30-338 needs some help to get started

[TroyS]

I'm a recently retired Army Warrant who inherited a pre-64 winchester 70 in 30-338 caliber. dad used it to hunt elk in Oregon and I'm down in Florida/Southern Georgia area. I got Dads dies and press and four boxes of ammo (loaded in 1967!) and want to reload for it, but hate to screw up the wooden stock currently on it. I also have to replace the old Redfield scope.

Looking for some recommendations on stock, scope/mounts, and bipod and anything else a new long distance hunter might like in his kit. Should I shoot the ammo or just pusll the bullets and save the brass?

 

[Kevin Thomas]

TroyS,

Wouldn't worry too much about the brass, since it's plenty easy to come by. You can form 30-338 brass from either the 338 Win Mag (necking it down) or from 7mm Rem Mag (necking it up). Either way, brass shold be readily available to reform. As to the old ammo, this can occasionally develop season cracking, depending on how much the brass (particularly the necks) were worked in their previous loadings. Not uncommon for ammo of this age to start showing cracked necks, just from having been loaded so long. Take a look, and if there's no apparent problems, go ahead and fire them.

Lots of options as to scopes, mounting systems, rails, etc., so that one's on you. Take a look at Graf's, Sinclair, Midway, whoever, and you'll find more options that you can shake a cleaning rod at. Leupold's always good and not terribly expensive, and then there's NightForce. US Optics, etc., which can get pretty pricey.

The 30-338's a good cartridge, and has a bit better inherent accuracy than 300 Win Mag. There's a good bit of data available for it in some older manuals, and loads for the 308 Norma Mag should be virtually interchangeable, since it's essentially the same cartridge. Hope that helps!

 

[sambo3006]

My Nosler reloading manual that I purchased in the late 1990's has load data for the 30-338 and like the previous poster said, case capacity is nearly identical to the 308 Norma Magnum. Sounds like a neat rifle with lots of sentimental value and history.

 

[bamadawg2009]

If you dont already have a load , 71.3 or 73.3 grains of H4831sc both shoot under .5 inch in my 30-338. I agree with the brass though just get 338 and neck it down Ive found for some reason the 338 has better case life than 7mag. I'd scrap the old loaded ammo just for the fact its so old.