Backstory, a guy is joining us next weekend on an IL deer lease. It’s 385 acres, but surrounded by additional good cover. As one may expect, the property lines mean a fair bit.

Last year a guy shot at a buck, thought he missed it, 20 ga slug gun. Later another found the buck he likely shot at, not terribly far away, coyotes had a meal.

Anyhow, this somewhat newer hunter, plans to use a 350 Legend, no problem with that. Most shots are 50-100 yards. I just don’t have high confidence in the Hornady 165 grain FTX load & bullet, online reviews support my position.

Of course shot placement is always the biggie. I just texted him to consider other options, if not to difficult. He’s doing a final sight-in the next few days.

He said he’s open to trying other ammo.

Another part is I plan to put him in the very best spot available. My goal is to get him action best I can.

How big are your deer? I can’t imagine that cartridge not being adequate for whitetail out to 200 yards.

Yeah... Deer are not hard to kill. Pretty much any centerfire rifle cartridge will do the job at 50-100 yards.

.350 Legend is ballistically pretty close to .30-30, one of the most popular deer cartridges in history. There have been millions of deer harvested with the venerable thutty-thutty over the past 130 years.

As to the Hornady FTX bullet specifically, I've harvested a number of hogs over the years with FTX/SST bullets in 7.62x39, .30-30, and .450 Bushmaster (and one deer with the .30-30 FTX). Hogs are harder to kill than deer.

Any of the .350 Legend rounds other than the subsonic should kill deer out to 100 yards easily. Probably more like 150 or even more.

What gun? If he is going to try it in a Smith revolver, just be sure he can hit with it. It still ought to kill a deer. If it is a rifle, I can't see any objection.

I’ve shot two deer this year with Hornady FTX bullets, granted they were 45-70, but one dropped instantly and the other ran about 40 yards.

So long as he doesn’t miss it should be just fine.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: OttoSig,

Two of the 4 hunters will be using a 350 legend rifle. I totally agree, good placement with a suitable bullet is key.

I’ll take note & report results after this weekend. I just checked the zero on my Knight muzzle-loader, all good.

Two shots taken with the 350 Legend. The first a clean miss as far as I could investigate. A somewhat newer hunter, then said he had ‘a few twigs’ in the way. With the reaction of the deer, zero blood, then continued zero blood after checking the trail a bit.

The other deer went out of sight, but only about 40 yards after the shot. That’s all fine.

I just shot a coyote, the other guy a 9 pointer with his muzzle-loader.

I never had to track down a deer shot with a .30-.30. I sure miss those old Winchester Silver Tips, the real ones.

The one guy is a newer hunter, so that’s taken into account. He took two shots, after the last I moved him to the center of the property.

The coyote ran off, likely not hit. The midlin size buck was hit, then ran with no blood trail off the property. We looked a good amount.

I took an anterless with my Knight M-L, he took that home. I tried.