.350 Remington mag revisited

"He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God, in Him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with His feathers, and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and thy buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night, nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth as noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at the right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.................................91st Psalm

Some time I will write a blog or an article about killing power theories, however just wanted to jot down some food for thought concerning the .350 Remington mag. The traditional yardstick I suppose for predicting killing power would be foot pounds of energy. At least this is commonly what most ballistic tables use as a guideline to compare cartridges and loads.

Here the .350 Remington mag shows great potential as a rifle that one can use for CXP3 or CXP4 game including the stuff the bites back.

Remington ballistic results chart shows the 200 grain Remington express pointed soft point core-lokt comes out at 2775 fps with 3419 ME. This is a real thumper in anyone's book.

In an article written by Chuck Hawks entitled, "Killing Power Made Simple", he refers to a formula for reducing killing power down to a manageable 2 or 3 digit number. Makes a lot of sense to me, and his formulas is listed as follows: "Energy at 100 yards (in foot pounds) X sectional density (taken from reloading manuals) X bullet frontal area (in square inches) equals Killing Power Figures at 100 yards.

As an example:

.350 Rem mag using the 200 grain Remington Factory Load at 2775fps shows.......60.9
.350 Rem mag using a 250 grain load at 2500fps shows...............................................80.7

Compare that against some other thumpers:

.444 Marlin using 265 grain at 2325 fps .................................................63.4

.45-70 using a 350 grain at 2100 fps ..................................................88.9

.338 Win mag using 225 grain at 2800 fps ...................................................87.4

.30-06 Springfieldusing a 180 grain at 2700fps ...................................................49.2

.35 Whelen using a 250 grain at 2400fps ....................................................75.3

The .350 Rem mag holds its own in some pretty elite company. This is by no means an exact science, however I like the approach of comparing ME, against Chuck's well thought out formula and then looking at Taylor's knockout formula etc.

I think most of us realize that shot placement is probably #1 on the effectiveness list, with bullet diameter, bullet weight, bullet construction, velocity, all playing a part.

Formulas and theories abound, however regardless of which theory or formula or combination you lean towards, the .350 mag performs. When you add in the history of the cartridge and the almost cult like following that has kept it alive over the years simply because it WORKS, you can add my name to the list of guys who like this gun.

Dan
www.deer-hunting-information.com