Has anyone witnessed how effective 350 legend ammo is on killing whitetail deer size game using a revolver? If you have used this weapon to do so, what ammo do you use? I have done several experiments shooting into water filled freezer bags sandwiched between 2" of wet newspaper in a 50 inch long, by 6" high, and wide box with results that still has not convinced me that I want to use this firearm on deer. My Ruger Redhawk in 240 Gr. JHP factory ammo has shown more drastic results. The Legend in S&W is fun to shoot, but not sure I did not make a mistake in spending as much as I had too, to claim ownership. Looking for others that can convince me that I did not make a mistake.

I was unfamiliar with the round, so I looked it up.

https://ammo2u.com/350-legend-ballistic ... inchester/

My assessment is, that if you're using a 240gr bullet out a handgun, it would be effective at self defense distances used against a charging buck. This is at closer than 20 yards. If you want a 100 Yd clean kill on a whitetail, a rifle would be best with this round. To ensure a humane kill, I'd go with a better deer round like the .30-30 at 100. Farther out a faster round like the .308 would be a better choice. My opinion only.

CDFingers

I appreciate your rapid response, but you have missed the entire reason for my post. I am choosing to hunt deer with a revolver, because I have taken more deer with a rifle, compound bow, and flintlock rifle than I can count. I know if I want a challenge I could use a spear, but decided that was out of the question. I have never killed a whitetail deer beyond 125 yds with anything. Where I hunt it is not necessary to make shots beyond that range. I prefer to wait until I get a closer shot, and can do so without regrets, no matter the size of the animal. I will limit myself to 80 yds. using a revolver, no matter the caliber. Just to set the record straight, I am looking for someone who has used the 350 Legend in a revolver, (not rifle), to make a clean kill when hitting the so called "boiler room". What ammo did you use?
Also would like to hear from anyone who is reloading this cartridge for revolver use. Not having much luck finding reliable information on that subject either.

Roger that. I do not expect you'll get positive feedback for over twenty yards with that round, which is a fine distance to hunt with a hand gun. I will follow this thread to see what happens.

CDFingers

It’s definitely difficult to speculate about how a round optimized for a 16 + barrel at about 2000 fps would preform out of a 7” barrel. I think it would depend rightly on the type of bullet, placement on the animal, velocity and testing.

Kill a whitetail when hit in the vitals? Sure. Drop it right there? Probably not, unles you got a CNS hit.

I would imagine the ballistics are similar to a .357 magnum handgun given the similar loads, case volume & bullet weights. I find that to be a marginal round for hunting out of a handgun - for me. Personally, I find most handguns to be marginal for cleanly killing game, and difficult for me to make precise shots past about 15 yards. When I shoot varmints with a .357 magnum carbine the performance for a given load drastically improves, and I am able to wring much more account out. Still, I think a .357 magnum carbine is in the bottom end, but effective, given the increase of velocity and thus energy in target.

When I hunt whitetail on ohio we are limited to straight wall pistol caliber carbines. Even though I own a .357 magnum carbine I’m not a fan of hunting with the minimum amount of effectiveness. I am no expert tracker, so I like the animal to be cleanly, killed immediately. I use a very hot .45 colt hand load - with a hornady .452, 250 grain XTP JHP bullet. Still, it’s a weapon that’s driven by state game rules rather than maximizing efficiency or effectiveness. When I hunt whitetail in Northern MI, I move to a .308. Using a proper rifle cartridge like a .308 Winchester is far more effective. The last one my brother shot in his farm in August with a .308 and it was pretty much DRT.


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Yeah, that's kinda what I think about the .350 Legend out of a revolver, unless that revolver is Jack Nicholson's Joker-style with a 16-18" barrel. It's about the same size as a .357 Magnum, with slightly more powder capacity. Were I doing handgun hunting of deer, I'd probably go with a .44 Magnum or hot .45 Colt loading instead, just to be sure.

For those saying, "use a .30-30 or a .308 Win" or similar cartridge, personally, I agree. I'm a big fan of the 7mm-08 chambering, personally. However, certain state legislatures think otherwise, so they limit hunting by "those little people" to straightwalled cartridges. That's why the .350 Legend, and its .357-AR progenitor that Winchester basically stole, got developed. I suspect that's the real reason Winchester did the fool's-errand choice of going with a 0.355" bullet instead of a 0.358" bullet like they should have, to avoid a possible patent lawsuit and avoid paying royalties (we're "first to invent", not "first to file" in this country).

Therefore, in those states, they *have* to hunt with a straightwalled cartridge, and in particular one of state-specified power limits.

I don't think LGC has the knowledge base for handgun hunting to answer your original question. Still, some ballistic nerds to speculate wildly with.

Ballistics By the Inch did a long series of experiments cutting down barrels to see how length affected velocity, and compared them to a lot of real-world guns. Mostly handguns, but a few pistol-carbine loads as well as 5.56mm. They didn't get to .350 Legend before they shut down, and neither Brass Fetcher nor Terminal Ballistics Research have it either. BBTI did look at .357 Magnum, but mostly lighter bullets. The 158 grain loads lose about 200 fps dropping from a 16" barrel at 1740 fps to 7" at 1520 fps. That's approximately 1100 ft-lbs down to 800 ft-lbs of kinetic energy. That's not counting the cylinder length for a revolver.

Big caveat though - high pressure loads with heavy bullets seem to lose a LOT of potential KE through the cylinder gap when you look at the real world revolver testing. For 158 grains, a 16" Winchester 94 would score 1717-1735 fps, very close to their test barrel, but a 6" Colt Python would just touch the transonic realm at 1175 fps. The cylinder gap might be more important than barrel length, as shorter revolvers with tighter gaps did better, but the best was still shy of 1300 fps.

I don't hunt, but I have become very skeptical of heavy bullets playing nicely with long barrels in a revolver. More time for the driving gases to escape compared to lighter bullets, and more pressure just seems to increase the loss rate. You can see the same trends in .22 Magnum and .44 Magnum - and it's really pronounced in the revolver rifles in their real-world testing. Sorry - I think .44 Magnum is going to be a better bet.

Wings - excellent post. That’s probably another reason that magnums do so much better in a carbine - velocity and energy wise - no cylinder gaps.

And I agree to you basic point as well - the few of us that hunt on here - pretty much exclusively hunt with long arms.


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Another point I considered after posting - I question whether a .350 Legend bullet will expand effectively at handgun velocities.

Another way to compare the revolver to the rifle is to think about velocity loss at range - what is the maximum effective range of the round to have the desired terminal ballistics? It seems to depend on bullet weight, but at short range out of a revolver it looks like it will have about the same oomph as a rifle at 200 yards.

This is what I could find about long-range shots with the cartridge -
https://www.chuckhawks.com/compared_6-5 ... 0_350.html