I am really curious about some of the commentary on the various forums regarding the reintroduction of the .350 Rem mag. A number of people have posted that they would have preferred a necked-up SAUM or WSM .35 to the .350 Rem. mag. Why? Is the belt on the .350 Rem. mag. all that burdensome to reloaders? After fighting head spacing problems on two Whelens, I am not sure that head spacing off of a belt is all that bad of a deal for the average rifle manufacturer. Would .35 SAUMs or .35 WSMs in factory loadings have significantly better ballistics than the .350 Rem. mag? I recall reading an article, when the WSM was first introduced, where a variant in a .35 was tested and it simply duplicated Whelen ballistics. Isn�t that what the .350 Rem. mag. does? Was the criticism of the .350 Rem. mag. powder displacement when seating heavier bullets really driven more by magazine-box length considerations than the cartridge case? For all practical purposes, doesn�t the .350 Rem. mag. really deliver performance very similar to what would be achieved by a .35 SAUM or .35 WSMs?

Now, for something that will make the purest rave, I have a suggestion for Winchester. Not with standing a prohibitive proprietary royalty or some other damn thing that I have missed, I believe that Winchester should simply put up the .350 Rem mag. in the Model 70 Classic. Although I believe that everyone should own a .35, it simply will not happen. It doesn�t make sense for Winchester to bear the development and marketing costs to introduce a .35 WSM when the best outcome will only be to cannibalize the modest sales volume of the .350 Rem. mag.

Although I am a champion of the .35s, I�ll bet that the sales of the .350 Rem mag. or even a .35 WSM will be modest at best. However, I do sense that more and more folks are starting grasp the effectiveness that .35s offer in many North America big game hunting situations. Hey, it only took me 40 years to figure it out. With the .350 Rem. mag. put up in the right rifles, I believe that it will have a much better run than it did in its former life. Unless Winchester or Ruger offers the .350 Rem. mag. this year, I am planning on getting in the game by having one put up on a Montana Rifleman SL action. CP.

[ 12-15-2002, 23:13: Message edited by: CP ]

CP,

Jim Busha has one variant of .350 WSM in his line of cartridges, he named it the .350 Heavy Express Mag.

It ballistics are:

200 gr/3,050 fps
225 gr/2,950 fps
250 gr/2,860 fps

jim dodd

i could care less about a wsm or saum variant. the 350 just works. the 150 fps or so you might gain does not offset the fireforming, custom dies, reamer and all that. what also helps in the 350 defense is the factory is now loading 225 swift @ 2700 fps. i read that on another post here so it is verbatum. so there you have it.
long live the 350..........
woofer

You can get 2650fps with a 225gr bullet in the 350 Rem Mag and maybe 2700fps depending on the length of your barrel but you won't approach 2950fps with either the Whelan (35/06) or the 350 RemMag....that's a lot of difference in energy.

A .35 WSM should outperform the .350 Rem. by a pretty fair amount ........there should be no fireforming issues , it should be a simple neck -up job if designed right ..........

I believe that the figures quoted above are for Jim Busha's .30/06 length .35. The 2.8" .35 caliber that he designed for short actions has slightly reduced velocities. That would be .350 Heavy Express (quoted) v. .350 HESAM (Heavy Express Short Action Magnum)

In any event, I have one of Jim's .416 Heavy Express Short Action Magnums or HESAM. and I load it to 2.8 inches. It fits fine in a Winchester or Ruger .308 length action. Jim didn't sell conversions in Remington rifles. His HESAM line probably would fit in a Model 7, but bolt face changes with push feeds are more difficult than with bolt faces on the Winny or Ruger. The .416 HESAM duplicates original .404 Jeffery velocities (2200 fps, 400 grain bullet) with a 22" barrel. I have shot solids and softs into the same hole at 100 meters.

I have a loading manual at home with the .350 HESAM in it and I'll compare it to the the 3000 fps figure for 200 grain bullets quoted above.

I have a couple of .350 Rem. Mag. rifles. My favorite is a Remington Custom shop Model 7. It is amazingly light with its McMillin stock and, after one trip back to the factory, very accurate. I got 2650 fps with 225 Barnes X bullets. That load will very quickly kill the snot out of anything you'll run across on this side of the pond, except maybe a M1 Abrams.

Someone posted that Remington was going to market 225 A-Frames in the .350 Remington Mag. I believe I read that they couldn't get the accuracy they needed and were going back to 200 grain bullets, only. Alas!.... at least for the non-reloader.

I, too, would like to see the Winchester Compact rifle produced in .350 Rem. Mag. Lotsa whomp in a little package.

[ 12-16-2002, 21:13: Message edited by: judgeg ]

If I could get a factory rifle, brass and dies for a 350 WSM, I'd be all over it. That said, I don't think it's benefits are worth the exspense and trouble of building one. In that case, I'd go with the 350 Rem, as you can get dies for a reasonable price, smiths already have reamers, and brass is available ready to go, or easily formed.

The reason for wanting a 350 SAUM (or WSM) versus the 350 Rem Mag is that a SAUM-based 35 has a better chance for long-term survival than the belted Rem mag does.

Short, beltless magnums are the hot ticket at this moment, and it is silly of Remington to try to resurrect a moribund cartridge when they are (theoretically, anyway) trying to make the SAUMs a viable cartridge family against Winchesters market lead.

The 350 RMag is a fine cartridge, but if Remington hopes to sell rifles, the 35 should have been on the SAUM brass.

i agree that if remington wants a sharehold of the short mags then they would do best to offer
them in the 338, 358 and 416. really would like a 416!!!
that would be the only chance of the saum survival in the long run. the 338 and 416 would be a better option as the 350 rem and the 35 saum are to close and no one offers the others.
everybody wants it but no one builds it. they build something we already have plenty of. i know that a 30 will always sell. so will the 7mm. i like the 270 but i love the big bores.
bring em' on..........
woofer