338 Federal

c-fbmi said:
Hoytcanon is the KING of the H&R Handi rifle movement!!!!!!!!!!!
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I see you edited that post... I cringe to know what it said before the edit?!?!?

In the circles I run in, I am far from king... some of those boys are Handi crazy! There are a lot of very interesting custom jobs on Handi rifles.
The gun pictured is not my .338 Federal... it is a .357 Maximum, with 18" barrel and a hand made walnut stock set with cocobolo forend tip and grip cap. It is actually a swap barrel gun that I have a second .44 Mag barrel for (with NDS-38 peeps and Fire Sight ramp), pictured here;



Cocobolo is a nice contrasting wood with walnut;

 
Just a note on the .338 Fed, it's a marketing thing in my opinion to sell rifles, and it works. Reference Hodgdon data, .308 Win will push a 200gr to 2,600fps, same deal as .338 Fed but the .308 shoots a tad flatter due to higher BCs. I own lots of things not backed by numbers however, so if it's a different flavour you like, good stuff.
 
.338F is really comfortable spitting 225's... The .308 is not... I would prefer the .338F over .308 for moose, but of course there is some hair splitting going on. For deer I would reverse that preference... But that's just me being goofy.
 
I think the 338F is pretty cool. It fills a niche that many would argue has already been filled. I opted out of the 338F and bought myself a 338 WM for the simple reason that I wanted a cartridge that would perform better out to 300 yards. I still kick myself sometimes for not buying one, but have also had great success with the 338 WM.

I always take range talk with a grain of salt, but I have heard of handloaders having great success with the 338 Fed.

G
 
I have a Tikka T3 .338 Federal and find that it outperforms my .308 hands down. I'm not concerned with how far it shoots, 300yds is just fine in my books. What I am concerned about is on game performance. What the .308 does, the .338 Federal flat out smashes game to the ground. BANG! FLOP! MEAT! Nuff said.
 
CreamySmooth said:
Gold Medal my a$$... had to be sized out of the bag.
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With the exception of Lapua(and I even size it), all brass needs to be sized prior to use. If you believe that brass is good to go without an initial sizing you're irresponsibly gullible. I have never seen necks that weren't dinged or cases that were all a uniform length without a trip through the sizing die and trimmer. I've even seen then without flash holes and with serious irregularities internally. A routing FL sizing let's you give your brass a once over prior to trying to cook up a useful handload with some hope of accuracy.
 
BigUglyMan said:
And the Handi Rifle is a "movement".
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That was unnecessary...

But while we are on topic #2... I have not had a Handi let me down in forty years, either mechanically or functionally... I have had a Win 94 malfunction to the satisfaction of a very nice buck, I have had a BLR malfunction to the jeers of my peers, I have had a Remmy 700 deal the deuce adding to the bear pile in the berries, and an A-Bolt buck like A-Colt at a very inopportune moment... I have had a meriad of pumps and semis fail to produce the hail storm when the flight went through, even a top rung bow that decided that strings were for sissies on a fly-in trip... But the Handi's just keep on truckin'... Poke their nose outta the case, spit once and roll over and go back to sleep, leaving the skinning and butchering to me... They may be Number 2 to you, but they are Number 1 in my safe.
 
hoytcanon said:
That was unnecessary...

But while we are on topic #2... I have not had a Handi let me down in forty years, either mechanically or functionally... I have had a Win 94 malfunction to the satisfaction of a very nice buck, I have had a BLR malfunction to the jeers of my peers, I have had a Remmy 700 deal the deuce adding to the bear pile in the berries, and an A-Bolt buck like A-Colt at a very inopportune moment... I have had a meriad of pumps and semis fail to produce the hail storm when the flight went through, even a top rung bow that decided that strings were for sissies on a fly-in trip... But the Handi's just keep on truckin'... Poke their nose outta the case, spit once and roll over and go back to sleep, leaving the skinning and butchering to me... They may be Number 2 to you, but they are Number 1 in my safe.
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Just breaking balls. You know how it is. Better to have someone pick up a Handi and start hunting and shooting than to sit on the couch and miss out.
 
c-fbmi said:
I heard it was already dead as far as factory ammo goes.................yes/no?
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Federal has 7 different loads for the FED, ranging from soft points to partitions and bonded tip. They won't let it die, as it was the first cartridge to wear their name...
 
blargon said:
What rings/base are you using?
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That is a one-piece unit from DNZ (makers of Game Reaper mounts) for the H&R it is model #11003. These are very solid mounts... With the high comb on this stock the high mount worked perfectly. I don't believe that they make the medium mount anymore, due to typical contact of the hammer spur with the optical bell... I wish they did though, I would "bob" the spur to get some of my scopes closer to the bore. I also have a few Handi rifles rigged with the factory rail and Dura Sight Z2 QD medium rings, which is proving to be a good solid combo.
 
At the velocity that this thing runs, I believe the 215gr Sierra would be hard pressed to beat with accuracy and performance in mind. It would expand on deer and penetrate on the big guys with definitive results out to 250 for sure. I am trying to dig through my brain as to what book I read it in, but I recall the person talking about the out of hand results they had from a borrowed 338-08 built on a Savage 99 of all things. I hazily recall it being Wayne Van Zwoll.
Don't own one, and no plans to at the moment but who knows?
 
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