350 Legend vs. 450 Bushmaster: The Battle of Straight-Wall Cartridges

By Wes Littlefield

Last Updated: Apr 15, 2026

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Wes Littlefield

Guns have fascinated Wes since pulling the trigger on his BB gun as a kid. He built a private gun range over a decade ago to keep his skills sharp. He loves breaking down complex ideas into understandable pieces for readers, with expertise in hunting and all aspects of shooting.

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Wes Littlefield, "350 Legend vs. 450 Bushmaster: The Battle of Straight-Wall Cartridges"
(https://ammo.com/comparison/350-legend-vs-450-bushmaster)

The 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster (450 BM) are superb cartridges for taking down hogs and deer. They are also versatile: fit for action in bolt-action rifles and semi-auto ARs alike.

They're not the same, though. Far from it. The following article will give you a clearer understanding why.

No matter where you stand on the 350 Legend vs. 450 Bushmaster debate, you can pick up your preferred ammo HERE!

350 Legend vs. 450 Bushmaster Caliber Comparison

Cartridge Specs

The 350 Legend and the 450 Bushmaster are both straight-walled cartridges designed for deer hunting with AR-15 rifles. Despite their shared purpose, the two rounds have significant differences from one another, including their max pressures, case capacities, and bullet diameters.

Although the 450 Bushmaster is larger than the 350 Legend cartridges, both are designed to comply with hunting laws necessitating the use of straight-walled cartridges, as well as function in AR-15 rifles.

Recoil

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Free recoil objectively measures how much kick a firearm generates. It's solely determined by four factors: muzzle velocity, bullet weight, propellant weight, and firearm weight.

Both of these cartridges chamber in the AR-15, so we can conveniently compare their free recoil using the same rifle. For example, a 6.5-pound 450 Bushmaster AR firing a 250 grain bullet at 2,200 fps muzzle velocity generates 27.45 foot-pounds (ft-lbs) of recoil. In contrast, a 350 Legend AR of the same weight firing a 150 grain bullet at 2,350 fps muzzle velocity produces only 11.6 ft-lbs of recoil.

The 450 Bushmaster fires heavier bullets – and often at higher velocities – so it only makes sense that its recoil should be much higher. Typically, the 350 Legend generates 50-60% less recoil than the 450 Bushmaster. If you want something easier on the shoulder, 350 Legend's recoil offers a clear advantage.

Trajectory

Actual trajectory varies depending on which ammo you choose, but the 450 Bushmaster is more effective at longer ranges and tends to have a less flat trajectory. Most 350 Legend rounds shoot flatter than the 450 Bushmaster out to about 300 yards.

Ballistic Coefficient

Ballistic coefficient (BC) varies depending on which bullet you’re firing. For example, heavier bullets tend to have higher BCs than their lighter counterparts. So too do bullets that have features which minimize frontal air resistance.

The 350 Legend normally has a G1 BC between 0.186 and 0.264. This isn’t as high as long-range rounds like the 6.5 Creedmoor or 338 Lapua, but it is indicative of the 350 Legend's serviceable accuracy within 250 yards.

The 450 Bushmaster fires heavier bullets, although they are substantially wider and therefore more vulnerable to wind deflection. The average G1 BC of the 450 Legend is between 0.200 and 0.225.

Neither cartridge excels at extended ranges, although knowledge of ballistic data can help hunters maximize performance within each round's sweet spot. Our 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster ballistics charts show how different loads compare to one another.

Even when the 450 Bushmaster's BC outranks that of the 350 Legend, the difference isn't terribly large.

Ultimately, BC is unlikely to play a large role in determining whether you should favor one of these rounds over the other.

Stopping Power

There’s a lot of debate regarding how to quantify "stopping power," but everyone agrees that sectional density (SD) plays a large role in it. SD describes how efficiently a bullet penetrates its target, and it is determined entirely by two variables: bullet diameter and bullet weight.

The SD of a 350 Legend 160 grain bullet is 0.181; a 250 grain bullet, 0.246. Even when it weighs the same, the 450 Bushmaster's wider bullet is due to encounter more frontal resistance from whichever flesh it penetrates. As such, the 450 Bushmaster's 250 grain bullet's SD clocks in at a mere 0.175. In no uncertain terms, the wider bullet is inherently less efficient at penetrating body mass.

Visualize it this way. Suppose there is a side of beef. You are given two sharpened pencils, one being about 27% wider than the other. You are instructed to insert both pencils into the beef all the way up to their erasers. You rightly suppose that insertion of the narrower pencil would require less force than the wider one. You suppose this because you have intuited the importance of sectional density.

Hunting

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The 450 Bushmaster vs. 350 Legend debate always winds up in one place: Which one is better for hunting?

Both rounds are excellent for that purpose, and should prove more than satisfactory even if you aren't obligated to forgo bottleneck cartridges in compliance with Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Iowa hunting ammunition laws.

The 350 Legend is flatter-shooting, but loses too much energy to be effective past 200 yards. The 450 BM exhibits more drop at 300 yards. But unlike the 350 Legend, it remains effective at that range.

You can’t push the 350 Legend past 250 yards. It just doesn’t have enough energy to ethically take down a medium game at that range. However, most hunters in the aforementioned states are usually too densely forested to present a line of sight that far, so the 350 Legend's shorter reach rarely becomes a setback in those places.

If you stumble across a pack of feral hogs, either ammo will effectively put them down. Just make sure you have enough rounds for follow-up shots!

Ammo and Rifle Cost/Availability

If you’re limited to using a straight-walled cartridge for deer season, two big factors to consider are cost and availability. After all, what good is a hunting cartridge if you can't afford it, find it for sale, or buy a rifle for it?

It isn’t too challenging to find either of these options online (brick-and-mortar stores are another story).

However, 350 Legend range ammo is much easier to find than 450 Bushmaster range ammo, and the same applies to dedicated hunting loads.

Ammo cost is a different story. Because it is less common and contains more raw materials (e.g., lead and copper), 450 Bushmaster ammunition is consistently higher priced than 350 Legend ammo.

Whichever round you adopt, you'll find plenty of rifles to choose from. As stated earlier, both of these cartridges are designed for the AR platform. That means any standard 5.56 AR-15 is a potential host for either one. All you need for a conversion is a new barrel, bolt, and magazine.

You can get bolt-action rifles like the Ruger American Ranch for a pretty decent price. Moreover, Savage, Mossberg, Winchester, Remington, and other manufacturers also offer rifles in 350 Legend and 450 BM.

So, Which Cartridge Should You Choose?

The 350 Legend and 450 Bushmaster are both suitable options for hunting in states that prohibit straight-walled cartridges for hunting. While I wouldn’t say that one is "better" than the other, the 350 Legend is a better option for most shooters. It performs well over standard hunting distances, and it won’t beat your shoulder like the 450 Bushmaster.

However, if you need more stopping power at longer distances, the 450 Bushmaster is the clear winner. If its recoil feels too unruly, consider attaching a muzzle brake to your rifle (or somehow making it heavier).

Written by

Wes Littlefield