300wm and 338wm

I have both a 300 and 338. My three hundred is set up as more of a long range gun and is unbelievably accurate. As most of us will agree the 300 is also a very versatile caliber depending on what barrel twist you end up with. I fell in love with the 338 win in Africa. Shot some game with it and witnessed a bunch more that my buddy put down with the same gun. We were shooting a 210 ttsx load at just over 3k. Unbelievable hammer! Can't go wrong with either caliber though. Just fill slightly different niches in my mind.
R
 
Rabid said:
I have both a 300 and 338. My three hundred is set up as more of a long range gun and is unbelievably accurate. As most of us will agree the 300 is also a very versatile caliber depending on what barrel twist you end up with. I fell in love with the 338 win in Africa. Shot some game with it and witnessed a bunch more...We were shooting a 210 ttsx load at just over 3k. Unbelievable hammer!...
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The 338 WM has a killing power score (KPS) way above the 300 WM -

.300 Winchester Magnum (180 grain at 2960 fps) - 59.5

.338 Winchester Magnum (250 grain at 2650 fps) - 94.8

Haven't seen this calculation before, just the Taylor KO Factor. Your experience seems to be supported by the numbers (if these mean anything??:p).

http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_killing_power_list.htm
 
Slamfire said:
The 338 WM has a killing power score (KPS) way above the 300 WM -

.300 Winchester Magnum (180 grain at 2960 fps) - 59.5

.338 Winchester Magnum (250 grain at 2650 fps) - 94.8

Haven't seen this calculation before, just the Taylor KO Factor. Your experience seems to be supported by the numbers (if these mean anything??:p).

http://www.chuckhawks.com/rifle_killing_power_list.htm
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My experiences with both cartridges on game most definitely does not bear this out.............in fact my experiences have been the exact opposite, as has my #1 son's.
 
c-fbmi said:
My experiences with both cartridges on game most definitely does not bear this out.............in fact my experiences have been the exact opposite, as has my #1 son's.
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Strangely, I've had the opposite experience from you in elk camp...(I believe we talked about this once via pm) The guys with the .338wm were dropping the elk quickly. There was more tracking involved with the .300wm. That being said, both ultimately did the job...elk in freezer. I wouldn't hesitate to use either caliber, I just happen to own a .338wm. I can't help but wonder if you guys just had a freak string of bad luck involving the 338wm? Everyone I know that hunts with one has had great success/results on moose, elk, grizz.
 
I got my .338 Win with the expectation of an improvement in killing power over a .300. It never seemed to work
out that way. Now I'd be the last guy to say that I hate it, because I'll take it over many others as a moderate range BG rifle. Still, what is it that it does better than the mag .30s? The light bullets that can crank decent speeds tend to low BCs and can't hang onto those speeds and are mediocre in the wind.The heavy, higher BC bullets take a hit on velocity.
 
Suther said:
They gravitate towards those choices for a few reasons, such as bullet selection, powder capacity, efficiency in case design, and the availability of high quality brass for that round. Not because they are more accurate. Almost any modern cartridge has basically the same potential, its all about how you match a specific load to a specific gun.

Oh and in the way I described there is a difference between cartridge and ammo. Cartridge was used to refer to ANY ammo of a specific caliber and case configuration, whereas ammo refers to one specific piece of ammunition. Ammunition can be tailored to your gun via reloading, whereas the cartridge is what type of ammo your gun uses.
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As I stated in my last post, design features that contribute to accuracy...making them cartridges capable of more consistent accuracy by design. Your point (in bold) reinforces my point.

Your last paragraph...I don't know what to say. Semantics is the best thing I can come up with. Ammunition and loaded cartridges are synonyms. Ammo can be factory loaded or hand loaded. Same goes for cartridges. They are the same thing.
 
I've had a 338 in use for over 10 years. When I first got it, I settled on a load with 210 Noslers and shot 6 bull elk with that combo. Never had any issues all dispatched quickly, recovered text book partitions under the far side hide in some cases. Recently I have been shooting the 185 ttsx and have used then on 2 more bull elk, a moose and a whitetail. The damage and penetration is spectacular. I feel that the recoil is the same or less than that of my 300WM.

If you have lesser rounds like the 270, 7mm, 30-06 etc I don't feel you are making enough of a jump when going to the 300. I like the bullet diameter increase that the 338 gives you and the bullet options available now you don't need to hammer your shoulder with 250's to get the penetration.
 
Since the Browning has a 26" barrel, muzzle speeds should be about 50 fps faster than shown in the Hornady Handbook for a 24" barrel, which puts it within 150 fps of the 340 Weatherby. Not a huge difference - but it's all fun and games any way you look at it. ;)

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Ah yes the books say................however I have yet to have a 26" 340 that wouldn't do 3100 fps with 250s. All the loading manuals are "anti" Weatherby and load Roy's babies down to equate to non-Weatherby cartridges, or so they can be used in custom rifles without the Wby freebore. However when one loads the Wby to it's potential in a proper chamber with the appropriate freebore, another couple hundred fps is both feasible and safe. And regardless of conventional wisdom they all seem to shoot very well despite the freebore.
 
bassman said:
As I stated in my last post, design features that contribute to accuracy...making them cartridges capable of more consistent accuracy by design. Your point (in bold) reinforces my point.

Your last paragraph...I don't know what to say. Semantics is the best thing I can come up with. Ammunition and loaded cartridges are synonyms. Ammo can be factory loaded or hand loaded. Same goes for cartridges. They are the same thing.
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Bullet selection and case design do not make a cartridge inherently accurate. Case design is all about getting X number of grains into Y length of case, and using as little powder as possible to get Z velocity. How accurate any particular cartridge is comes down to how well they are reloaded.

And yes, the last paragraph was a matter of semantics. I couldn't think of any words that I could explain my point with other than using caliber, and thats even worse than cartridge, so I chose to use ammo and cartridge to mean two different (albeit very similar) things.

Slamfire said:
For sure, a little extra freebore can go a long ways. An additional 350 fps - now that's significant!
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It helps when you run it hot enough to wear out primers in 3 or 4 reloadings. lol
 
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