the action but building enough pressure for a full burn puts velocity over super.