I have been comparing the 7.62x39 ammo to the 350 Legend. There's not really any way to say this, "Why a 350 Legend"?

The ammo is not very common. I can get the 7.62x39 all day long. The only issue is the soft tip is not as readily available as FMJ or HP.

I was looking at a Ruger Ranch Bolt in the 7.62x39 16.2 inch barrel. It has a magazine of 5+1. And the Mini-30 mags work with them.

That seems to be a good woods/brush gun for around here. It wouldn't be bad for a youth or smaller woman. Or this old man of 73.

Any thoughts on this choice?

local laws

this was really the only reason to ever have half of these strait wall cartriges

Michigan , INdiana and a couple others decided a strait wall cartridge less than 1.8 inches long would be acceptable for formerly shotgun only lands.

thus the race to stuff everything you can in a 1.7xx case

I know the straight wall issue. Even a 45-70 is straight wall. But I wouldn't want my 12 year old grandson shooting it for that reason.

Just use the shotgun with the ammo that's shooting a sabot. A matter of choice.

Putting a 2x7x44 scope on the 7.62x39 and you will have a good short distance gun. And "NO" scoped eye.

why not the 45/70 for the kid? buy some shells marked for older rifles and he'd have a rifle he could grow into. the recoil is more of a push than a kick.

Yep. My daughter was shooting my Marlin when she was 10 lol. Work that lever like a pro. That being said, a 7.62x39 would make a dandy deer rifle

One thing to consider is the bulk of 7.62x39 is bulk garbage ammo. Bimetal jackets and steel case. Lots of deer have been killed around here with an old sks and bulk ammo though! Also it isnt as cheap as it once was so you could buy a more traditional deer rifle caliber and have better fatcory ammo and better accuracy and a more powerful caliber for deer for near the same price. For instance if you are gonna go with a bolt rifle a nice 243 or 308 will be much more suited for deer hunting than anything in 7.62x39.

Have you looked at or considered the 450 Bushmaster ?

You can get the Ruger American Ranch in 450 Bushmaster.
They seem to be the top selling deer rifle in lower Michigan and other states now.

My son just built a AR-15 in 450 Bushmaster, its a good 200 yard gun.

I don't know where you are at in Michigan but Randy's in Bad Axe has hundreds of them.

The 350legend was designed to meet the straight wall casing laws in certain states.the 7.62x39 is not legal in those states.

Local laws and it fits and feeds in an AR reciever. 7.62x39 has feeding issues in many ARs. Either will be a fine sub 200 yard deer gun. Cz has a nice mauser mimi action in the .762x39 along with others

Scope eye is a function of bad mounting and incorrect position behind the rifle

with a 3.5 to 3.7 inch eye relief on a quality optic you would have to be holding that rifle very wrong to get 3.7 inches of movement without also moving the body.

shotguns with slugs are effective for deer but it takes a great slug gun to get to OK rifle accuracy and at a cost of 2.50 a round or more in many cases. hard to get good practice at 2.50-3.00 a round , with the 7.62x39 you can get low cost practice and decent accuracy.

however things like 350 legend exist to fit a nice created by strait wall states

back a long time ago when i lived in KY, that russian short was readily available for the glut of SKS on the market. those guys seemed to use it pretty effectively as a deer round in the hills. be kinda like hunting in woods here, pretty short range. it has virtually no recoil and is similar to 30/30 performance wise. but if i was hunting outside the restricted zone here and wanted to use that caliber, i'd be reloading as the selection otherwise isnt so good

Well I can actually find 350 at just about every Walmart or store that sells ammo around here, 7.62x39 has gotten pretty scarce unless you buy 1000 or so rounds online. And last time I checked 350 legend can accept most 9mm rounds so for hand loading if you already load 9mm ...... Also the few states that require straight wall cartridges it's a good option because all to in have to do is swap the barrel out and use every thing else as is.

I used to have an SKS. Changed it out to a Dragunov sniper rifle poly-stock w/bipod. I took it to work after a guy asked to buy it.

It looked wicked.

Got an sks too, easy to get ammo, fun to shoot. It is a good deer rifle.

I built an AR that shoots 7.62X39 The trick is in the mags. I switched to C-Product mags and my AR runs like a sewing machine.