I Know This Is Dumb But I Like It

Of course, I lost all of my firearms in a tragic canoe accident. However…

For some reason I like the .38 Special / .357 Mag pairing of ammunition. I don’t know why; maybe they’re easy to reload? Maybe they’re old and tested? Maybe I’m biased for no good reason whatsoever. Who knows what makes the heart want what it does.

Anyway, I noticed this and liked the idea:

The 2019 SHOT Show saw the release of the latest cartridge from Winchester—the .350 Legend. The new cartridge is a .223 case blown out to have straight walls, making it a perfectly viable choice for those states which require the use of a straight-walled rifle cartridge for deer hunting. The bullet diameter is listed as .357″, and the rimless design will require the cartridge to headspace off the case mouth.

For no logical reason, that just looks like the bee’s knees to me. Pretty sure it’d be a fine big game rifle (provided, as always, the operator is up to the shot).

There’s a bit of discussion at The Captain’s Journal that relates to this shiny new caliber:

It would appear that the idea is a straight-walled cartridge that isn’t quite the punch in the shoulder that the .450 Bushmaster is, but still with a lot of power. I confess that I had thought before about the possibility of a carbine chambered for .357 Magnum. This is a step up. For the 150-grain bullet they get 2350 FPS, whereas by comparison, for the 300 Blackout at 125-grains, it’s pushing 2215 FPS.

I need a toy in a weird caliber like I need a hole in the head, but I like that straightwall case for reloading. Also, I just never got into the .300 Blackout. I mean it’s pretty darned cool but a .300 Blackout without a suppressor is like putting shitty tires on a hotrod. It’s got the engine but the performance you wanted is denied. And I have to admit, doing the paperwork on a suppressor is a turn off. I would like to spare my hearing and I’ll do paperwork if I have to but the BATFE / suppressor thing is like doing taxes as a hobby. Boooooring.

Also, I’m not sure about the whole “legal betterness” of a straightwalled case. I’m have mostly escaped the universe of “this gun is ‘good’ and that gun is ‘dangerous’ due to some dumb fucking technical difference that nobody in the right mind would care about”. I realize the depth of the related political shitstorm but it’s just not a thing I have to worry about. Apparently straightwall versus necked case is a thing in some places? Who knew? Arbitrary regulations are fuckin’ weird.

For the hunter who has always wanted to hunt with an AR-15 rifle but has been unable to because of local straight-wall cartridge restrictions, this rifle is for you.

Then again it’s a personal goal to avoid “flavor of the month” calibers when possible. Also, and far more importantly, I’ve blown all my “wiggle room” keeping the house heated this winter. A wise man would stay the course and keep his money in his pocket.

Besides, if I were wandering the woods looking to put a .357 bullet into something edible I’d definitely prefer something a bit more old school and suitable for a Curmudgeon:

Oh well, it’s fun to look at the new toys anyway.