350 Rem Mag: Remington Drops Swift A-Frame

[coug2wolfs]

I had a 350 Mag in one of the original laminated carbines. If I may be blunt, it kicked like HELL!   But it did kill, man did it kill.  I was using 250 grain TB Bearclaws and it laid blackbears where they stood.  Found it a bit much on deer.

The dogleg bolt was bitchy at times, and true to the belted mags, the chamber was cut long enough ahead of the belt so you could drop a round in the mud and it would still chamber.  This caused NEW brass to have a life of 1 fire, as any reloading after that would cause the case to separate.

There are some bullets out there that are just plain shooters. Bullets like Speer's Grand Slams, Trophy Bonded, and, Swift.  I have yet to see any decent rifle not perform with these bullets.  My rule of thumb is if the rifle won't perform with one of these it's a turkey and I dump it!

I think the 350 Rem Mag has seen it's day in the sun, and like the beaver, it will not shine again.  Too much has changed since those days when the 350 was new.  Bullets, powders, rifles, and now the "short & squats".

One thing I have come to realize over the years though, them gun an ammo people are kinda like the Redsox, just when you start warmin up to em, they'll break your heart :wink:

Coug

[L-Roy]

The 350 Rem Mag is a short, squat, one of the best for short action rifles!

Diligentia, vis, celeritas!

[CJ]

Coug, check out my post under bolt action rifles, remington 673. Seems Rem is trying to make a comeback for the .350 on a modified Model 7 action without the dogleg bolt.

[coug2wolfs]

Advocate

That I have seen, the ONLY mfg that cuts a chamber for a belted mag corretly is Weatherby.  I am suspect that this is due to the "octane" of the rounds they have.  If they ran chambers "loosey Goosey" like everybody else, they would end up with a lot of incepiant case separations.

On a belted case, it headspaces at the front of the belt.  The problem comes from there forward.  If, and it is in 99.99% of the cases, the chamber in FRONT of the belt is long, then when the case is fired, the brass flows forward.  One only needs to look for the shiny belt ahead of the belt on the brass.  The particular 350 showed better than .090 of stretch.

If you cut one of these cases in half the long way, you will readily see what goes on.  The case wall will appear uniform to an area just ahead of the belt, here it will be visualy thinner.  Repeated full length resizing and fireing will agrivate this until the case comes in two!  Can get quite lively, and dangerous.

For the chap who owns a rifle that the chamber is not WAY over length, and if he shoots factory stuff and does not reload, there isn't much of a problem.

If you shoot, or have shot Weatherby rifles in Wby cals you know the brass and ammo is quite expensive.  Here, the reloader would like to get a fair ammount of reloads to save money by not having to buy new brass all the time.  Like I said, Wby does it right.  I have loaded some 300 Wby cases as many as 30 times and they still were good.

In "the other" guns, the only thing you can do is back off the sizing die so the case only stretches the one time.  Kinda like fireforming a regular case.

For the record, belted cases are not the only ones to see over length chambers.  I have seen 30-06 brass that showed near .200 of stretch just ahead of the web!  If the back section of the case is tight (remember the cases are tapered so this can be so) the headspace will be ok and the round will not slip forward and fire.  BUT, and here we go again, the case can, and WILL stretch to fill the empty chamber.  It's enough to drive a serious reloader to hit the sour mash :wink:

This is one of the reasons why I just LOVE the straight wall cases.  They simply don't stretch.  There is no shoulder to blow forward, so case stretch is minimal.  Too, straight cases are rimmed, and that's what they headspace on.

Most of the cats I know who are serious about 10 shot 1 hole groups would sooner fry in Hell as to full legth size a case.  These guys neck size only, and, some even go as far as to neck turn so wall thickness is uniform and bullet pull is constant.

This is relevant to bolt guns only, as levers and autos do not have the camming power to use these accuracy Indian tricks :wink:

Once, I want to say it was .......10 or so years ago, I bought a pair of Sauers in 375 H&H.  Took a couple of boxes of factory stuff and headed out to the range.  On the 1st shot with the 1st rifle I thought the recoil was queersome.  When I lifted the bolt it felt WAY to easy.  That was on account of only the belted piece of the case came out!  The second rifle, ditto.  Made record time in bring BOTH rifles back where I bought them and got my money back.  These were both new guns?  Been saying for a while now, quality has become a non entity :?

Coug

[Hap]

Coug,

You must have had a bad chamber or ? I have owned three 350s, two 600s and my present mod/660 since 1964 and have handloaded all my ammo for them since that time. All three were very easy on brass with all load and bullets,

You are sure right about killing power, I live in Alaska, have for the last twenty five years and have never felt underguned in the bush, four big bear and tons of moose meat have fell quickly to this cartridge.

Hap

[weagle]

I've got a 660 in 350 mag.  I haven't had any problems with cases stretching.  My reloads headspace on the shoulder after the initial firing.  I check the inside of the cases with a bent wire to make sure they aren't developing a thin spot at the base.  The 350 mag is a hunting cartridge and not one that I sit down and shoot hundreds of rounds through.  100 pieces of brass is practically a lifetime supply.  Good shooting, Weagle

[S.B.]

I own a model 600 in .350 mag. I've fired factory and reloads through it for about 10years now. Mind you, not every day.  Very accurate and easy on the brass. What kind of loads are you other guys shooting in your 600's? I've been shooting near max of 4895 and 250grainers for heavy stuff, for deer I use the 200 grainers, the only factory I could ever find close to home was the Remington 200 grainers. I was begining to think I was the only gluten for punishment! I put a sand bag between me and the butt stock when I'm on the bench to check loads.

[6bits]

One man's steak is another man's hamburger

The 350 I owned never had a problem with brass getting long, of course I didn't try to bring down the big oak tree in the backyard with one shot either, or imagine I was going on a Kodiak Bear hunt to bring home a monster. The rifle was far to light with heavy loads to begin with back then. You load up 200 grainers and keep them moderate and that was what it was intended for, not full house loads and heavy bullets to compete with the 375H&H for crying out loud. Once anybody saw the face of the guy shooting those hot loads in heavy bullets, recoil spread like wildfire across the land. Thus so did lack of sales for that 350 magnum.

It was designed to be a lighweight carry gun for game in the woods, like moose etc. A gun that was easy to get around with and that it did accomplish with no regrets. It wasn't supposed to be a shoulder cannon for anything that walked the face of this earth. Once again that was the job for the .375 H&H. The .35 caliber Whelen in a nice sporter was much more the gun in the long run and it would handle those full house loads with less regret from the hunter. :lol:

[Advocate]

The latest Gun World magazine has a write up on the 673 and indicates that the only factory load is the 200 gr. CorLockt.

[mickey]

One quick thought on case stretching.  They all stretch a lot on first firing.  AFter that, do not set back shoulder.  Stretching will be minimal and case life long, at least 10 with full power and dozens of reduced reloads IF YOU HAVE NOT SET THE SHOULDER BACK.  Cant say about Weatherbys, never owned one.