Winchester .400 Legend straight-wall hunting cartridge
Winchester .400 Legend is a new straight-wall cartridge loaded with a 215 grain cartridge, conceived to offer deep penetration, excellent accuracy and quick knockdown: an ideal choice for hunters and sport shooters alike!
Officially announced at the 2023 edition of the NRA Annual Meeting & Exhibits – held in Indianapolis on April 14th thru 16th – the new Winchester .400 Legend ammunition aims at becoming, quite literally, the next biggest bang in the field of hunting and sport shooting cartridges, particularly when it comes to high accuracy, penetration and energy transfer.
Just like Winchester's own .350 Legend caliber launched back in 2019, the new .400 Legend is a straight-wall case cartridge, planned as of today to feature initially an expansive 215 grain Power-Point bullet that will offer speed levels of approximately 686 meters per second (2250 fps) and energy levels of approximately 3.275 Joules (2416 ft-lbs) at the muzzle.
The SAAMI specs sheet for the new .400 Legend cartridge
According to Winchester, the new .400 Legend will offer energy levels equivalent to .450 Bushmaster with 20% less recoil; over 20% more energy than the classic .30-30 Winchester and 25% more energy than .350 Legend, but with greater penetration; and double the energy of a 12-gauge slug at 100 yards, with 55% less recoil.
Like many other straight-walled cartridges launched on the US market in the past few years, the new .400 Legend has been conceived particularly for use in those States and jurisdictions that restrict bottle-necked cartridges for hunting. This heavy-hitting cartridge is optimum for deer, pig, black bear, and other big game with moderate recoil and excellent terminal performance, particularly in hunting situations within 300 yards.
“As the leader in cartridge development, the 400 Legend is a testament to our Winchester team that continues to prioritize innovative products and our world-renowned brand,” said Ben Frank, senior product manager for Winchester Ammunition.
“Our recent successes in the development of the 6.8 Western and .350 Legend demonstrate our ability to offer hunters and sport shooters tremendous value. Our legacy in manufacturing high-quality products with improved ballistics is unrivaled.”
The first commercial lots of Winchester .400 Legend ammunition will start shipping in July 2023. Important names in American gunmaking such as Ruger, Mossberg, Savage Arms, CMMG, Winchester Repeating Arms themselves, and many others are already starting to develop repeating and semi-automatic rifles chambered for this new cartridge, and those should be available in the coming year.