The Remington 360 Buckhammer!! Is it actually “straight up better”?

If you've paid attention to the firearm news lately chances are you have seen all the new calibers and types of ammunition that are being released as of late, that being said are they really a good idea to invest in?

Most noticeably the Remington 360 Buck Hammer is the new cartridge making the most noise in the firearm community. The 360BHMR for short, is Remington's new cartridge aimed at appealing to states where firearm limitations exist and delivering a new straight wall cartridge to the market, Promising “A straight wall cartridge that functions flawlessly in a lever action rifle.”. Let's get into the ballistics of the 360BHMR: With the parent case being a 30-30 the 360BHMR has a very similar velocity, energy, and drop to the 30-30 but with supposedly less recoil. All this is, is a necked up 30-30 into a straight wall which makes it a .358 (Hence the name 360 Buck Hammer…). With Henry teaming up with Remington to create the first lever action chambered in 360 Buckhammer and Remington releasing Core-Lokt 180GR and 200GR to pair it with, it also appears that Federal will be throwing their hat in the ring with Powershok.

I do have to say, if Henry sticks with the design they have been releasing pictures of then at least we know it will be a good looking lever action, definitely one to appeal more to hunters and practical use, not one of their all brass shiny models. Plus, Henry repeating arms are ‘Made in the USA or not at all’ which is great nowadays!

Now you might be thinking “this new cartridge doesn't sound that bad, why wouldn't I buy one?”. Well look at it this way, It's a new round with a fresh set of marketing ideas but it's not all that different from calibers that are already out there on the market. We've seen it happen time and time again- 6.5 creedmoor doesn't really do anything different from 6.5 swede, 350 legend vs 357 maximum, 27 Nosler vs 270 win (because nosler sounded cooler, obviously.), the point is there's many calibers that have been copied with slight changes to them to be just different enough to be marketed as the new hot thing. Now, are people still going to buy it? Absolutely they are! You take two big names in the firearm industry and put them together like this on a new project, of course people are going to bite! Like has been proven many times before, marketing is key- slap a cool name on something and make it sound like the best thing since sliced bread and you'll have half the people on any gun page behind you.

My biggest worry with these new calibers being released is ammo availability, not now, but in a few years! OFW see’s it all the time now, 450 Marlin, 308 Marlin express, 300 Ruger compact Mag, all made to be the hot new thing but after a few years when they stopped pushing them, ammo stopped being produced, so now you have people coming in looking for this ridiculously hard to find and over priced ammunition. It makes for a hard situation on the gun market, which is also why I think we are seeing such a huge rise in reloading as of late. I'll be very interested to see what people think of this cartridge once it's put into the hands of the public, is it a useful addition to the firearm community or is it a mediocre straight wall we could live without?

Now just because of the hesitation on the new calibers doesn't mean some of the new lines of ammunition that brands are coming out with aren't cool! Like Barnes making their new ‘Pioneer’ line which is specifically geared to lever actions, Buffalo Bore coming out with new hard cast options, CCI releasing the ‘Clean-22’ which is a poly coated lead nose round (Its purple too!). Obviously with the difference being, those just listed are new lines of already existing brands and calibers vs 360 Buck Hammer which is a brand spanking new idea. Who knows, the 360 Buckhammer could be the cartridge that straight wall hunters have been missing this whole time, not to say that the next cartridge released that faces uncertainty won't be the best thing ever manufactured, Only time will tell! And say it with me, my opinion isn't the end all be all. Everyone has their own opinions and without a crystal ball I don't know what the overall success of this round will be- I know OFW has a good population of customers who travel to Ohio (a strictly straight wall hunting state) and i'm sure one of them will take the chance on this new cartridge and try it out! Crossing my fingers for a OFW customer review coming soon!