I am down in SE Michigan and for using a rifle during deer gun season it has to be a straight walled cartridge. I have plenty to chose from with a 357 Maximum, 44 mag and a 45 Colt but when the new 400 legend came out I thought it was interesting.
I found the Turkish made Gforce single shot rifle on Gunbroker and put in a low bid and ended up winning the thing. When I picked it up at my FFL I was quite pleased with the fit and finish and mostly it was all Wood and Steel not a plastic part on it. They claim the stock and forend is walnut but I took the stock off and can see it is stained hardwood but it looks OK.
So I bought a box of Winchester silver box Power Points ammo and mounted a 3 x 9 scope on it and took it to the range. At 50 yards it shot all over , not groups. At first I thought it might be the scope so I swapped the scope for one I knew was good and tried again
At a $ 1.50 a round I wasn’t going to waste the ammo so I started looking for a loose mount or something wrong and I found it. The barrel to receiver lock up was moving when I put some force trying to wiggle the barrel.
So I contacted Gforce and they sent me a shipping label to send it to Texas for them to examine. I thought it would be a quick fix but no word from them for months then they sent me a email saying their gunsmith determined that the gun needed to be replaced but at that time they did not have a rifle in 400 legend in stock to send me. Finally I got another email and it said they could send me a new rifle in the bronze ceracoat where my original rifle was in gray cerecoat so I said , Send It.
Once I got the new gun all seemed well the lock up was good and the effort to break the barrel by pulling the front action release trigger was much easier and smoother.
After cleaning the bore and remounting the scope I found this new rifle liked the factory ammo well shooting 3 shots all touching at 50 yards.
Now a new problem, I handload for 34 centerfire cartridges now and I wanted to try some cast bullets I had in .401 dia. I first tried to see if I could insert a bullet in the mouth of a fired case - NO too tight ! I do not have a die set for 400 legend yet but was able to deprime reprime and seat a bullet in the case and it will not chamber.
So next I did a cerosafe chamber casting of the chamber and throat and about an inch of the bore ahead of the chamber. The chamber mouth measures .4285 diameter which is the sammi minimum but my loaded round with a cast bullet is about .0015 larger plus the chamber cast shows almost no throat the rifling starts about .030 ahead of the ridge that the cartridge headspace’s on and a .401 dia. bullet is too large to enter.
The factory rounds have a jacketed bullet supposedly .400 dia. that has a very tapered nose not like a spire point but tapered and no bearing surface that protrudes from out of the brass case mouth. I guess these are loaded for AR chambers and not a single shot. The Sammi specs were revised at least once on the 400 legend chamber specs and my rifle has the tight spec chamber.
I did order a 11 mm reamer that is .433 dia. with the idea of opening the case mouth to allow a larger dia. bullet but I can see that I will also have to open the throat also if I want to shoot cast bullets so for now I am going to do nothing and wait and see . About 6 months ago when I got the first rifle the only ammo available then was the Winchester power points now there is 3 other brands available, Remington, Hornady,& Nosler plus Winchester now has 3 different bullets available.
I just may stick with factory ammo and forget about handloading this round.
If anyone else has got one of these rifles , What’s your experience ?
jedman
