For years, many states in the US have had firearm and cartridge requirements and restrictions when it comes to hunting, one of the most common being states with straightwall centerfire cartridge, shotgun, and/or muzzleloader only regulations (ex: Michigan, Ohio, Iowa, and Indiana).
Winchester sought to create a new cartridge to meet the requirements of most of these states that do not allow bottleneck centerfire cartridges while delivering a round that gives deer hunters a round that is tailored to fit the job. At SHOT show 2019 Winchester unveiled .350 Legend, designed to lend itself to multiple platforms, the .350 Legend may be the answer to the needs of many.
Winchester designed the .350 Legend for deer hunting. Proper deer hunting bullets allow use for big game out to 200-250 yards, which is far better than most options in states that require straight-walled cartridges. Options in these states are limited, with shotguns, muzzleloaders and very few centerfire calibers available to fit this role. Fortunately, the very light recoil and reasonably low cost of ammunition lends itself to be popular on the practice range as well.
The .350 Legend is the fastest SAAMI-approved, straight-walled cartridge. The increased velocity will help to flatten trajectory, making hits at different distances easier. It features more energy than .30-30, .300 BLK and .223 with less recoil than 450 Bushmaster, .30-30 and .243 Win. It allows the round to have strong terminal performance while recoil remains light.
The .350 Legend was designed primarily for use in an AR platform, but is available from several manufacturers as a bolt rifle. It features a 2.26” overall length and comes with a .378” bolt face, so it uses a standard .223/5.56 bolt. With this design, one could purchase a .350 Legend AR rifle, or use a .350 Legend AR upper receiver group with an existing AR15 lower receiver group. While developed to use an AR-sized magazine, the .350 Legend magazine itself is different than the standard .223/5.56 fare.
CMMG® was the first to bring a .350 Legend AR15 to market and proudly still offers complete rifles in the RESOLUTE® line.
Complete .350 Legend upper groups are also offered in our 16.1” RESOLUTE configuration and comes complete with bolt carrier group and our ZEROED ambi charging handle. For those that are building their own AR from scratch, we offer 16.1” barrels and our .350 Legend compatible M16 Bolt Carrier Group.
Finally, for any .350 Legend owner, CMMG has
5-round,
10-round, or
20-round magazines available.
Are CMMG .350 Legend magazines compatible with other manufacturers uppers/ARs?
The short answer is yes, but depending on whose upper/AR you are wanting to use there may be some work needed to ensure proper function.
After some research we discovered that other popular .350 Legend AR manufacturers barrel extensions and magazines all differed slightly from one another, including ours. The simple fix to avoid feeding issues (if you have any) is to simply file the front opening of our magazines slightly to provide enough clearance for the round feed properly.
