New Big Bore Calibers for Wilson Combat Rifles – .350 Legend, .375 SOCOM, .450 Bushmaster
Wilson Combat has added three new big bore caliber offerings for their line of AR-15 pattern rifles. The new chamberings include the .350 Legend, .375 SOCOM and .450 Bushmaster. These cartridges are added to two other big bore calibers currently offered by the company – .458 SOCOM and .458 HAM’R. Let’s see what options are available for each of the new calibers.
The youngest of three cartridges is Winchester’s .350 Legend that was introduced at SHOT Show 2019. It is a straight-walled .357 caliber AR-15 cartridge based on a new case with an ever so slightly thicker body than the .223 Remington but with a rim rebated to .378″ to fit the standard AR-15 bolts. This round will be especially interesting to those of you living in states that have hunting of certain species restricted to straight-walled cartridges only. Another advantage of this cartridge is that you have a staggered column of rounds in special or modified AR-15 magazines which results in a capacity similar to .223/5.56 in your standard lower receiver.
This cartridge is the necked down smaller caliber sibling of arguably the most popular big bore AR-15 cartridge – .458 SOCOM. The .375 SOCOM is capable of pushing 200-grain projectiles to a muzzle velocity of around 2,400 fps. The drawback of using this cartridge (as in the case of the .458 SOCOM and many other big bore AR cartridges) is that you have a reduced magazine capacity because the rounds are loaded single stack in standard AR magazines. This ammunition is also not widely available but it can be easily formed from .458 SOCOM brass.
Find .375 SOCOM Reloading Tools
The .450 Bushmaster probably needs no introduction because it’s quite a popular big bore AR cartridge. This .452 caliber cartridge is another good option for those who hunt in states with straight wall cartridge requirements and want a good hard-hitting round with a downrange performance similar or better than the good ‘ol .45-70 Government with comparable weight bullets.
Find .450 Bushmaster Ammunition
Images by Wilson Combat
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Managing Editor Being a lifelong firearms enthusiast, Hrachya always enjoys studying the history and design of guns and ammunition. Should you need to contact him, feel free to shoot him a message at Hrachya@TheFirearmBlog.com
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.350 LEGEND atleast on paper has the possible most to offer in my opinion. it should make one hell of a subsonic suppressed shooting round similar to the likes of 9x39 but be able to use in any AR platform/.223/556 shooting gun with nothing but a barrel change and possibly a diffrent mag follower? make up for the shortfalls of .300blk suppressed
Got a .450 18 inch upper from bushmaster the year they came out, but honestly, it never gets shot anymore. It has broken 1 pieces of midrange glass with its recoil, and shaken loose another, then its just too GD expensive and unpleasant a chore to dial in another optic.