Reloading the 350 Legend

[Yuccathumper]

Hello All, I am new to the forum and was brought to you by my son whom is a member. I have been reloading for about 20 years including both precision .223 & .308. During the height of Covid, being bored with the lockdowns and inability to get out and shoot, I figured I would just build a new rifle! I purchased a completed AR upper in .350 Legend and built the AR. Being this caliber is relatively new, bullet selection was limited to 170 gr. and 180 gr. I loaded using both these weight bullets. Once I finally got the rifle to the range, it’s accuracy is dismal! It shoots about 1-2 foot grouping at 200 yards sometimes missing the target completely.

While I know the .350 is not a precision round I would think it should shoot better than this??

My questions are am I expecting to much from this round and what weight bullets/powder are others using in reloading for this round? The barrel is 16” with a 1-16 twist.

Thanks All!
Wayne

 

[918v]

Sounds like your rifle or scope are defective.

 

[roostercogburn98]

My 350 legend bolt gun shoots fantastic. Plenty of .355 bullet choices in many weights available to reload with.

 

[Yuccathumper]

Sounds like your rifle or scope are defective.

While that is a complete possibility, I’m not ready to give up just yet.

 

[Yuccathumper]

My 350 legend bolt gun shoots fantastic. Plenty of .355 bullet choices in many weights available to reload with.

Thanks for your quick response! What grain bullet are you shooting through your bolt gun? Thanks!

 

[roostercogburn98]

I have shot 145-180 in it. The 180s pack a punch. If I ever got serious about using it for anything, I’d use 170s for whitetail over here on the east coast. I have some chrono numbers somewhere around here. It is a 16 inch 1:14 twist barrel on a rem700 action.

 

[Yuccathumper]

I have shot 145-180 in it. The 180s pack a punch. If I ever got serious about using it for anything, I’d use 170s for whitetail over here on the east coast. I have some chrono numbers somewhere around here. It is a 16 inch 1:14 twist barrel on a rem700

I have shot 145-180 in it. The 180s pack a punch. If I ever got serious about using it for anything, I’d use 170s for whitetail over here on the east coast. I have some chrono numbers somewhere around here. It is a 16 inch 1:14 twist barrel on a rem700 action. View attachment 7865852

 

[Yuccathumper]

Very nice rifle!! I’m thinking that my problem is to heavy of a bullet? Your barrel is a bit faster so I’m going to try 147 gr. and see if that makes a difference. Thank you for your help!

 

[roostercogburn98]

I’d think that with twist rate and barrel length, it would along 115 and 124 boolits pretty good. Sling em fast as you can get em.

 

[tomme boy]

I have shot up to a 270gr bullet and was stable. It is not the twist. Tell us about the way you reload and who made the barrel. The 350l is capable of extreme accuracy compared to most other calibers.

 

[Yuccathumper]

I purchased the upper already assembled from Midway. It is an AR Stoner upper. Unsure where they get their barrels.

For this particular round, I use a turret press. The bullet I am currently using is Hornady 170 gr SP. Winchester 296 powder at 25 gr. (Each charge is individually thrown through an RCBS Charge Master) Bullet seated and crimped to 2.24 OAL. I also tried Hodgdon Lil Gun with similar results.

Appreciate any direction you can point me!

 

[tomme boy]

Stay away from lilgun. Way to many people with blown primers. Split cases. It is not very stable in this cartridge. One day you are fine. The next day conditions are the exact same and it blows a primer pocket. And using a middle charge on the loading data. H110 can also give fits the same as lilgun but not as bad.

IMR4227 will not give you the highest velocity's but it does not behave like the ball powders do. One thing to make sure of with this case is your trim length. If they get too long you will blow a primer pocket. Try to keep them at the 1.700" length. Do not go shorter. You will end up with a case head separation. This all because of the case head spaces on the mouth of the case. DO NOT OVER CRIMP!!!!!!!!!!!! Another way to get primer pockets to blow out.

I hope you have luck with the Stoner upper. It is made by Bear Creek. Some of them do shoot really well. Some just average.

 

[Yuccathumper]

Thank you for your advice! I truly appreciate it!