Introduced in 2023, the 400 Legend is among a trio of new cartridges developed specifically to address the relatively recent implementation of straight-walled cartridge seasons in select Midwestern states and areas. These are places where only muzzleloaders or shotgun slugs were formerly used during general firearm deer seasons. These new cartridges include the 350 Legend, 400 Legend and 360 Buckhammer. Rounds such as the 450 Bushmaster and 460 S&W Magnum had initially been the straight-walled cartridges of choice for such seasons, but those rounds include limited rifle options and typically expensive ammunition. The newer introductions were designed to provide more affordable alternatives, as well as serve the American need to push the very boundaries of implemented regulations.

Given a 180-grain bullet in the 350 Legend and a 215-grain in the 400 Legend, the 400 Legend provides a 150 feet per second (fps) velocity advantage, while also delivering about 25 percent (650 foot pounds) more kinetic energy (KE). This also means that while the 350 Legend maintains a benchmark 1,000 foot pounds (ft-lbs) of KE to around 200 yards, the 400 Legend does so out to around 230 yards. The 400 Legend also provides 20 percent more energy than the 30-30 with 170-grain bullets and deeper penetration. With a 150-yard zero and firing Winchester’s introductory factory 215-grain load, the 400 Legend raises 1.8 inches at 100 yards. It drops 4.9 inches at 200 yards, 26.4 inches at 300 yards, where available energy has eroded to 770-foot pounds. Winchester says the 400 Legend produces 55 percent less recoil than a 12-gauge slug while delivering 100 percent greater 100-yard energy. The 400 Legend produces 20 percent less recoil than the 450 Bushmaster with equal ballistics.

Available 400 Legend factory loads include Winchester’s 215-grain Power-Point load, which holds a lead-core soft-point bullet sent at 2,250 fps, 190-grain Deer Season XP poly-tipped lead-core, and 300-grain Super Suppressed lead-core hollowpoint. Word is that a monolithic copper bullet offering is in the works. At this time, none of these bullets are available as handloading components ­– that I am aware of.

Major firearms manufacturers have bought into the idea of the 400 Legend, including Savage Arms, which supplied the test rifle. Other sources include Winchester, Mossberg, Ruger and CMMG. Savage, in fact, offers more than a dozen 400 Legend-chambered rifles, so at this time, available rifles far outnumber ammunition options.

The Savage in question is the company’s relatively new 110 Trail Hunter. It is bedded in an olive drab Hogue rubber-over-molded stock with an amply floated barrel and a 13.75-inch length of pull. The proven Savage 110-round action and thickish 20-inch button-rifled barrel hold a Tungsten CERAKOTE finish to protect from the elements. It feeds from a four-round, detachable polymer magazine. The bolt is a two-lug design with a plunger-style ejector and a snap-over extractor. The Trail Hunter holds Savage’s center-blade AccuTrigger, which can be adjusted from 2.5 to 6 pounds and broke at about 4 pounds out of the box. Topped with a Vortex Optics 4-12x 40mm Diamondback Tactical in 1-inch Warne four-screw steel rings the 7.2-pound rifle finished at 9.46 pounds. The 110 Trail Hunter includes a retail price of just $639.        

Though the 350 Legend does exactly what it was designed to do, this is America – where bigger is always better – whether ATVs, trucks or hunting cartridges. The 400 Legend filled the desire for more penetration, energy delivery and range. It is ideal for those tackling larger game or hunting in wet, thick habitats that pose tracking challenges. For all this, the shooter endures recoil energy I’d deem on par with the 30-’06 Springfield.  

While the .355-caliber 350 Legend was based loosely on the 223 Remington blown out to create straight walls, and the .358-caliber 360 Buckhammer on the 30-30 Winchester case, the 400 Legend includes the same .422-inch head diameter as the 6.8 Remington SPC. Case length is 1.65 inches, just under the 1.70-inch maximum that most straight-walled season regulations allow. The trim-to length is 1.640 inches, and you will be trimming cases after a couple of loadings, as straight-walled brass does stretch. The 400 Legend includes minimal body taper and a rebated rim, meaning it headspaces off the case mouth like semiautomatic pistol rounds. Maximum overall loaded length should be held to around 2.20 inches.

Unlike the 2018-introduced 350 Legend, which has had time to gain popularity, bullet manufacturers are not yet offering the same array of 400 Legend-specific projectiles the 350 Legend enjoys. Heavy-for-caliber 10mm pistol bullets have generally been the handloader’s only real option. However, I did see that Hammer Bullets recently introduced a 170-grain, .40-caliber Stone Hammer bullet designed specifically for the cartridge. Given more time, more bullet manufacturers will undoubtedly fill the gaps. I’ve loaded pistol bullets in the 400 Legend, using options like Speer’s electroplated 165-grain Gold Dot and Nosler’s 200-grain ASP. The results, out of this very rifle, were perfectly acceptable, resulting in hunt-ready 1.25 to 1.50 groups.

Still, I wanted to see how the rifle and cartridge would respond to pointed bullets designed for rifles instead of handguns. For that, I turned to Bill Noody, owner of Northern Precision Custom Bullets (NPCustomBullets.com). Bill makes his bullets one at a time using specialized hand presses. This allows a little bit of wiggle room regarding final design, whether you want an open-tip hollowpoint for increased expansion, a flat tip for lever gun use, a spitzer point for better aerodynamics, a non-bonded core for aggressive expansion or a chemically-bonded core for greater reliability on larger, tougher game. Customers can, within reason, also choose the weight bullet they want in a particular caliber.

For this test, Bill made me 180- and 200-grain jacketed Spitzers with bonded lead cores to produce controlled-expansion slugs that produce beautiful double-diameter mushrooms and high weight retention. The bullets I received had a conspicuously sharper ogive than pistol bullets of the same weight and what might be termed lead-filled hollowpoints. No ballistic coefficient numbers were available, but they are certainly more streamlined than blunted pistol bullets designed for 40 S&W or 10mm handguns.

Until recently, securing loose 400 Legend brass posed a significant hurdle for handloaders. None were available when I started this project, though Winchester has apparently released 100-count bags, and at least Midway USA lists them for sale. There are online companies that trade in once-fired range brass, but those I checked were out of 400 Legend stock. I’d bet, but cannot promise, that Starline Brass will eventually produce 400 Legend cases, as they do for the 350 Legend. That left me saving the factory brass fired during initial sight-in and testing. That shooting produced 50 cases, meaning this series was shot in two sessions.

Powder choices for the 400 Legend mirror those for the 350 Legend and 360 Buckhammer. The obvious velocity winners in the 400 Legend, as with the 350 Legend, are Winchester 296, Hodgdon 110 and Accurate No. 11 FS. These powders are essentially the same, sharing the same relative burn rate (numbers 66, 67 and 68), though No. 11 FS includes a flash suppressant, hence the FS. In any case, Hodgdon load data shows equal powder measures for each in a given load. Accurate 5744, a high-bulk density powder resulting in heavily compressed loads and with a relative burn rate of 71, promises similar velocity. Hodgdon Lil’Gun, which gives top velocities in the 350 Legend, is slightly slower in the 400 Legend. Finally, we have IMR-4227, at number 69 on the relative burn rate chart. Of the powders selected it promised the slowest pace, but good accuracy.   

Alliant Power Pro 300-MP (number 70) sits within this range and has shown good results in the 350 Legend, so it should work here as well. I have also successfully used faster powders in the 350 Legend, like Ramshot Enforcer (number 58), Accurate 4100 (number 61) and Vihtavuori N110 (number 64), so I see no reason they would not work as well in the 400 Legend with careful extrapolation from established 350 Legend loads. To my knowledge, no 400 Legend data for these powders has been published.                   

The Redding Series C dies used to assemble all loads included three parts: sizing, belling and seating/crimping dies. As I have done with the 350 Legend, I skipped the added step of belling case mouths, applying a light outside chamfer (three count) and a harder inside chamfer (seven count) before seating bullets gingerly. The rounded base edges of the Northern Precision bullets allowed this without crumpling cases. The belling would become absolutely necessary with sharp-edged bullet bases or especially cast-lead slugs. A taper crimp was applied as a separate step after removing the seating stem. Winchester WSM small rifle primers were used throughout.

The 400 Legend is pretty fussy, but can be coaxed into sub-1-MOA accuracy with enough load tinkering. The 400 Legend, as well as Savage’s lively 110 Trail Hunter, are ideal for those who wade into the thick stuff or climb into stands to fill their tags, where shots are seldom presented beyond 200 yards.