i like the idea of the federal cartridge but i will stick to my 338wm for the simple reason getting the ammo is no problem,you might have difficulty finding ammo in the new rounds,now if you reload it does not pose a problem,a friend was resighting his gun at moose camp 348 win and he left the boxes of shells on his tailgate,we looked for hours for the ammo and nobody else had it in stock,basically he borrowed the camp gun,
Next question - .338 Federal or .338 Win Mag?
- Thread starter Jeff/1911
- Start date
I'm for neither. A nice 7mm Rem.Mag or .300 Win mag would be my choice. More potent than a 20" barreled .308 and still more than enough flat shooting horsepower than one could use on this continent. (...excludely Grizzlies where I'd want a .338 Win Mag. hands down.)
Thanks for the feedback guys...
I do want to realize a significant gain in heavier, bigger bullet performance over my "do everything" .308 with the acquisition of this "bigger game" rifle so...I'm now leaning towards a .338 Win Mag chambered Savage rifle. I have had excellent success with the Savage 110's I've owned (and others I've fired) to date.
The "Weather Warrior" with detachable mag and Accutrigger is looking pretty nice... although in general I'm "lukewarm" about the appearance of stainless rifles.
I'd be happy with w/ a blued, wooden stocked Savage in .338 WM, but it seems they don't even list one!?!
Jeff.
I do want to realize a significant gain in heavier, bigger bullet performance over my "do everything" .308 with the acquisition of this "bigger game" rifle so...I'm now leaning towards a .338 Win Mag chambered Savage rifle. I have had excellent success with the Savage 110's I've owned (and others I've fired) to date.
The "Weather Warrior" with detachable mag and Accutrigger is looking pretty nice...
although in general I'm "lukewarm" about the appearance of stainless rifles. I'd be happy with w/ a blued, wooden stocked Savage in .338 WM, but it seems they don't even list one!?!
Jeff.
Amphibious said:
I'm with Amphibious, maybe we can compare a .22 Hornet to a .35 Whelen. I mean, similar velocities...
I also think the .338-06 is as cool as the '06 case gets. It's just right for almost everything, and it's still not mainstream, and I like that too.
Jeff/1911 said:I'd be happy with w/ a blued, wooden stocked Savage in .338 WM, but it seems they don't even list one!?!
Jeff.
For that money, maybe you could look into a Weatherby Vangaurd. They look good and shoot good. Plus the stocks are well designed for the recoil, and that weight of rifle will help a bit in that dept. as well.
I have actually hunted bear with both the 338/08 and the 338 Win Mag and inside of 250 yards I noticed no diffrence in performance. Between the two calibers five bears have been taken. Last spring 2 with the 338/08 and 3 with the .338 Win Mag in previous years. I used 185 grain Barnes TSX's in the "little" .338 and 225 grain Nosler Accubonds in the .338 Win Mag. I was getting 2700fps with the .338 Federal so really your not that hampered with distance as some might think. I don't shoot much over 250 yards anyways so I didn't worry too much about ballistics for the far off distances.
The first bear taken with the .338 Federal was a broadside 225 yard shot and it hit like a hammer.... The bear moved maybe five feet after the hit. The second bear was a solid shoulder hit and it was dead on the spot as well. The .338 Win Mag is awsome on bear as well but I really didn't feel undergunned at all with the .338 Federal.
The two rifles used where a Sako Finnlight in 338/08 and a Tikka M695 in .338 Win Mag. The recoil of the 338 Federal was milder but the Tikka in .338 Win Mag was not bad either. I will caution you however to maybe rethink the Tikka T3 in .338 Win Mag. I was playing around with one last month and the recoil was pretty intense. I had even installed the Simms recoil pad but I still didn't like to shoot it so I sold it. I like to shoot the guns I hunt with so I would choose a .338 Federal over the .338 Win Mag in the Tikka T3. The savages are a pretty light gun as well I have owned a Weather Warrior as well.
I have a little Remington Model Seven in 7mm-08 that I am seriously considering getting made into a .338 Federal just because For the average guy the 338 Federal is a great choice but I also really like the 338/06. I don't think you can go wrong either way with any of the .338's these days
The first bear taken with the .338 Federal was a broadside 225 yard shot and it hit like a hammer.... The bear moved maybe five feet after the hit. The second bear was a solid shoulder hit and it was dead on the spot as well. The .338 Win Mag is awsome on bear as well but I really didn't feel undergunned at all with the .338 Federal.
The two rifles used where a Sako Finnlight in 338/08 and a Tikka M695 in .338 Win Mag. The recoil of the 338 Federal was milder but the Tikka in .338 Win Mag was not bad either. I will caution you however to maybe rethink the Tikka T3 in .338 Win Mag. I was playing around with one last month and the recoil was pretty intense. I had even installed the Simms recoil pad but I still didn't like to shoot it so I sold it. I like to shoot the guns I hunt with so I would choose a .338 Federal over the .338 Win Mag in the Tikka T3. The savages are a pretty light gun as well I have owned a Weather Warrior as well.
I have a little Remington Model Seven in 7mm-08 that I am seriously considering getting made into a .338 Federal just because
For the average guy the 338 Federal is a great choice but I also really like the 338/06. I don't think you can go wrong either way with any of the .338's these days
