30-338 win mag

[Eric W.]

I inherited a rifle from my grandfather a couple of weeks ago,
before his death he didn't tell anyone what the rifle cambered and no ammo came with it.
So I brought it to my local gunsmith to have him look over the rifle and to have the chamber cast because there are no barrel marking for caliber.
The only barrel marking are a serial number and a weird stamp on the other side..
The gunsmith said the rifle is commercial Mauser.

So if someone could tell me with a few things:
1. how do you even acquire ammo for the rifle, or am i just SOA on ever shooting it?
2. Was this a popular thing to do back in the day?

 

[JMW67]

I inherited a rifle from my grandfather a couple of weeks ago,
before his death he didn't tell anyone what the rifle cambered and no ammo came with it.
So I brought it to my local gunsmith to have him look over the rifle and to have the chamber cast because there are no barrel marking for caliber.
The only barrel marking are a serial number and a weird stamp on the other side..
The gunsmith said the rifle is commercial Mauser.

So if someone could tell me with a few things:
1. how do you even acquire ammo for the rifle, or am i just SOA on ever shooting it?
2. Was this a popular thing to do back in the day?

dies are available neck down 338 win brass may are may not have to turn necks sierra has data in their books

 

[Heavyiron]

Welcome to LRH. Great to have you on board.

 

[Plinker147]

30-338 was/is a wildcat. Your not going to find factory ammo. It was semi popular wildcat 20ish years ago. It was a efficient 300 WM. Meaning you could hit near 300 WM velocities with less powder. I use to have one it was a nice round but kinda pointless.
What I did and I recommend you do, is ream it out to a 300 WM that way there is no doubt on your chamber specs.

 

[J E Custom]

For many years the 30/338 was the go to rifle cartridge for 1000 yard matches. It was one of only a few that were chambered in a factory rifles and custom rifles but no ammo was manufactured for it.

Everyone simply neck sized 338 Win Mag brass and loaded it. The case dimensions are almost identical to the 308 Norma Mag and the loading data will work for both. With the slight differences in the two cartridges It is not recommended that one be fired in the other.

After shooting it for many years, I retired it from Match shooting and started hunting with it. I found no down side to it's performance on deer and Elk. In my opinion it is a great cartridge and worthy of any effort to re load for it.

As far as I know there is still no one that produces loaded ammo for it, But if you buy the 338 Win brass and a good set of dies anyone can load it for you if you don't load.

J E CUSTOM