Remington's 360 Buckhammer is one of several popular straight-wall cartridges designed specifically for hunting medium-size game. In this "American Rifleman Television" Rifleman Review segment, we take a closer look at the design and capability of the 360 Buckhammer. Watch our review segment above to see the details of this new rifle cartridge.
"Several of the Midwestern states mandate the use of straight-walled rifle cartridges for hunting in their states. Which, of course, as you can imagine, drastically limits the number of options that sportsmen in those states have for rifles as well as chamberings," said Kelly Young, American Rifleman senior executive editor. "Well, back in 2016, Remington Ammunition started development on what it envisioned as the ultimate straight-wall rifle cartridge."
Remington began with the .30-30 Winchester as its parent cartridge, and rather than continuing with the process of necking down the cartridge case for a .30-cal. bullet, the case is only given a slight taper, trimmed and accepts a .358" bullet for a cartridge overall length measuring between 2.35" and 2.5". Muzzle velocities listed by the manufacturer specify that the round will achieve 2,200-2,400 f.p.s. out of a 20" barrel.
"While its trajectory does limit this to a 200- to 250-yard cartridge, within that range, it is very potent for deer, deer-size game, hogs, even black bear," Young said. "As far as cartridge design goes, it's hard to get more simple than this."
Initial cartridge offerings for the 360 Buckhammer included 180- and 200-grain options in Remington's Core-Lokt line. Sister company Federal Ammunition offered 180- and 200-grain variants in its Power-Shok family.
"So when we compare the ballistics of the 180-grain 360 Core-Lokt load and compare it with the very similar 170-grain .30-30 load, we see that the 360 not only starts at a higher velocity and keeps that velocity advantage for about 150 yards, but it actually maintains an energy advantage throughout about 200 yards," Young said. "At the same time, through guns of the same weight, the 360 only generates about two extra foot pounds of free recoil energy compared to the .30-30."
Henry Repeating Arms offers several lever-action rifles chambered for the 360 Buckhammer, and Magnum Research also offers a BFR single-action revolver chambered for the round.
"Straight-wall hunters, particularly those who favor lever-action rifles and revolvers, should be excited about this," Young said. "Remington's 360 Buckhammer not only gives them another solid option, it gives them one of their best yet."
To watch complete segments of past episodes of American Rifleman TV, go to americanrifleman.org/artv. For all-new episodes of ARTV, tune in Wednesday nights to Outdoor Channel 8:30 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. EST.
