5 rimmed cartridges in a mag fed world ...
Lets look at the 30-30 ...
This was state of the art and rose to the challenge along with the rifles that wore its roll stamp, The Winchester model 94.
the 30-30 was nearly always cartridge enough while the 94 was dependable and pleasant to use. This combination skyrocketed to the being Americas rifle. For generations, it won it's popularity contest, and nearly everyone had one.
Something I did not expect to happen, did.
The patent for the AR 15 ran out and it has replaced the Winchester Model 94 for the title of Americas rifle.
Will a 30-30 feed in an AR 15? ...
No .... but the 300 blackout will.
Will a 460 magnum, 45-70, or 454 feed in an AR 15?....
No .... but the 450 bushmaster and 458 SOCOM will.
Will a 38-55 feed in an AR 15? ...
no ... but a 350 Legend will.
Between .223/5.56, 6.5 Grendel, 300 Blackout, 350 Legend, 450 Bushmaster, 458 SOCOM and 500 Beowulf, the AR 15 has evolved to address virtually every need from prairie dog popper to moose missile.
The 350 Legend is part of the continuing body of work that has made this phenomena so.
It is designed around a wildly popular bore, lending to it an extensive array of suitable projectiles, and addresses a legal requirement imposed upon those hunting in a handful of states.
Of the many cartridges that have been tried, more thought went into the 350L than any of them.
It's going to stick.
Pre-1980 Colt only sold about 10,000 AR-15s per year and SGW /Olympic Arms was about the only other player, and they didn't sell that many either. But after the 1994 AWB numbers exploded and it's normal to sell upwards of 1.5 million in some election years. There are now more modern sporting rifles in the US than Model 94s and Marlin 36/336 rifles combined.
I didn't see that coming either back in the 1980s.
From time to time I'll respond to face book posts promoting a ban on AR-15s. I'll point out their sporting uses and what a I've done with them (service rifle competition, practical rifle competition, Varmint hunting, general plinking, and home defense), and I mention their growing use as hunting rifles.
Invariably I get accused of not being a hunter if I think an AR-15 is a hunting rifle.
Some of that is probably just non gun person ignorance, but then again in the 1970s when I started hunting and into the 1980s it just wasn't considered ethical to use a military style semi a auto for medium/big game hunting.
It wasn't logical then as someone could use their Remington semi-auto with a scope attached and no one would bat an eye. However, if I showed up with my M1A Supermatch, with or without scope and a legal for hunting 5 round magazine it would draw some serious side eye.
In some parts of the country that prejudice hasn't changed and AR-15s are still not seen as hunting rifles.
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On top of that of course we have a growing PR problem. Mass shootings are still rare. School shootings rarer still, with about 6 times more kids dying in school bus accidents every year than in school shootings. But they get massive attention. Even though MSRs are only involved in 16% of mass shootings they get 100% of the blame.
And of course Americans like easy simple solutions. We as a herd conveniently ignore the reality that for every complex problem like gun violence there is a simple, easy…and wrong…solution. However we'll jump on that rather than address the social and economic issues that really underpin violence in the US.
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But to be fair, there is a grain of truth in some of the anti-gun rhetoric. Like it or not, we do have a defiant sub culture within the larger gun culture, where Meal Team Six or Gravy SEAL type guys in tactical gear pose with their MSR on a social media and then make some stupid comment about being ready and willing to use their gun to defend <insert whatever here>.
99% of them are just blowing smoke and inflating their own egos. But unfortunately some young, impressionable, unsuccessful and poorly socialized youth wanting acceptance and over control over something sees an AR-15, AK or similar MSR as his ticket to both. A small percentage of those become are future mass shooters.
Even though there are are 20 million MSRs in the US and maybe 10 million owners, less than a half dozen are used in mass shootings per year. But those 5 or so individuals threaten the rights of the 9,999,995 owner that don't engage in mass shootings.
But those facts don't matter. We as a community need to rein in that small percentage of gun owners who make the rest of us look like ignorant, irresponsible, careless, individuals who should not be allowed to have MSRs.
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That's also the wildcard for the .350 Legend. On one hand, properly promoted as a responsible, Elmer Fudd endorsed hunting rifle it can make great strides in cementing the sporting purpose of the AR-15.
But we're still just one poorly timed mass shooting and one election away from seeing them banned. We need to start being a little more proactive in terms of both policing our own community and educating non gun owners in a positive way.
