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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

Just when I thought I was up to my ear’s in MDR, Eric Smith from ES Tactical found it expedient to dump another huge helping of MDR in my lap. It wouldn’t take long to figure out which way this would go.

As a guy with too many irons in the fire already, I took the 6.5 Creedmoor barrel with a grain of salt (I know you all feel my pain). Had it not been for my stellar experience with Eric’s work, I might have even backburnered this project. But instead, I took the first opportunity to stab my MDR with this latest addition to the pile.

Ive shot the MDR quite a bit, some might even say more than anyone else. The MDR is a multi caliber bullpup rifle. The rifle was first available in 308, it will soon be available to the public in 223. But for those of you that already have the gun, you can wet your multi caliber whistle without waiting by ordering a 6.5 Creedmoor from ES Tactical. I shot quite a bit of 308 in the beginning, and I loved having so much power in such a little package. With the 308 barrel installed, the MDR can put down a serious amount of hate and anger. But it is still quite capable of MOA accuracy, and at distance as well. Just a short while ago, the 223/556 conversion was made available to me. In the short time I spent with it, I became very enamored. The minimal recoil, and outstanding accuracy made the compact MDR even more desirable, you can read more about that here.

So you can imagine my excitement when the option came to try out the Creedmoor in my beloved little rifle. The Creedmoor offers the same accuracy as the other cartridge options, but less recoil than the 308, and a better envelope for distance as well.

I couldn’t resist the appeal, so I hurried up to my local shooting hole, and warmed up my trigger finger. Upon arrival I ran a few magazines of 223 through the rifle, just to get my trigger finger into shape, then set to swap the rifle over to the Creedmoor.

The MDR as seen with 223rem barrel (installed with YHM Turbo) Sixteen inch 308win, and the ES Tactical eighteen inch 6.5CM barrel

Since the 6.5 and the 308 share the same boltface, magazine, and a few other parts, there is only a need for a barrel assembly should your rifle be a 308. Since my rifle was currently a 223, I had to swap bolts, remove the magwell block and switch the magazine catch.
To see how the MDR is converted from one caliber to another click here

It took a few minutes, and I was ready to make some noise. Except I wouldn’t. I hate shooting without the proper muzzle accoutrements, so I attached one of my favorite suppressors, the Silencerco Hybrid. The barrel assembly from ES Tactical came with a six position gas key, allowing for refined tuning of the rifle. I found it quite unnecessary to figet with, as the rifle functioned flawlessly, it consumed and expelled everything I fed it.

Speaking of diet, I tried a few different things. I started out with Desert Tech munitions 140 grain match, I have always had good luck with it, and today was no exception. I also tried some of the more popular brands, such as Hornady 120 Grain Match As well as the gold standard Federal Gold Medal Match 130 grain And the very popular Prime 130 Grain Match

The accuracy results from this fine selection varied slightly, the DTM, and Hornady gave the best results. Both of them printed groups that were mostly hole, and little paper. The Prime and Gold Medal were not too far behind, it is my guess that the Berger and Norma 130 grain bullets used may perhaps be a bit more finicky with seating depth. Which may explain the larger patterns. DTM shown in blue, Hornady in red, Federal in yellow, and Prime in green

As you can see in the groups the stringing is horizontal on the better ones, it seemed to follow the heating of the barrel. The first three or four shots in each group were either touching or stacked. It was usually the fourth, fifth or sixth shot that were the outliers (I may have lost count a few times, I was enjoying myself😌). The lesser groups didnt seem to have any particular pattern. I only ran a chronograph on the DTM 140 grain ammunition, the average over a couple magzines worth of ammo showed 2610fps. I was quite pleased with the velocity from this 18 inch barrel, with a MV like that, coupled with MOA or better accuracy, this thing would be very useful for anything inside 1000 yards.

Being as familiar as I am with the platform, I have gotten used to it’s quirks and folleys. This familiarity has helped me avoid some of the little things that cause malfunctions, so it didn’t surprise me at all that I experienced no failures. I did note that the brass was coming out pretty dirty but otherwise fine, I suppose I could have dialed down the gas pressure a little after all.

The thread protector, threads, and crown of the ES Tactical 6.5Creedmoor barrel

In total, I shot probably 80 or so rounds (not counting the 223 appetizer). It was smooth shooting, the recoil was very mild, and with the suppressor mounted up, I could shoot all day. This setup would be awesome for a threegun carbine, it’d also make the perfect truck gun, or patrol rifle. So many possibilities, I doubt it will be long before the next flavor MDR comes along.

Should you find youself in need of a Creed for your MDR, give Eric a call over at ES Tactical, and dont forget he cuts awesozme barrels for your SRS, or just about anything else you might want too.

-CBM