350 Legend?

[Eric Zelanko]

I just purchased a Tikka T3X in 350 Legend from EuroOptic that was on close out. I suspect the very favorable pricing was due to it being a “leftover” with an unthreaded barrel. While I don’t anticipate using it for whitetails here in PA, when I hunt one of the straight wall cartridge states of the Midwest, I’ll have a rifle I’m familiar with as I have several other calibers of Tikka that are good shooters.

I elected to go with the 16” barrel rather than the 20” for maneuverability in the woods. The times I’ve hunted Ohio with my 45-70 have typically involved deer drives rather than sits. I much prefer a bolt to the lever.

Knowing this rifle will see limited use, I’m going to refrain from buying dies and supplies to reload. My goal is to find a factory load with decent accuracy. In looking at available options, most manufactures offer hunting bullets from 150gr to 180 gr.

Can anyone recommend one that they’ve had good results with?

 

[analog_peninsula]

Following

 

[mdwest]

I shot plain old federal blue box power shock 150gr out of my 350 legend AR… worked just fine on deer and hogs out to a little more than 100 yards..

You’re getting roughly 30-30 ballistics in terms of impact energy and drop over distance … treat it like an old marlin on Winchester lever gun when selecting shots and you’ll do well…

 

[MS 9x56]

I like heavey for caliber bullets but the heaviest I could find were the 180 grain. The performance on a large old doe (170lbs dressed) was as good as my 35 rem with 200 grain bullets. One shot through the heart 40 yard dash and pilled up. I am now a believer in the 350 legend.

 

[Flbt]

I just purchased a Tikka T3X in 350 Legend from EuroOptic that was on close out. I suspect the very favorable pricing was due to it being a “leftover” with an unthreaded barrel. While I don’t anticipate using it for whitetails here in PA, when I hunt one of the straight wall cartridge states of the Midwest, I’ll have a rifle I’m familiar with as I have several other calibers of Tikka that are good shooters.

I elected to go with the 16” barrel rather than the 20” for maneuverability in the woods. The times I’ve hunted Ohio with my 45-70 have typically involved deer drives rather than sits. I much prefer a bolt to the lever.

Knowing this rifle will see limited use, I’m going to refrain from buying dies and supplies to reload. My goal is to find a factory load with decent accuracy. In looking at available options, most manufactures offer hunting bullets from 150gr to 180 gr.

Can anyone recommend one that they’ve had good results with?

Have had really good luck with hornday 170gr interlock.
The Winchester whitetail bt were not good they didn’t leave much of a blood trail.
The did kill the deer quickly most of the time the longest run was right at 100 yd.
Good shot lot of internal bleeding but no trail
The 170 gr hornday left blood trail’s went through the deer.
Low recoil we have started 4 young hunters with that cartridge.

 

[JeeperCreeper]

Mason Leather YouTube channel has a whole bunch of 350 Legend ballistic gel tests online.

He has a pretty solid channel for gel testing, very little BS chatting.

I know gel isn't perfect, but it's at least a consistent medium. Might give you an idea of how various loads perform-sorta as you filter down factory loads you might like.

 

[Sarg]

I wish we had the Tikka’s in .350 Legend in NZ, Id buy one & pull the barrel & fit to one of my Sako’s .

I was going to build a 357 Max Rimmless way back after reading about how efficient the .357 Maximum was, roll on 15yrs & the .350 Legend comes out, so finally bought one recently in Ruger American, I load 200gr (.358 as is) Hornadys to 2045fps only slightly less than factory 35Rem loads so it should work the same as 35Rem on game, also shoot 285gr subsonic, still working on it but so far it’s exactly as I was hoping .

 

[Fryeguy]

I bought a tikka earlier this year when they first went on sale for the exact same reason. I have been going to Ohio the last several years. The guys there with them have had same complaints about the 150 grain bullets not doing well on bigger deer. Most of the time not getting pass thru, and not much blood. I ordered a bunch of nosler factory ammo with 180 grain bullets, and they have surprisingly shot very well. 1” or less. I also bought some factory 170interlock bullets to reload. With very minor load work up they shoot even better, and faster! Problem is I didn’t make it to Ohio this year to try it out. Of all the research I did, which I did days of, it’s seems heavier bullets did much better. I wanted to hold out for a 400 legend, but a tikka at the price they had them was too much to pass up

 

[MS 9x56]

I like heavey for caliber bullets but the heaviest I could find were the 180 grain. The performance on a large old doe (170lbs dressed) was as good as my 35 rem with 200 grain bullets. One shot through the heart 40 yard dash and pilled up. I am now a believer in the 350 legend.

Should have mentioned the ammo was winchester with 180 grain bonded bullet. Couldn’t get a picture as with most 35 calibers the hit was a complete pass through.

 

[HShunter]

We have experienced good results with Bear Creek Ballistics 350L 140gr HV in my 9yr old son’s TC Encore. In 2025 he took two SC wild boar, one NC black bear, one mature OH buck, and a mature Doe.
He got a Tikka T3X from Euro Optics for Christmas. Haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet. We plan to use the Bear Creek Ballistics load if it shoots well. If not, I’ll try the Barnes factory load. I believe they are 170gr.

 

[Mike McCartney]

Have a Ruger .350L with 20" barrel. Settled on the Winchester 165 gr hollow point. Never has taken more than one shot on whitetail. Terrific blood trail for 50 yds. A friend was using the ballistic tip and never got a blood trail on a couple of deer.

 

[Eric Zelanko]

Thanks for the info everyone. I’m finding the locally available selections to be very limited as PA is not a straight walled state. However, I was able to pick up a box of Hornady American Whitetail in 170 gn SP and Hornady Custom 165 gn FTX at the local gun shop to try when this weather breaks.

When researching the 350 Legend, I saw lots of stories about the 150 gn bullets not leaving much of a blood trail. 180 gn don’t appear to have that issue. Hopefully one of the loads I purchased are accurate.

 

[illini]

I shoot Barnes 180 in my ruger. Accuracy is great. Only killed one deer with it so far. But I am a barnes fan. My buddy shot a big illinois buck this year. Same bullet and had great expansion at 125 yards

 

[Flbt]

Took one of my nephew friends out this afternoon
170gr hornday to the neck/ shoulder juction
100-130 yds fell over dead
Little spike but it works for the first and I turned the head in for cwd testing

 

[Eric Zelanko]

I just ordered a box of Barnes, Remington, and Nosler from Schells to try. Hopefully one of the five show good accuracy out of the Tikka. Then I’ll stock up!!!

 

[Flbt]

I just ordered a box of Barnes, Remington, and Nosler from Schells to try. Hopefully one of the five show good accuracy out of the Tikka. Then I’ll stock up!!!

Well everything we have tried has been accurate. Even the cheap fmj.
With my ar and it’s a cheap one with the hornday it ate out the x and keepted inside the ten going to the x on a nra slow fire 25 yd target but the target was 100 yds away
On the deer today it broke the neck into punched a silver dollar size exit hole
They have made it through honest 300 lbs boar Grisle shield and through and through a bigger hog don’t know the size it maxed out the 350 scale.
And I when I bought them the only ammo cheaper was the win whitetail ( that I would not use one any thing bigger than a coyote)
And the fmj load.
Hope you find a load that will work well

And again I would not use the win whitetail bt ammo. Except maybe home defense because of such bad penetration.
Good luck have fun

 

[Rifleman97]

I have used pretty much every factory 350 legend ammo available. I don’t think there’s any 1 that stands up above and beyond the rest, but there are many that stand far above a few

Top tier: Bear Creek Ballistics, Hornady 165 FTX, Barnes VorTX, Handloads with cutting edge bullets 160gr, Nosler Whitetail Country 180gr

Good, but not great: Remington Core Lokt, Winchester Copper Impact, Federal whatever its called, Hornady 170gr interlock

DO NOT BUY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE (for game): Winchester Deer season XP, Winchester Power Point, ANY subsonic ammo whatsoever, browning FMJ practice ammo (obviously, but covering bases)

Definitions for each classification above

Top Tier: No bad experiences yet

Good, but not great: Sometimes dead within short order, but have had at least 1 experience of a good shot placement with the deer running well over 100 yards before dying. In this class all deer were recovered, but some bullets were recovered with extremely minimal penetration, such as the hornady interlock getting under 10” of penetration in the deer at 50 yards.

DO NOT BUY: You can use any of these ammo’s for target practice, but other than the FMJ mentioned, all listed here I have experienced either extremely subpar terminal effects, or have had to shoot the deer one or more additional times in order to kill, even with the first shot having adequate placement.

The worst ammo I’ve used here is the winchester deer season XP. I had shot one deer at 20 yards behind the shoulder, only nicked one rib, and the bullet failed to even reach the second lung. Another time I shot and had a total pass through. The inconsistency scares me. The failed bullet exploded upon entry and due to only hitting one lung, the deer ran over 300 yards before expiring. This was not the only time I’ve seen a bullet failure with this bullet. I have seen it on multiple occasions with around 5 deer (I switched ammo after the first time I had a failure but my brother and nephew did not change ammo when I did, so had multiple more deer taken that turned into an ordeal)

Moral of the story, I don’t think you’ll have any bad experiences with the ammo in my Top Tier category, and you shouldn’t have many issues with the good but not great category if you have good shot placement.

This info is from me personally shooting around 3 dozen deer, and witnessing at least 80 deer taken in person with 350 legend. You may use my do not buy ammo and have great results, but they are generally too inconsistent to be worth using in my personal opinion. The FMJ and Subsonic should not be used because the 350 twist rate isn’t fast enough for proper subsonic, so they download the powder to roughly 9mm levels to achieve subsonic. Use a different chambering if you want to keep terminal performance and subsonic simultaneously.