Savage 116 Alakan Brush Hunter 338wm... first time out... meh

MackForce

MackForce

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I picked up a Savage 116 Alaskan Brush hunter in 338 win mag a few months ago. Bought it for moose and a potential Bison hunt this season.
I poured through reviews and talked to many fellow hunters on a big game cartridge before I settled on this one.
My go to hunting cartridge for big game/medium game has always been 308, with the 30-30 making an appearance from time to time for deer in the thick.
I finally took it out to the range yesterday. It has a 20" barrel and a large round, so I have to admit I wasn't taking this thing lightly. I was prepared for a mule kick and dreading my $3 per round sight in process. I was using 225grain Hornadys.
So first shot... not overwhelming. It really does not have the kick that I was preparing for. In fact, as a healthy young man, I really could not compare it to much harder hitting than any of my other large cartridges. After shooting 20 rounds down range, I really am not sure what all the fuss is about? I understand it hits slightly harder than a 308 or 30.06 ... but I really wouldn't say its a beast of any kind. Its loud and mighty but from all the hoopla I hear about these magnum rounds and short barrels, it kind of ruined my fun!
I did run into an annoying issue. The rifle itself is great and functions like every other savage I've owned. I bought a 20moa, 1 piece weaver rail for the base. I have Burris z rings in medium and a Leupold VX2 3-9 mounted. I bore sighted it on the range and while trying to hit the 100yards, I ran out of elevation! This has never happened to me before and I guess it was my ignorance for purchasing a 20moa rail for the base. I was planning on a 200yard rifle +/- but now I have to reset the optics to a different set up.
I stripped it all off and went straight open sights. Its been a while so it was really fun. I didn't snap any pics of the target but at 100 yards, I was getting about 4-5 moa with the irons. It was impressive for shooting off a bipod on gravel.
So really fun rifle. I will warn any new shooters to magnum rounds... its not a big deal. I didn't feel much more kick than my enfield, 30.06 or 308 to be completely honest. its not that much of a difference.

I will post pics in hunting season as Im sure this will bring me a moose and hopefully a bison. It should be fun with the open sights if I can keep within 100 yards or so.


Mack


EDIT: if any of you aficionados have a quick fix for running low on elevation without a new set up, im all ears. I really liked the set up I had and I would like to keep it but am going to start by changing out the base and see if the 20 moa was the culprit. Thanks
 
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ya, the 338WM isn't as hard to shoot recoil wise as many guys make it out to be.
I've shot some nasty recoiling rifles over the years, the .338WM isn't one of them. (mines an 7 lbs Remington 700)
 
Are the z rings the ones with the plastic inserts? If so that is probably your culprit. You likely have the inserts installed in the wrong location.
 
I'm not sure how much the alaskan brush hunter differs from the hog hunter, but I had one of those for a bit and the recoil was too much for me. I had a savage 111 in 300 win mag for many years and it didn't bother me at all.

I have an ultralight 338-06 and it hits like a bus. But recoil is not an issue. I will one day try a large capacity in a better fitting rifle and see what it does.
 
MackForce said:
Yeah they have the plastic inserts. I was sure they were installed properly but ill check that again. And no, the rail is installed properly. (if not, the rail would produce opposite results)

Thanks
Click to expand...

A 20 moa rail will point the scope down making the rifle shoot higher from zero....to get back to zero with the rail you will have to adjust the scope reticle to hit lower not higher.
 
Maybe I'm not understanding what you're saying with running out of elevation...anyways its easy to tell with the rail, the thicker side should be to the rear of the gun :)
 
Why do you feel you need a 20 moa rail for a 200-400 yard hunting rifle? The 338 win mag shoots flat enough to 300 yards to not really need any thing more then a little hold over
The 338 wm has never been bad for me but it sure a lot more then any 30/06 I've ever tried

I'm sure with practice you can get less than 5" groups at 100 yards. Best of luck
 
They only had a 20 moa rail in stock, so I thought why not.
It is installed properly. It won't allow the bolt to cycle with it on backwards. but I understand where you guys are coming from.
I stripped it and moved the bases to another location, bore sighted seems to have enough room now. The range tomorrow will tell me if it's still out.

thanks for the usual rants from the experts though.

I have a 30.06, so again thanks for the unwarranted advice but the 338 is a fun round and am hoping to have some fun with this thing. I'm sure I could tighten groups with the open sights but I prefer to hunt with a scope.

Thanks fellas
 
I have a 1989 Ruger m77 tang in 338 WM and thought it was going to boot, and it did with the factory recoil (hockey puck) but still wasnt intolerable. I put a limbsaver on it now and its a dream.
 
SuperCub said:
HUH? ..... All I see is good & reasonable advice thus far and not a rant in sight.
Click to expand...

Most of us on here are familiar with firearms. So when we ask about a particular issue, we on cgn get good and bad advice. Regular stuff. I didn't ask about the 338 being the proper rifle, I explained the rail is on Properly.
Was hoping someone had a quick fix, as I've never had this happen. Why I feel the need for a 20 moa rail is not constructive advice. I've had them on rifles before and never had this issue.
Keep the post counts up Cub.
 
I may sound like a dyck but sometimes it would be nice to get a question answered without some guys on here thinking you are a 16 year old with his first time holding a rifle.
It just gets old sometimes. I am frustrated with the rifle, that's it. Heading to the range to try it out now.

Thanks all
 
It's hard to judge experience from the opposite side of a computer screen. Post count often means #### (example: sunray) so we're left to fill in the gaps ourselves. There were a couple of warning flags...

1) You mentioned putting a +20 MOA rail on a run of the mill hunting rifle. One could be forgiven for wondering why you went to that trouble when for $50 you could have had a set of wildly superior Talley Lightweights. When guys show up in the hunting forum talking about a tapered (not canted!) rail on a hunting rifle it often follows that the OP may be a kid who got hoodwinked by counter staff.

2) You spoke of "$3 per round" ammunition as though this was a thing. At $3 per round you're not even shooting premium factory ammo. $3 per round is peanuts, talk to us when you hit $10-$25 per round for factory ammo. Nor are you handloading. These are often signs that one is dealing with a youngster with little experience.

3) The bullet and weight you're running is light for moose and especially for bison. This also speaks to lack of experience.

4) You speak of the "hoopla" surrounding magnum rounds and then tell "new shooters to magnum rounds" that they're no big deal and make the statement (and a bold one at that) that they don't feel different than your Enfield, 30-06 or 308. Unless you have a 5 lb .308 or your '06 is a Remington Ti (First Gen) then there is simply no way that they are comparable. If they are then the experienced shooters in the crowd would tend to think that you are probably flinching the hell out of all of them.

5) You're happy with a 5 MOA group off a bipod. A real GunNut would claim that his targets were eaten by a sow black bear and her cubs while you were in the outhouse rather than admit they shot groups like that.

Now, as harsh as the above might seem, I'll not cast judgement. I've seen rifles take a schwack of elevation to get to zero. In fact I had a very expensive custom rifle that zeroed at +80 MOA on the scope off a flat (non-tapered base). I sorted that out by having a custom +40 base done up by my rifle builder. Now the rifle is a dream. So your rifle might just be shooting low. As much as I loathe a one-piece base on a hunting rifle (OK, a Jerk-O-Matic can wear one or a BAR but THAT'S IT!!!), you might just be in the space where you need that. Ken Farrell offers his bases in configurations up to +40MOA. Before you go down that road I would mount the scope up again in a set of steel weaver rings on your base and see if you can get it to zero. If you can then crank up until you get to the end of the adjustment and count the clicks it took to get there. See where that leaves you in terms of internal adjustment. Even if you zero it would be good to know whether or not you're at the top end of the adjustment or you have some wiggle room. You want to be near the middle of the adjustment range when you zero. If you can't zero then start looking at 1) scopes with more internal adjustment, or 2) get another base with more slope. Example, your scope has 52 MOA of internal adjustment. If you run out of elevation and you're still 6" low at 100 then you definitely need a +40 base. If you can zero and have 6 MOA still remaining you won't regret going to a +30 MOA or +40 MOA rail. If you need more than that you're looking at a bill from a good gunsmith but you can pretty much request whatever wild taper you want. You'll pay for it but if that's what it takes to get the rifle hunting under glass then that's what it takes.

I forgot to ask...is this a new scope or a used one? Could it's guts be hinky? Do you have a scope that you know is bulletproof that you could try on it?

Good luck.
 
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