.338 Federal - lowdown ?

A Ruger M77 Hawkeye AW in .338 Fed just got posted in the EE... one of you talkers needs to get off your wallet.
 
madashell said:
Hummm... your longer action idea here is great remington jim. Made me wonder if this could still be done in a short action ?

Say swap out the blind mag with a larger one and a little in-letting? That way could still use a more compact rifle, the slightly longer rounds could still be cycled from mag and chambered like normal?

Think I recall someone talking about this in another thread about a different caliber.

Now that would be an awesome bush rig if it worked reliably. .338 Federal, rounds seated out further to take full advantage of it's capabilities in this caliber with nothing more than a slightly larger mag ?
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I have several Rem M7 's - M700's and M600 rifles all short actions and none are any handier then the Reg action T3 is - I LOVE the T3 Tikka ! jmo RJ
 
I think a long action 700 would be great for seating out bullets further, like it worked so well for the 7X57. It would work in a SA but lost powder capacity..that could apply here
 
madashell said:
Yeah, I just noticed they offer the Hog Hunter in .338 Fed. Would be a good cheap thrashing around the bush combination.
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I found a Hog Hunter at Elwood Epps last fall for a friend. Picked it up and delivered it to him. 20 minutes after he had it in his hot, sweaty little hands, he had a 4x4 mule deer down. Bang, flop!

He use 200 grain Federal Blue Box ammo
 
sniper58 said:
I found a Hog Hunter at Elwood Epps last fall for a friend. Picked it up and delivered it to him. 20 minutes after he had it in his hot, sweaty little hands, he had a 4x4 mule deer down. Bang, flop!

He use 200 grain Federal Blue Box ammo
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Great story sniper58. Sounds like the rifle, round and your friend are effective !
 
carverk said:
I have a MH upper coming to me in a 338 fed.
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.....and I'm looking forward to what you have to say about it.....your order was actually the reason I started looking into the round. I believe my words before this time last week were ".260, 6.5CM, 7-08, and some BS round called .338 Federal...." ......oops, was I ever wrong.

Do you happen to know what the max COAL the MH will take is??
 
In my oppinion, the 338 federal doesn't make a lot of sense. I believe that when you move to a larger diameter bullet, it should be a bullet of greater weight as well. The 338 federal is designed around light weight bullets of 338 diameter; these bullets will not drive as deep as the heavier bullets of the same diameter. These bullets are also designed to open at higher velocities than the 338 federal is capable of producing, hense they will not expand as dramatically as they would in say the 338 winchester, or even the a-square.
In my oppinion, you will not find that the 338 federal with 180gr bullets will kill critters any better than the 308 winchester with 180gr ballistic tips would.
Ivor
 
ivor said:
In my oppinion, the 338 federal doesn't make a lot of sense. I believe that when you move to a larger diameter bullet, it should be a bullet of greater weight as well. The 338 federal is designed around light weight bullets of 338 diameter; these bullets will not drive as deep as the heavier bullets of the same diameter. These bullets are also designed to open at higher velocities than the 338 federal is capable of producing, hense they will not expand as dramatically as they would in say the 338 winchester, or even the a-square.
In my oppinion, you will not find that the 338 federal with 180gr bullets will kill critters any better than the 308 winchester with 180gr ballistic tips would.
Ivor
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Many many reviews and opinions with some actual live testing completely disagree with you.

I didn't believe it before I went looking either. The case does a really nice job of pushing 200, 220, etc bullets.
 
Brno8x57 said:
conor_90 said:
even if it is a rebranded .358 win.

QUOTE]

Exactly. Of all of the 308 based cartridges, the 358 Win was the least popular.
History repeats itself and Federal didn't learn from it.
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I'm just asking - I don't know anything about the 358. Is it possible that the 358 "drops off the curve" of what the .308 case can handle?? It seems that out to 3-400 yards the .338fed is more effective than a .308.
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Gunneegoogoo said:
.....and I'm looking forward to what you have to say about it.....your order was actually the reason I started looking into the round. I believe my words before this time last week were ".260, 6.5CM, 7-08, and some BS round called .338 Federal...." ......oops, was I ever wrong.

Do you happen to know what the max COAL the MH will take is??
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I am still waiting on the new 338fed upper plus I'm still working for 3 or 4 weeks or so in Fort McKay Alberta but will let you know how it works out wen I get home

I wish I knew Farmer in Alberta having elk problems so I can give the new upper a proper break in lol
 
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Gunneegoogoo said:
Many many reviews and opinions with some actual live testing completely disagree with you.

I didn't believe it before I went looking either. The case does a really nice job of pushing 200, 220, etc bullets.
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What's interesting about this is with the larger bullet weights and approx. same seating depth you are either losing a bit of powder or compressing ?. Yet, it looks more efficient than the same bullet size in .308.

Only thing I can think of the larger bullet base diameter gives the powder a larger surface to slam up against and therefore it's a bit more efficient ?
 
If 338 federal brass was as common as 308 brass, I'm sure there would be many more 338 federal rifles sold. Seems like a great cartridge to have around. If this was brought in 10-20 years before the wsm stuff arrived it would be a different story
 
carverk said:
I am still waiting on the new 338fed upper plus I'm still working for 3 or 4 weeks or so in Fort McKay Alberta but will let you know how it works out wen I get home

I wish I knew Farmer in Alberta having elk problems so I can give the new upper a proper break in lol
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How about a wild boar problem near Grande prairie?

Do you remember max COAL for your MH?
 
powder burner said:
If 338 federal brass was as common as 308 brass, I'm sure there would be many more 338 federal rifles sold. Seems like a great cartridge to have around. If this was brought in 10-20 years before the wsm stuff arrived it would be a different story
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Ya - guess we'll see if the new savages re-ignite the .338fed.

I'm okay necking up .308 lapua brass if I have too....
 
madashell said:
What's interesting about this is with the larger bullet weights and approx. same seating depth you are either losing a bit of powder or compressing ?. Yet, it looks more efficient than the same bullet size in .308.

Only thing I can think of the larger bullet base diameter gives the powder a larger surface to slam up against and therefore it's a bit more efficient ?
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Someone who's smarter than me can correct me, but I'm guessing that every case has an "efficiency curve" where it's shape and powder volume maximize it's output. It can't always just be about "put more powder behind a bigger bullet"..... Isn't this why the .338LM was developed to replace the .50BMG for loooong range work??

Bullets have this, in a way: the BC.

From my basic understanding it seems the .338fed is pretty well up that curve based on how much energy it puts down range with tolerable recoil.
 
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