300 Blackout vs 350 Legend

Let me start out by saying I bought a 350 for my 11 year old son and he shot a few deer with it last year. So I have some experience with it.

The recoil is mild and the report is not as sharp when compared to a 223 or 22-250 for example.

I want a truck gun that my daughter could use for deer. She is recoil sensitive. My wife had surgery on her neck and is now recoil sensitive as well.

With a short barrel ranch-type rifle (16”) will I see much difference in recoil and report/muzzle blast with a 300 Blackout vs a 350 Legend? With similar loads of course.

Ammo cost seems similar but far more choices for the Blackout.

Or should I just get another Legend since I already have plenty of ammo?

I use a 300 blkout Ammo is available or can be made from .223 cases

350 is legal in more states if you ever want to state hop for gun season

Reloading, suppressor/ subsonic use , and state laws are your real differences...other then that

to take deer well with a 300blk , Winchester Dear Season XP 150gr is what I found was the best

the 110 soft points did ok

130s were ok

the 110 vmax make nice little groups but for me didn't get the penetration I wanted they went to pieces on deer , no exit even on a neck shot

so while there are a lot more choices for blackout about 12 of them are worth hunting , where most of the 350 is made for hunting

had I not gone 300 years before 350 was available I would have never gone 300 knowing what I know as a hunting gun

you have a 350 you know how it works I would recommend you get another 350 and run some good hunting ammo and not look at 300blk unless it is for a suppressed application , then you want to build it for shooting suppressed and even then the newer sub sonic stuff they are coming out with now is better terminal performance for suppressed.

where 300blk really has it's niece is suppressed LE entry guns , they apparently love them in the Euro anti terrorism units
that doesn't make them the most terminal performance , it makes them all the controls and parts other than barrel of a 5.56 that runs suppressed well with a 10 inch barrel and allows for use of 30rd mags well.

30 cal bullets were not really intended to work at 300blk speeds well so it runs into go light to get into the range where they work or get a purpose built bullet which really cuts your options.

looking at midway usa
300aac blackout has 75 options , 31 claim to be hunting , I would take it down to about 12 I would want to shoot a deer with
looking at 350 legend there are 20 total options and only 13 claim to be hunting 12 I would want to hunt deer with.

so there isn't that much difference when you take out all the target , sub sonic and non deer hunting rounds.

I know nothing of 350 legend… 300blackout is what my son uses (8 years old). Originally I had built a bolt action (Ruger ranch) chopped the barrel down, but was still too heavy for my liking.
Went with a contender in 300, and he loves it… even my 5 year old liked shooting it.
Granted it gets a can so that eats some recoil, the chopped bolt action is now my hog gun for thermal, it’s becoming my new favorite gun to shoot.

We have a 8.5" are black out and 2 cva break action 350 legends. Boys have shot about I deer with both calibers all deer were killed. 350 is a much better deer round in my opinion and like green county I would never had for the 300 if the 350 was out when I got it. After geting one 350 and seeing the result I got a 2nd and the 300 has not been out since. Nothing wrong with the 300 just the 350 has been better at dropping them, more exits and more damage to the internals.

Recoil difference I can't say neither is enough to notice . hard to get less Recoil than 110 gr suppressed AR but I don't think the 350 had to much more. My kids have no issues with them.

We have a 8.5" are black out and 2 cva break action 350 legends. Boys have shot about I deer with both calibers all deer were killed. 350 is a much better deer round in my opinion and like green county I would never had for the 300 if the 350 was out when I got it. After geting one 350 and seeing the result I got a 2nd and the 300 has not been out since. Nothing wrong with the 300 just the 350 has been better at dropping them, more exits and more damage to the internals.

Recoil difference I can't say neither is enough to notice . hard to get less Recoil than 110 gr suppressed AR but I don't think the 350 had to much more. My kids have no issues with recoil but low recoil and silly caliber restrictions are the only reason I got the black out and 350.

and If you want to hunt with suppressed subs 350 is still better. Bigger heavier bullets.

Can a guy suggest a .243? Mine has minimal recoil and is a great grocery getter. Even better supressed.

Dont you know 6mm is a lil sissy caliber! Need at least 30cal to do anything

Anyone handload the 350 Legend? Been reading a lot of negative stuff online about problems handloading.

I don't but now I'm curious what problems to do people mainly have ?

love my 300 bo shooting 110 grain copper at deer.

looked up ammoseek and avg cost of 300 bo is around 15 cents cheaper at least per shot - even cheaper for target ammo - lots of ammo available

Seems like the crimping/seating is giving guys fits with crinkled necks.

I think part of the problem was early on , everyone wanted to run a 0.357 bullet because it was what was available

however the 350legend is a 9mm 0.355 bullet so loaded ammo came first and it took time for .355 bullets that were designed for faster than 9mm luger velocities to come around

if you recall a lot of the early 350 legend ammo that was cheap was 147gr bullets on Winchester cases

On average, when shooting a bunch of supersonic rounds, the 300 Blackout kicks back with about 6 ft-lbs of recoil, while the 350 Legend has a bit more at around 8.5 ft-lbs. The .350L is a little better ballistically at longer ranges.

That's what I shoot most everything with. Or .223/5.56

Todd:

Not sure if you handload, but, if you do or if you have access to someone who does, I suggest that you consider what I have done for years: use a rifle that fits the shooter in a standard caliber. I have several Remington Model 7 rifles, some with barrel lengths as short as 18.5 inches. In calibers of .260 Rem, 7mm-08 and .308 Win. In either of the rifles, you can craft a reduced load that is still very effective using light-for-caliber bullets. I usually use Nosler ballistic tip bullets, but any cup and core bullet will perform well at reduced velocities and will be a joy to shoot for recoil-sensitive people. Hodgon 4895 powder is probably the best for reduced loads, which can be as little as 60% of the maximum published load. My wife and kids (when the kids were younger) used reduced loads to harvest several truckloads of deer that did not know they were shot with reduced loads. Out to 200 yards, there is really nothing lost and the difference in recoil and muzzle blast is significant. When/if you want to use full-strength loads, you can easily do it and you will have the rifle for it.

Chuck

Thats the word on the street haha. The doe last year at 500 something yards didnt get the memo though! 95 grain sierra game king did work

sniperb sounds like they are loading it like rifle rounds and not expanding the neck like with strait wall pistol rounds . Just a guess I have not bothered loading 350 yet so have no experience with it. BUT if I don't expand the neck on a 357 I get smashed cases. Typically I only roll crimp but if that's causing issues a Lee crimp die may help.

I don't think I will be loading any 350 legend for a long time since I made a good size order on ammo for it when it was on sale a while back. But love to know what if any problems I may have when I decide to. Thanks for posting about them.

one of the things we found in 9mm loading , it works best to flair the mouth , then seat the bullet and then crimp

3 process my son tried very hard to get a seat and crimp operation in one and conceded I was right which he hates doing

if your running a few cases of one headstamp all made perfect trim before you start loading and your going slow it will definitely work more than it doesn't

but running a progressive press with, range brass , a case feeder and bullet feeder at hundreds of rounds an hour it makes sense to make 2 operations

that may or may not apply to 350 I haven't played 350 yet but the case mouth and taper are more like 9mm than almost anything else so it would make some sense.

And in more seasons: straight-wall versus necked cartridges. Some states allow straight-wall cartridges in primitive seasons.

Looked at a Ruger American gen 1 today. Think I might go back and get it. That 350 legend could be a handy little rifle in the timber

I have lived wat was a bow slug gun black powder and hand gun only state. Progressively thay relaxed and allowed handgun cal rifles 357 or larger. Them after several years 243 and up on private land and still the handgun cal on public land.

I have shot or been with family and my kids seen many hundreds of deer shot and the reactions and damage fome many cals.
I can say now having seen 8 deer shot by my 12 year old with his 350 in the last 2 years It's a very impressive round. In damage and deer reaction.

If someone ask for a recommendation for public land deer round here it's what I will suggest. Sure it is not a 243 or 7mm-08 at distance but at typical whitetail distance 200 yards and under its a wonder full round.
When given the option of taking the 243 0r 7mm-08 my youngest has chosen the 350 several times and not felt under gunned.