Tested & Reviewed: Winchester's New .400 Legend

As Editor in Chief here at North American Whitetail, nearly every day I talk one-on-one with hunters across the country who’ve taken trophy bucks worthy of coverage in our magazine. During my conversations with those hunters, I’m constantly learning about the tactics, skills and gametime decisions which ultimately led to their success in the field.

More often than not, gear is discussed in these talks. Afterall, hardcore whitetailers are methodical not just in their hunting tactics, but also in their equipment selection. As such, I’m kept aware of new trends in deer gear, having the luxury of hearing firsthand from real-world hunters what works.

Following the cartridge’s introduction at the 2019 NSSF SHOT Show in Las Vegas, Winchester’s straight-walled .350 Legend quickly grabbed my attention as one such trend. And it wasn’t long before the round found immense popularity with deer hunters across the country, but especially in states like Michigan, Ohio, Iowa and other locales which previously had restriced hunters to using shotguns and/or muzzleloaders to limit projectile distance and potential danger to populated areas.

The .350 Legend, built on a .223 Rem. case with .357 diameter bullet, was specifically designed for flat shooting with very little recoil, specifically less recoil than a round it competes against, the .450 Bushmaster. Perhaps the most popular ammunition offering in the .350 Legend lineup proved to be Winchester’s 150-grain Deer Season XP, which has a muzzle velocity of 2,290 feet per second (fps) and ensures expansion down to an impact velocity of 1,550 fps. This gave the .350 Legend an effective range somewhere between 200 and 250 yards.

I continue to hear more reports of the .350 Legend being well-liked and widely used by Midwestern big buck killers, which gives me no hesitation in saying that Winchester’s latest addition to the Legend family will surely earn the same respect, probably even more! Yes, there’s a new Legend in town — the .400 Legend.

I’m thrilled to announce I had the opportunity to test the .400 Legend for North American Whitetail, and as follows I’ll provide my review of this highly anticipated new whitetail round. For testing, I used Winchester’s XPR rifle as the host firearm for shooting three ammunition offerings, all from Winchester, including: 190-grain Deer Season XP, 215-grain Power Point and 300-grain Super Suppressed. Let’s get into it!

Meet the .400 Legend

I’ll start with the .400 Legend’s impressive statistics and my opinion on where it fits in the world of straight-walled deer offerings. Winchester explains the .400 Legend offers best-in-class ballistics for hunters seeking a heavy-hitting cartridge for use on deer, hogs, black bear and other big game within 300 yards, offering significant ballistic performance, less recoil and more penetration at those ranges. Winchester provided the following data points explaining exactly how the .400 Legend compares to several popular deer rounds.

400 Legend Features & Benefits:

• Similar energy as .450 Bushmaster with 20 percent less recoil
• Over 20 percent more energy than the .30-30 Win. and 25 percent more energy than the .350 Legend, with greater penetration
• 100 percent more energy than a 12-gauge slug at 100 yards
• 55 percent less recoil than a 12-gauge slug

These stats make it easy to understand where the .400 Legend stands compared to other straight-walled options in its class. As stated, the .400 Legend is comparable in power and energy to the .450 Bushmaster, yet Winchester states: “Recoil is a comfortable fit between .350 Legend and .450 Bushmaster.”

The .400 Legend doesn’t have a parent case, per say, yet it shares the head dimensions of the 6.8 SPC. The .400 Legend has a bullet diameter of .4005. So, is this just built a .40 S&W bullet? Not at all, according to Winchester. While the .400 Legend shares the same bullet diameter, all Winchester .400 Legend bullets are purpose built for the velocities the round achieves.

It’s those higher velocities, and corresponding energy numbers, that give the .400 Legend its extra “umph” over its little brother, the .350 Legend. Whereas Winchester promoted the .350 Legend as being a capable whitetail (and comparable sized big game) load out to 200 yards, they’re claiming the .400 Legend is capable out to 300 yards.

“The .400 Legend will maintain enough energy to harvest medium sized game out to 300 yards. Its farthest kill to date is a mule deer taken at 280 yards,” Winchester states. “The .400 Legend will work well on larger animals inside 200 yards.”

That’s an impressive explanation of just how much more powerful the .400 Legend is than the .350 Legend. A 100-plus yard extended effective range in a hunting scenario is reason enough to pay attention to the .400 Legend! But how did it perform on the range? Let’s find out.

Great Groupings

As stated, my test gun for this review was the Winchester XPR rifle. The XPR features a 22-inch barrel with a 16-inch twist rate. Overall, it’s a compact rifle at 42 inches overall length, with a 13 3/4-inch length of pull — making it a perfect choice for hunting from a ground blind or tree stand, I think.

The XPR test rifle was topped with a Leupold VX-3HD scope with 3.5-10x50 magnification. It’s a perfect mid-range optic for this rifle, with excellent light gathering capability and exceptional clarity. Plus, its CDS zero-stop elevation dial can be customized by Leupold to virtually any caliber load/bullet weight, etc. The CDS dial system is one of the most accurate and user-friendly optics technologies on the market today, I believe.

Once I confirmed the rifle was zeroed, paper testing began at 100 yards. Up first was Winchester’s 190-grain Deer Season XP load. Featuring the Extreme Point bullet, this load produces a muzzle velocity of 2,400 fps with 2,430 ft. lbs. of energy. My first five shot group with the load produced a very impressive 1.45-inch spread; the three tightest shots in the group measured 0.93 inches.

Next up was Winchester’s 215-grain Power-Point load, which has a soft point bullet. This load produces 2,250 fps velocity at the muzzle and 2,416 ft. lbs. of energy. My five shot group was 2.1 inches in diameter. However, the three tightest shots in that group were all touching and measured less than 1 inch.

The final load I tested was Winchester’s 300-grain Super Suppressed with an Open Tip Range bullet. This subsonic load produces 1,060 fps velocity at the muzzle and 2,416 ft. lbs. of energy. Although I didn’t have a .40-cal. suppressor to use on the XPR rifle, even shooting unsuppressed the load was extremely tame in terms of muzzle blast. My five shot group measured 1.85 inches, with the tightest three shots measuring 0.84 inches.

I would’ve been remiss to end my field test of the .400 Legend having only shot at 100 yards, so I opted to burn the remainder of my ammunition on a steel gong target positioned at 200 yards. Estimating for drop, I dialed the Leupold CDS elevation turret 2.5 inches up and proceeded to ring the steel over and over, with both the Deer Season XP and Power-Point loads.

In Conclusion

After my range test with Winchester’s .400 Legend ammo and XPR rifle, I’m confident in recommending this combo as a capable, highly accurate and mild- shooting whitetail setup out to 200 yards. And though I didn’t stretch the cartridge’s legs out to 300 yards, I estimate it’s got plenty of “gas in the tank” to deliver great performance at that range, too.

I’m happy to hear the .400 Legend, much like the .350 Legend, will be an affordable straight-walled option for hunters seeking maximum performance, effective range and soft recoil. If you’re in the market, strongly consider the .400 Legend. Even if you already have a .350 Legend, it’s worth comparing the ballistics and down-range performance of the two. I think you’ll find the .400 Legend is proof the Winchester Legend continues to grow stronger!