350 remington mag

[sig220mw]

I have an acquaintance that is trying to sell me his 350 remington magnum.
He discovered that I am a "firearms enthusiast". Anyway I have never fired a 350 but know that some of you must have. What advice can you give me. Oh and yes I do handload.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Very nice and powerful whomper. What model rifle?

 

[MachIVshooter]

It's a great little (sort of) round, I just used mine (673 guide gun) on some hogs last week.

For any hunting at reasonable ranges, it'll work great. It is ballistically equal to the .35 Whelen. That said, what rifle is he offering you? The 600 series with the short 18.5" barrels aren't the best housing for this cartridge. It may be stubby, but it's still burning ~60 grs. of powder, and needs 22-24" to realize it's potential.

 

[Ranger30-06]

They are very, very, very nice guns, and an excellent, but definitely a reloader's caliber. Very powerful, but a limited selection of bullets so make your shots count.


The biggest plus to the .350 RM though is its efficiency in short barrels. All of the gunpowder is burnt by the 20" mark, allowing for a short, handy, and still very powerful little bear/camp gun.

 

[sig220mw]

It is a Ruger model 77 with what looks like a 22 inch barrel.

What about recoil?

 

[Certaindeaf]

That's a great rifle. I always liked the Remington model 600..
They can kick a bit but hey, it'll kick on the other end too!

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Ammo isn't cheap and you won't find any at most gun shops.

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
A fellow with a username of 351 Winchester would probably know that. lol
Hey, every time I see your user name I'm reminded I need to pick me up an old lone box of fifty down at the LGS.. $18.

 

[MachIVshooter]

It is a Ruger model 77 with what looks like a 22 inch barrel.

Excellent platform. What's he asking for $$$-wise?

What about recoil?

It can be stiff out of the 7-7.5 pound rifles, but not painful. Pretty similar to a real heavy .30-06 or 7mm Rem Mag load. Just watch your eye relief.

The <6-1/2 pound 600's were one of the reasons this round got a bad rap early on. Such a heavy cartridge in such a light rifle exceeds what most people are willing to tolerate in the recoil department.

 

[sig220mw]

He's asking $500.00 for it and throwing in a full box of ammo. It's the expensive nosler stuff with 225 grain partitions. About $80.00 a box if I remember correctly. However being a handloader my 2 main concerns are brass availability and recoil. I looked on Midway and they have nosler and remington brass for it and saw a few bullet choices. So there appear to be components for it though I would prefer some winchester or federal brass.

I am just wondering about the recoil. I would hate to buy something and then be afraid to shoot it.

I like the fact that it is a rather compact but powerful piece. I also understand that it is not considered to be any more than a short to medium range weapon. I 've read that it's max range is about 250 to 300 yards. I currently hunt in East Texas where the shots are usually pretty short but a 300 yard shot is not out of the question either.

I would probably put a low range variable say 1.75x6 power scope on it instead of something really big and unwieldy.

MachIV what weight bullets do you use?

 

[Ranger30-06]

Buy it buy it buy it! That is an AMAZING price and even if you hated it, you could still turn it around and make somewhat of a profit.

I honestly wouldn't sweat the recoil that much. You'll know it's there, but it's not going to be like shooting a .50 BMG with no muzzle break or anything like that. In a 22" Ruger M77, your looking at about 9 lbs loaded with scope. With a 1/2 decent recoil pad, it should kick at most a little worse than a .30-06. Since you handload, brewing up some reduced velocity loads for practice and deer and whatever else is also an option.

 

[MachIVshooter]

MachIV what weight bullets do you use?

200 and 225.

With something like the 225 gr. Accubond and a healthy load, you could certainly push this round past 300 yards. That said, how may shots do you take further than that? In all my years hunting big game, virtually every shot has been inside 150 yards. Yeah, there have been a couple pushing 500, but it's rare.

It's a bit overkill for little Texas deer, but will definitely put them down with authority. Personally, I use a .25-06 for all deer, pronghorn and cow elk hunting, with an 8mm Rem Mag for bulls, just in case that once in a lifetime critter is standing on the next ridge 500+ yards away.

 

[amflyer]

If the recoil scares you, remember that it's the ballistic twin of the 35 Whelen. Not so scary now, right?

 

[rcmodel]

Works with .357 Pistol bullets too for light plinking loads.

rc

 

[sig220mw]

Yeah RC I saw in my speer manual 357 handgun bullet loads for it like you said. As for the price I thought it was pretty low also considering how few of these you see about these days.

 

[foghornl]

Components for the 350 Rem are not the most plentiful, but are availabe.

Factory ammo choices are limited; however, you stated you "roll your own", therfore you can make up what ever power level you want...from .22Short to "Thermo-Nuclear".

Nice rifle, now go make up some tack-driver loads and put some Bambis and Porkys in the freezer.....

 

[SHR970]

Currently brass for this caliber is simply not readily available. You had better be prepared to be gouged for once fired or be ready to convert other belted magnum brass to that caliber. That means serious cutting down and reforming...like cutting the neck off of a 338 WM, forming the new shoulder and neck, and then trimming to length. First check current availability at the usual sources. Then you might want to check with Remington on whether or not they even intend to do a run of that brass in the next year.

Of course you can use that as a bargaining point to bring the price down some more if you so desire.

 

[MachIVshooter]

Currently brass for this caliber is simply not readily available. You had better be prepared to be gouged for once fired or be ready to convert other belted magnum brass to that caliber. That means serious cutting down and reforming...like cutting the neck off of a 338 WM, forming the new shoulder and neck, and then trimming to length. First check current availability at the usual sources. Then you might want to check with Remington on whether or not they even intend to do a run of that brass in the next year.

Of course you can use that as a bargaining point to bring the price down some more if you so desire.

I just bought Remington brass from Midway a month ago. They get stock in about quarterly. The Nosler brass is available right now, though it's spendy.

Regardless, 100 pieces is a lifetime supply for most folks.

 

[SHR970]

Remington must have just done a run as in late Feb. I tried finding some for a friend of mine. Nobody had any at the time. I never did get a response back from Remington about stock. I'll let him know that there is some in stock now.

 

[Float Pilot]

I have a 350 Rem Mag Ruger M77-MKII Stainless that I modified into a Sourdough Rifle.
The tighter twist rate and the longer magazine box let it take advantage of the potential that the 350 Rem Mag possesses.

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
Does that float?

 

[Float Pilot]

Nope.
I have cleaning gear and the back-up peep sight in the butt-stock.

 

[Certaindeaf]

Very good. I was wondering about the old peeper.