New rifle

[Tomme boy]

Well I went and picked up the new Ruger American Ranch tonite. I got this VERY cheap! Last month I was running around and buying rifles that were being clearanced out from Walmart. Sold two and kept one. They were all Remington 700 ADL package rifles with scopes.

I was talking to my friend that owns a sporting goods store and he said to bring it in as he could sell it for me. I told him I would rather have a Ruger American in 350 Legend. He told me he had 2 on order and should be in in a week or so. So I ended up trading him even up for the Ruger. So I have $107 in the new Ruger Ranch. I had to get away from the Legend in a AR platform. It just seemed too temperamental.

I did find out that it will not feed the Lee 200gr bullet from the mag. The mag fits very loose in the rifle. This may be the problem. It rocks front to back more than any gun I have ever seen. Not too sure if this is how they are or what. Maybe @CWLONGSHOT could say. He has had one for a while now.

I mounted a Vortex 6-20x50 Viper to it in some Weaver Tactical rings I had laying around. I have to go to the inlaws tomorrow to drive the tractor and move the gravity wagons from the field to the silos. So I don't know when I will get out to get it sighted in. I might be there the whole weekend.

 

[Tomme boy]

Forgot, i took one of my 223 brakes and opened the bore on it to 0.400" and put it on. It is a copy of the Badger Ordnance FTE brake

 

[fiver]

what's the barrel length on that one Tomme.
is looks to be 18"s??

oh and nobody wants a hurtzdonut.

 

[Tomme boy]

LOL!! My old lady made me stop there on the way home.

16.38" or something like that. It looks longer because of the brake.

Here is a little tip if anyone has never heard of it to help mount a scope level. It works if the bottom of the scope is flat and you have a one piece scope rail. Take a feeler gauge set and stick it under the flat part of the scope between the scope and the rail. You will have to do trial and error till you find the right thickness. Then tighten down the caps. Make sure to not make it too tight or you will have to loosen the caps to get the feeler gauge out.

 

[Spindrift]

Nice rifle, Tomme!
Keep us posted on your results!

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Mine feeds the RCBS 200 fine. Also the MP 220 and Saeco 352. (All about identical profiles).
Maybe a diff magazine??

Congrats your gonna love it!

CW

 

[Mitty38]

I had to get away from the Legend in a AR platform. It just seemed too temperamental.

Congratulations!!!!
Please keep us posted with your experience with this rifle. I am really looking forward to see how this works out for you.
I have been debating in my mind for a while. 350L upper or 350L bolt.
One of my main concerns, is that it will by a gun I will load for, and also hunt with.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Ruger American 350 Legend

CW

 

[CZ93X62]

Getting a new rifle is one of the sublime pleasures of adulthood. I don't quite understand the "draw" of the 350 Legend, but if the round and their rifles serve a purpose for you I say ROCK OUT!

 

[Tomme boy]

I brought the rifle with just in case we finished up early. Well we had about 1/2 hour of light so I set a target up at about 125yds. First shot was about 6" high and 6" left. I had this on the 350L upper. I took it off and changed the rings. So it was really close for swapping from one gun to the other.

I shot a box of the 145gr FMJ factory rounds to just get some rounds through the gun. I then loaded up 20 rds of the Lee 200gr. Don't know what changed but they fed fine today. I must not have held my tongue in the right spot last night. Well, about half of the rounds will not chamber. They have a little too much case head expansion. Some loaded fine while others I had to push really hard to close the bolt. It is not the bullet. I colored the cases with a marker when I got home and you can see right above the web it is making hard contact.

So just for the heck of it I took the cases that were tight and pulled them apart and ran them up as far as they would go in a 9mm case sizer. They now chamber. It shrunk the area above the web down from 0.3895" to 0.3880"

The load with the Lee bullet did not shoot well at all. It shot right at 1.25" in the AR but about 6" with this one. But it is probably me as I was just resting the rifle across the picnic table with a rolled up sweatshirt. I will get out shortly with some propper loads and shooting rest. Today was more to just get the scope close enough.

 

[RBHarter]

The joy of the 350 is that it's a 357 Max that will run in anything fitted for 223 . Advertised cases are tapered but 223 cases cut down work fine .
Because subs are all the rage at the moment and a 250-300 gr 35/38/9mm bullet is gaining free BC points and why waste all that space in a 358/9×57/35 Whelen .

It's almost Sunday .

That covers it .

 

[Tomme boy]

223 cases do not work. They have a very high rate of splitting. As in almost every one. They use a rebated rim on the 350 case. There is just not enough meat in the web area to use the 223 brass. You will end up with case head failures. The 357AR does use the 223 cases. But that was designed to be used with the 223 brass.

 

[Mitty38]

The deal with the .223 cases having issues due to thickness of the web area .....
I was wandering is this something that happens on the first loading of a once fired .223?
Or is it that they only last a couple of times before a major issue?
Also do you know, is the problem more relevant in an AR15, than a bolt or vise versa?
Just wondering as finding once fired .223 brass is just about as easy as finding water after a rain here.
I HAVE ABOUT 5 GALLONS OF UNPROSSESED .223- .556 ONCE FIRED BRASS.
My thought if one were able to produce an accurate round using .223 cut down, and they do not blow apart the first time you fire them, one could load up m500 or so and just not worry about saving them after they have been fired thru the 350l.

 

[Ian]

Take a closer look at Tomme's post above.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

The 223 isnt "bulged" Per se ...

The 350 Case is a 223 Rim BUT swelled at the web to make about .380 and a slightly tapered case 350 CASE is the result.

If you try to use a 223 case, it needs to "swell" to fill chamber only that portion of the case is its most strong and thickest making SPLITTING PROBABLE AS Tommie mentions above.
CW

 

[Mitty38]

Ah I see.So 350 legend has no parent case. Only a head that will work with a ,556 bolt.beyon that it is its own animal.

 

[fiver]

yeah,,,,
think of it as a de-rimmed 357 maximum, with some case taper added for good measure.

 

[CWLONGSHOT]

Basically yes. Winchesters better idea.

Long time Maxi shooter here!! Thats why I wanted the Legend! Wow was I deflated when I learned it was .355... Got over that somewhat. I use maxi data as my start loads in Legend. The Legend case is larger capacity and loaded to higher pressure. But strangely Im not exceeding its preformance by much at all. I musta been loading the Maxi hotter then I realized. NOT surprised as operating at 40K ish in modern single shots that also chamber 270 & 280.... It wasnt a safety thing. Heck aside from tarnish, the brass life probably wont ever show a 40K load.
CW

 

[fiver]

kind of aggravated me.
I'm still holding out hope that I might be able to 'straighten out' a few cases and give them a go in the maximum revolver.
just ain't seen any empties laying around the range to play with yet.

 

[CZ93X62]

I dealt with a bit similar issue in the 9.3 x 62 Mauser when it arrived in 2002. My first cases were originally 35 Whelen brass by R-P. Rim diameter on the 30-06-based cartridges is .473"--several of the Mauser calibers use a .480" rim spec, and need the RCBS #2 shellholder rather than the 30-06's #3.

The fire-forming process I employed was kind of a junkyard dog sequence. 9.3mm bullets of any description were neither affordable nor abundant. What WAS abundant and semi-affordable were j-words meant for the 9mm Makarov, the Hornady variants being .365" in diameter and 95 grains in weight if memory serves.

Most here will remember the old GI Brass milsurp powder era fondly, and the WC-852 fuel in fast and slow lots. I knew just enough about these fuels to be profoundly dangerous, but they were (for a while) cheaper than canister grade fuels. I did some homework assisted by the Hazardous Device Team guys and their resources, and our R&D came up with the Fast Lot being a pretty decent fuel for ultra-light bullet weights in the 9.3 x 62. A pass through the size die's tapered expander ball made the case mouths fit the 9Mak bullets quite well.

A couple of mission goals were being attempted at once here--to expand the cartridge base about .0035" radially, and to blow the shoulder forward about 0.100". We adjourned for a weekend of destructive device disposal at a desert location, with me tagging along to assist with the grunt work and brought along the CZ-550 for the ending ceremony of HDT's semi-annual disposal run. The informal title was "Let's See If Al's Reloads Blow Up His Rifle". The 10 test rounds did no damage at all, and perfectly formed the shoulders. There is a subtle swelling above the solid case head of less than .002" all around. I still have all 100 of these ".366 Whelen Improved cases" doing fine service with my cast bullets, which I run at 50%-80% of full potential. These have 6-7 cast bullet refills on them.

The balance of the fire-forming got done over a few months of varmint hunting and chronography. the 9Mak JHPs were running in the 2900-3000 FPS ballpark, and when they connected on jackrabbits (and 1 coyote) BAD THINGS HAPPENED. Ground squirrels just plain disappeared. Think "22-250 at 25 yards" for this last example.