Winchester surprised this year at SHOT Show by dropping a handful of new products, including a 10/22 magazine-compatible rifle and the 350 Legend cartridge. They’re billing the latter as “The World’s Fastest Straight-Walled Hunting Cartridge.”
Indeed, 2,350 feet per second is pretty quick for a 145 grain projectile. And I suppose it’s the world’s fastest if we aren’t going to count .375 Winchester, .444 Marlin, .458 Lott (slightly tapered, to be fair), and various .460 and .500 S&W loads out of long guns. Maybe others?
Sorry, I don’t mean to rain on Winchester’s parade here. There are plenty of states with hunting seasons restricted to straight-walled cartridges, and this .35-cal offering looks solid and should be a ton of fun out of a lever gun for sure. It isn’t rimmed, though, so it’s semi-auto ready.
In fact, it’s effectively a straightened out .223 Remington case loaded with a .357 diameter projectile. Which is cool. Depending on overall length it should be ready-to-run in a variety of platforms. And 265 grain subsonic loads (1,060 fps) offer more punch than 300 Blackout subs.
Sounds pretty good on paper! I know our man Josh is looking to dive deep on this one.