350 legend | Coldboremiracle

Introduction

CVA started out making muzzle-loaders back in the 1970’s, but has continued to grow into a much larger company with an ever expanding product line. Their muzzle-loaders have modernized the more primitive ancestor to our modern firearms, and have been among the top selling muzzle-loaders for some time. Today we are talking about one of their more recent developments, the CVA Cascade is the companies first venture into centerfire bolt-action rifles. The Cascade is a bolt-action rifle using a three-lug seventy-degree bolt, and fed by a detachable box magazine.

The Cascade is available in many different and popular short and long-action cartridges. It comes in a synthetic stock available in either a grey color or their custom camo pattern. The rifle I am reviewing today is chambered in the 350 Legend cartridge, a great choice for short range hunting and one I am familiar with already. What remained unknown to me was whether or not the Cascade would meet my needs in a deer rifle.

A first bolt-action

After some initial inspection of the Cascade, I came to the conclusion that CVA had done a little homework before making this rifle. The three lug bolt is indexed on the keyway-like bolt-catch on the left side. It works double time by keeping the bolt timed properly, and acts as a stop when pulled to the rear. The action reminded me of the Ruger American action, they seemed quite similar though each has its benefits. The seventy-degree bolt-lift was very refreshing, I’m a big fan of easy to run bolts and this one is certainly that. The short lift and smooth stroke make the bolt very easy to run, and run fast.

The glass-filled nylon stock has a soft touch finish making it quite grippy and comfortable, the model I received came with the Veil Wildland camouflage pattern. Up front there are two sling sluds to instal both a sling and a bipod which is quickly becoming standard equipment. The safety is mounted on the right side of the action tang.

Underneath the rifle is the detachable box magazine, released from the front with a flush-mounted release lever to avoid accidental release. The magazine is made from a polymer blend, and holds five 350 Legend cartridges. I assume the other short action cartridge magazines are slightly different than this straight-walled 350 L magazine. The twenty-inch barrel is threaded 5/8-24 at the muzzle for those that want to add muzzle embellishments.

Range Prep

Before hitting the range with the Cascade, I needed to get a few things squared away. I mounted up a good scope from Crimson Trace in a set of Warne 30mm rings, I was pleased to find out that the Cascade is compatible with Savage 110 Accu Trigger Scope bases. This may not sound like much, but being a very popular pattern opens the door for you to use a wide variety of quality scope mounting components. Once I had everything mounted level and eye relief set, I torqued down the rings.

Next I installed a Harris bipod on the front sling stud, I rarely shoot without a bipod of one kind or another so I knew I may as well install it before leaving. I also grabbed my Yankee Hill Machine Nitro N20 suppressor, being a titanium 9mm suppressor and rated for the 350L I figured it would be a perfect companion for the rifle. All that was left was some ammunition procurement to make as many holes as I needed to.

Rangetime

It was time to have fun with this little rifle, so I loaded up my gear and headed into the snowy Rocky Mountains to see what it could do. I spend a lot of time hiking through these mountains, and I always have a rifle with, and they are usually much heavier than this one. It was very refreshing to feel the light weight of the Cascade in my hands, it was easily carried one-handed with the grippy finish of the stock.

This rifle would be excellent for deer hunting in near any country, but I think the 350 Legend cartridge is better suited for flatter country. For these big Rocky Mountain spaces I would feel better with the rifle chambered in 7-08 or 6.5 PRC, or one of the many other excellent cartridges you can get the Cascade chambered in. This 350 Legend is better suited for shots inside two or three-hundred yards where its energy is still high.

I had bore-sighted the rifle prior to leaving the house, so I was ready to shoot the rifle on paper as soon as I’d setup my target. After adjusting a few shots to get a solid zero, I fired my first group to see if the Cascade lived up to its one MOA guarantee. The first two groups were not what I would consider acceptable, but I can assure you that can be squarely blamed on the ammunition. I was shooting Winchester 145 grain ammo, which is notorious for inconsistency. I would probably have thrown it out if ammo wasn’t such a hard thing to come by, instead I figured I would just harvest the brass from it by using it up. Once I switched over to a better ammunition type, things certainly looked better. Three shots were easily one MOA or better, which made me feel much better about the ability to hit a deer should I need to.

Shooting some Federal 180 soft point ammo definitely produced some better results, and being expanding bullets they would obviously be much better for hunting as well.

I spent the rest of the afternoon getting comfortable and familiar with the Cascade. I really like how smooth the bolt runs, and the polymer magazines are perfectly slippery to let the rounds slide into battery. The trigger feels great, and is easily anticipated to control where you place your shot. Adding a suppressor to the rifle was a brilliant move on my part, the Legend is a fairly tame cartridge, and once suppressed it is even more pleasant to shoot.

Pros and Cons

The Cascade does an great job representing CVA’s first bolt gun. The quality and finish of the rifle are commensurate to its price point, and it holds its own on the range. As I mentioned I think the only thing I would change about this rifle is the chambering, I would love to have it in the 7-08. The fact that it is compatible with Savage scope mounting adds value by vastly opening your mounting options. The nylon stock could be better but it could also be far worse, I wont complain about shooting with it. The detachable box mag while perhaps a little cheap feeling functions flawlessly, and the factory threaded barrel saves you time and money if you want to add a brake or suppressor.

And to top if of, it is simply a handsome rifle. The camouflage pattern looks great, and fits into a great many landscapes.

Read the Conclusion Here

Have you ever thought that maybe there is such a thing as too many guns? or too many barrels in some of our cases? Well if you did, you’re in the wrong place my friend. With so many terrible things going on in the world today, I like to embrace every new opportunity to shoot something. And since I have a good friend who is part mad-scientist part gunsmith, I get the opportunity almost as often as most see Bloomberg for president ads.
Watch the video at the end of this article
Once again Eric at ES Tactical has made me another barrel for my Desert Tech MDR, and this one is chambered in the new cartridge from Winchester, the 350 Legend.

The MDR with its barrel and optic collection is a do everything rifle

I’m no ballistician, nor does Winchester give me any kind of compensation, so I’ll just use their words and description of the 350 Legend. The Legend was specifically built as a hunting cartridge, a straight-walled hunting cartridge with a specific reason. Some state agencies only allow straight-walled cartridges for hunting big game, I assume this is because of the dangers of shooting beyond your line of sight in a semi-populous area. Winchester markets the Legend as the fastest straight-walled cartridge available, there are several factory loads with muzzle velocities over 2400 feet per second. They claim this gives the 350 Legend more speed than a 450 Bushmaster, more penetration than a 243, all while carrying more energy than common rounds like the 30-30 or 223.

350 Legend cartridges featuring Winchester’s 145 grain FMJ

Now that I’ve given the Winchester speech, I’ll tell you about the MDR conversion kit from ES Tactical. The multi-caliber MDR (or MDRX is the new model) is easily changed from one caliber to the next, the 350 Legend is the latest option from ES Tactical. The Legend uses the 223 Remington bolt, and magwell, but it has a Legend specific magazine due to its straight-walled design. The barrel I received from ES Tactical is eighteen inches long, it was threaded 5/8-24 to fit my suppressor, and fluted to save weight and impress the ladies. The barrel drops into my MDR chassis like any other, and after a quick gas valve adjustment, it was running smoothly.
I fired a couple different loads from both Winchester and Federal. The Winchester white box was their 145 grain fmj, while it shot just fine, it failed to impress me as far as accuracy and function. It even popped one primer out of a case which made me suspicious. The Federal Premium 180 grain Power Shock performed much better, both for function as well as accuracy. The 350 Legend was everything a deer hunter would need inside the suggested 250 yards it is recommended for, I found hitting jug sized targets boringly easy from the standing position, even at the 250-yard line. This may in part be due to the MDR’s bullpup balance, and the quality of barrel and trigger.

The 18 inch 350 Legend barrel outside the MDR chassis

For those who are still in the dark about the MDR(X), you really should do yourself a favor and check it out, it is multi-caliber, completely ambidextrous, and its bullpup configuration gives it an extremely compact chassis while carrying big options for both distance and accuracy. If your interested, you can read more about it here or there.
The 350 Legend does not like the 223 Remington ejection chute on the MDR, though they share the same case head, the lack of a bottleneck on the Legend causes a bind in the chute causing jams. The 308 sized chute won’t hold the case, so it’s no-go as well. That’s fine, just as with my 450 Bushmaster, I leave the chute off and let it throw the spent cases to the side. I did pay close attention to where they were landing though, as I intend on reloading them, and the MDR throws them pretty far.

Both the 450BM and the 350L would be great for those of you who are forced by government caveat to hunt with them, for me, I guess it would depend on whether I wanted to hunt supersonic or subsonic. Either way, I don’t think you could go wrong.

-CBM