While I love to hunt out West and in Texas, there is no arguing that I’ve spent (and will continue to spend) most of my life hunting deer in the Midwest. This includes Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. One thing that all three of these states, along with several others, have done in recent history allows the use of straight-wall centerfire cartridges for deer hunting. I believe this to be one of the best things that has happened to hunting in these types of states in a long time. I make that statement because of the increased accuracy, overall improved experience, and the ability to get a softer shooting gun in the hands of kids and smaller framed hunters.

I will undoubtedly state that I was super excited earlier this year when I heard of a new straight wall option hitting the market, the .360 Buckhammer. I’ve never really gotten excited about rifles up until the last couple of years. Now that I can spend a significant amount of time each Fall hunting with one, they have become more meaningful in my eyes. With something brand new hitting the scene, immediately I did some research on the Buckhammer to see what it was all about. I liked what I saw. I liked it even more when I found out the .360 was designed for use in a lever gun and Remington had partnered with Henry to be the first to market with the new offering. In fact, my eagerness to learn more lead me to talking with the Marketing Director of Remington Ammunition as well as the Vice President of Communications with Henry.

Being familiar with some of the original pistol caliber options as well as the newer straight wall cartridges designed specifically for hunting deer in Midwest states, I asked Remington some very pointed questions. The most obvious in my mind was what does the .360 Buckhammer bring to the table that the other calibers don’t? The Director was quick to answer that ballistically, the .360 is superior. Looking at the numbers it has more muzzle velocity, less drop, and more energy at 200 yards than its closest competitors. I had to also ask just because it was accurate out to 200 yards, can it really kill a deer at that distance? He pointed out that the unwritten standard for the required energy to kill a deer-sized game (assuming a well-placed shot) is 1,000 ft-lbs. Remington pretty much nailed that mark with testing showing 968 ft-lbs at the 200-yard mark.

Starting to really enjoy shooting these straight-wall rifles I asked about recoil. I had to think that getting all this performance surely had to come at some cost. Again, by the numbers, the recoil is only slightly higher than the .350 Legend and significantly less than the .450 Bushmaster.

Cartridge Free Recoil

Energy in Ft-LBS

360 BHMR 200gr 14.1

360 BHMR 180gr 14.0

30-30 WIN 170gr 10.9

350 L 180gr 11.1

450 Bush 260gr 21.0

45-70 Gov. 25.0

Based on these values, I wouldn’t have any issues putting a youth behind a rifle chambered in the Buckhammer.

The next biggest question I had for Big Green was after they put all the work into developing the .360 Buckhammer, why will it become popular and carve out its own piece of the market? This is when I could tell the Director got really excited about the conversation. In short, nostalgia. It’s a rimmed cartridge so it pairs perfectly with a lever action rifle. Remington took a hard look at a classic gun and gave it an updated bullet engineered with modern propellants. What they saw by giving us a straight wall states a lever action cartridge was a deer camp full of family and friends and the camaraderie that comes with it. It is intended to bring back the classic, quintessential deer camp feel.

This lead me to reach out to Henry and see what they had to say about the .360 Buckhammer from their perspective. One of the first things I threw out to the VP of Communications was why Henry was interested in the Buckhammer? As an engineer by degree and day job, I really appreciated his answer that Henry’s engineers get really excited when anything new that shows some potential comes along. Most of the calibers that Henry offers in their rifles have been around for quite some time. I can only imagine getting something hot off the presses like the .360 to add to their repertoire. When asked why someone would go out and buy a new Henry chambered in the Buckhammer his answer was very similar to that of Remington, performance. The range of a majority of their offerings are around 100 yards. The .360 now pushes that effective range out to 200 yards.

The VP explained that Henry is very proud to be the first to market with a platform for the Buckhammer. It will initially be offered with an American Walnut stock and in their X-Model synthetic. I asked the obvious question of whether he thinks Henry will get any competition? While the answer was yes, the VP was confident that the cartridge performance coupled with the Henry lifetime satisfaction guarantee would be very persuasive to buyers. Much to my pleasure, he was quick to add that they (along with all Henry rifles) will be made right here in the USA. The .360 will be constructed in the heart of deer country up in Wisconsin.

I would like to add a couple of additional notes about some of the specifics you will see. On the X- Model, it will come with a threaded barrel. So if you’re in the market for a suppressor-ready gun they’ve got you covered. The other thing that we can expect in the near future is a single-shot version. Now you might think, why a single shot? Well, over in Illinois they didn’t want to do anything overly crazy in their first year of allowing straight wall cartridges. I guess to appease Chicago they are going to only allow straight wall ammo to be used in single-shot rifles. I suppose a win is a win though and with a well-placed shot you will hopefully only need one anyway.

Now that I’ve laid it out for you I’m guessing you want to know when you can get your hands on one. Remington is already making brass at their factory with full production occurring this Spring. Henry will be showcasing their new rifles in April at the NRA show. If things go like I would expect, production won’t be able to keep up with demand initially. But after talking with both companies they are doing their best to get .360 Buckhammer ammunition and rifles in our hands before the Fall hunting seasons open. Even as enthusiastic as I am writing about this article I still haven’t got to shoot one myself. Hopefully that changes sometime this Summer and I’ll be sure to update you guys when I get to sling some Buckhammer lead down range.