r/MarlinFirearms

Been shopping for a straight-wall lever gun for Ohio deer season, most shots 60-200 yards. I ran the ballistics on everything legal plus a couple bottleneck classics for reference, and the .360 BH came out on top for that job. The numbers surprised me.

Before the tables, here's a TL;DR, because half the replies to posts like this go the same way: this is NOT a "360BH beats 350 Legend" post. The 350L is great and its cheap ammo is unbeatable. The BH is a different thing: a modern .35 Rem for lever guns, straight-wall legal, which the .35 Rem never was. If you don't want a lever gun, none of this is aimed at you.

Two things follow from that. One, the BH is niche and always will be, so waiting for it to "overtake" the 350L is waiting on a race it isn't running (the .35 Rem stayed niche for 70 years, and the BH can have the same story if people just stop worrying about it). Two, if cheap FMJ is your dealbreaker, consider how much you actually plink with your hunting rifle. Mine goes to the range to zero and knock the rust off before season, and every one of those rounds might as well be the round I hunt with.

Tables first, takeaways after.

Typical factory hunting loads, 16-20" barrels, velocity (fps) / energy (ft-lb):

Cartridge	Muzzle	50 yd	100 yd	150 yd	200 yd
.30-30 (150gr)*	2390 / 1900	2200 / 1610	2020 / 1360	1850 / 1140	1685 / 945
.35 Rem (200gr)*	2080 / 1920	1880 / 1570	1700 / 1280	1535 / 1045	1385 / 850
.357 Mag (158gr carbine)	1800 / 1135	1650 / 955	1480 / 770	1350 / 640	1230 / 530
.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore 158gr, carbine)	2153 / 1625	1965 / 1355	1790 / 1125	1630 / 930	1485 / 775
.350 Legend (150gr)	2325 / 1800	2170 / 1570	2020 / 1360	1880 / 1175	1740 / 1010
.360 BH (180gr)	2400 / 2300	2240 / 2005	2085 / 1735	1935 / 1495	1790 / 1285
.400 Legend (215gr)	2250 / 2415	2100 / 2105	1955 / 1820	1815 / 1575	1690 / 1360
.444 Marlin (265gr FTX)	2325 / 3180	2140 / 2700	1970 / 2285	1810 / 1925	1650 / 1605
.45-70 (325gr FTX)	2050 / 3030	1885 / 2565	1730 / 2160	1585 / 1815	1450 / 1515
.44 Mag (240gr carbine)	1760 / 1650	1560 / 1300	1380 / 1015	1240 / 820	1115 / 660
.450 BM (250gr)	2200 / 2685	2015 / 2255	1840 / 1880	1680 / 1560	1525 / 1290
20ga sabot slug (260gr, rifled bbl)	1900 / 2085	1730 / 1725	1575 / 1430	1435 / 1190	1305 / 985

*bottleneck, not straight-wall legal, included for reference

Same data, ranked by energy. Watch who moves between these two lists:

Muzzle energy, most to least:

Rank	Cartridge	ft-lb
1	.444 Marlin	3180
2	.45-70	3030
3	.450 BM	2685
4	.400 Legend	2415
5	.360 BH	2300
6	20ga sabot slug	2085
7	.35 Rem	1920
8	.30-30	1900
9	.350 Legend	1800
10	.44 Mag	1650
11	.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore)	1625
12	.357 Mag (standard)	1135

Energy at 200 yards, most to least:

Rank	Cartridge	ft-lb
1	.444 Marlin	1605
2	.45-70	1515
3	.400 Legend	1360
4	.450 BM	1290
5	.360 BH	1285
6	.350 Legend	1010
7	20ga sabot slug	985
8	.30-30	945
9	.35 Rem	850
10	.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore)	775
11	.44 Mag	660
12	.357 Mag (standard)	530

Drop with a 100-yd zero:

Cartridge	150 yd	200 yd
.30-30	-3.2"	-8.5"
.35 Rem	-4.6"	-12"
.357 Mag (standard)	-6.5"	-16"
.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore)	-4.4"	-11"
.360 BH	-2.8"	-7.4"
.350 Legend	-3.0"	-7.8"
.400 Legend	-3.2"	-8.3"
.444 Marlin	-3.5"	-9.2"
.45-70	-4.0"	-11.5"
.44 Mag	-7.5"	-18"
.450 BM	-3.5"	-9.0"
20ga sabot slug	-4.3"	-12"

Recoil energy, ~7 lb rifle:

Cartridge	Recoil (ft-lb)
.357 Mag (standard)	~5
.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore)	~8-9
.350 Legend	~9
.30-30	~11
.44 Mag	~11
.35 Rem	~12
.360 BH	~12
.400 Legend	~15
20ga sabot slug	~22-24
.450 BM	~23-25
.444 Marlin	~25-27
.45-70 (325 FTX)	~29-33

Cost per round buying online right now, hunting loads (checked AmmoSeek/Lucky Gunner/Ammo To Go type retailers, rounded):

Cartridge	Hunting $/rd	Cheap practice ammo?
.357 Mag (standard)	$0.75-1.50	Yes, ~$0.40 FMJ
.44 Mag	$0.80-1.30	Sort of, ~$0.60
.350 Legend	$1.00-1.50	Yes, ~$0.50-0.60 FMJ
.360 BH	$1.25-1.75	No, hunting loads only
.30-30	$1.30-1.80	Not really
.400 Legend	$1.30-1.80	Limited
.450 BM	$1.50-2.50	Not really
.45-70	$1.75-3.00	Not really
.357 Mag (Buffalo Bore)	~$2.00	No, boutique only
.35 Rem	$2.00-3.00+	No, and it's scarce
.444 Marlin	$2.50-3.50+	No, and it's scarce
20ga sabot slug	$2.50-4.00	Foster slugs, but different POI

**What jumped out (ballistics):**

- 360BH's the flattest of the whole group, including the Legends and the .450 BM. -7.4" at 200 from a lever gun with a 100 yard zero. Zero at 150 and you barely have to think about holdover inside 200.

- 360BH outruns the .30-30. Not by a mile, but faster, flatter, and about 340 ft-lb more energy at 200. My grandfather's generation killed everything in the woods with a .30-30 and this does all of that in a case that's legal during straight-wall season.

- Same story vs the .35 Rem. It's 300+ fps faster, 450+ ft-lb more at every distance. The .35 Rem drops under 1000 ft-lb around 160 yards, the BH is still carrying about 1285 at 200.

- Meanwhile the standard .357 falls under 1000 ft-lb by about 50-60 yards from a carbine and the .44 Mag by 100-110. Fine woods cartridges but I wouldn't want them for my longer lanes.

- Credit where due on the hot .357 loads though: Buffalo Bore's 158gr running 2153 fps from a carbine per their own data, which is basically 350 Legend energy at the muzzle. The catch is it's still a 158gr pistol bullet launched from a case half the size... run both out and the BH lands at 200 with ~1300 ft-lb to the .357 BB's ~775, because it left the muzzle with 675 more and 22 more grains of bullet. At ~$2 a round it also gives up the 357's cheap-ammo advantage. Great 125-yard woods setup, but at 775 it runs out of steam (for my preference) before my lanes do.

- The .444 Marlin is straight-wall legal, it's a lever cartridge, and it hits hard (3180 ft-lb at the muzzle, still 1600 at 200 with the 265gr FTX load). But it drops a hair more than the BH, kicks twice as hard (.450 BM territory), rifles are scarce, and ammo runs $2.50-3.50 a round when you can find it. It does 450 BM things with 450 BM downsides.

- The .45-70 is like the .444: straight-wall legal, huge energy, and honestly the easiest big bore lever gun to actually find on a shelf. But with the 325 FTX it's dropping 11.5" at 200, it has the stoutest recoil on this list, and it's only carrying about 230 ft-lb more than the BH at 200 while costing more per round. Both feel like overkill for deer while lacking flatness for distance.

- And for anyone still running a slug gun: a premium 20ga sabot from a rifled barrel hangs in there better than I expected on paper, but the BH beats it on every line (flatter, more energy everywhere, half the recoil, and a third the cost). $2.50-4.00 per slug to sight in/practice with.

- 360BH is rimmed and was actually designed for tube mags and lever actions, unlike the Legends which are AR cartridges that got adapted.

**Recoil and cost:**

The BH gives the most energy per unit of recoil of the serious 200-yard options. It kicks like a .30-30 while the .450 BM is double that (I've watched guys develop a flinch with one in a single range session).

On price, I expected 360BH to have a new-cartridge tax... but instead it's priced right with .30-30 and under .450 BM, with Remington, Federal, and Fiocchi all loading it now and boxes regularly on sale in the $25-28 range. The knock is there's no cheap FMJ practice load... every trigger pull is a hunting round.

**The 350L question:**

To be fair to the .350 Legend: its cheap ammo is structural, not luck. A 4/5 year head start, and it rides the huge AR market, so manufacturers can run high-volume FMJ lines the BH will never justify.

The BH will never be mainstream. It's built for one job (lever gun, straight-wall state), same as the .35 Rem, which served one rifle for 70+ years and never lacked for ammo until Marlin dropped the gun because the company was mismanaged. Shooting an AR or bolt gun? The 350L is the obvious pick. Period.

**Support, three years in:**

Rifles from 5 manufacturers (unless I missed any): Henry, S&W, Rossi, CVA, and Traditions Performance Firearms.

Ammo variety is better than "niche" implies: round-nose Core-Lokt in 180 and 200gr, Federal Power-Shok, Fiocchi, Federal HammerDown (200gr bonded, BC .263, slickest bullet in the cartridge), the new Core-Lokt Tipped (180gr flex tip, BC .212 at the same 2400 fps), and a 160gr Core-Lokt Copper for lead-free zones. The .35 Rem never had it this good. And note: my tables use the round-nose load, the WORST bullet the cartridge shoots. The tipped stuff stretches the 1000 ft-lb line past 250 and cuts wind drift.

**Bottom line:**

For a lever guy in a straight-wall state, unless you need big-bore energy for bear or hogs, the 360 BH is IMO the best tool for deer: flatter than everything, kicks like a .30-30, half the ammo cost of the big bores. Niche? Sure. So was the .35 Rem, and it did just fine.

Anyone else here running one?