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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Rifles, Bullets, Barrels & Ballistics
Are the .338s becoming pointless?
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<blockquote data-quote="Smithy62" data-source="post: 1974382" data-attributes="member: 112065"><p>To put it politely: I call 'bs' on that as I can look back on a world of different experience & knowledge on that issue!</p><p>I've been hunting (aswell as gunmaking) for over 44 yrs and having built, owned and used most calibers under the sun, I always seem to go back to 6.5's & 7mm bores. However: by far my most used go to calibers have always been in some kind of 6.5 bore during my approx. 23 yrs of living, working and hunting in mainly NZ's alpine South Island. As you all most likely know by now, which country, with a couple of exclusions, doesn't have any closed seasons on most introduced big or small game species and most hunters hunt year round! All depending on weather conditions; either alone or along with my hunting buddies, we would usually be out hunting each weekend or at least each forthnight! Sometimes we even hunted several times a week, whenever the weather had been bad for weeks in a row, with less then ideal hunting conditions! Doing these times we tend to shoot loads of reds, elk, chamois, thar, goats and yes, big mud-covered wild pigs with always the same outcome! I might even go asfar as saying: chances are that some of us would be shooting more game in one or two yrs, then most of you are able to shoot in a lifetime! Granted that most shots were done at short ranges while bush-stalking, considerable nrs were taken over longer distances; especially so during the mountain hunting. Fact is: knock on wood, asfar as I'm concerned, the first one not dying instantly on the spot or getting away still has to occur! My advice; check your hunters shooting abilities and familiarity with their rifle & caliber combination before you head out, practice proper shooting distances, proper shot placement and using the right bullets for the job! Although: I've since moved on from NZ a decade and a half ago and live now in <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🇨🇦" title="Flag: Canada :flag_ca:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f1e8-1f1e6.png" data-shortname=":flag_ca:" /> : I still nourish countless fond NZ memmories! The lesser fond ones were at times when I helped out with guiding, whenever the gunwork was slowing down during NZ's Winters. This where mostly US, Australian & the odd Canadian hunters, who would usually like clockwork arrive with some kind of big bore magnum! Frankly; I've never observed more chances missed due to maybe the unfamiliarity with terrain, climate and habitats of NZ's game animals, more animals missed, animals wounded & running off just to be tracked later with dogs and some, not all, just to be recovered at these times, then on any other hunting occasions before! Usually caused by the few that didn't bother doing any test-firing at our local range, who would end up blaming their guns, their equipment, which had supposedly suffered some kind of damage during transport! So you tell me, what conclusion should I need to draw from this? From experience; I know the .25's, 6.5's, .270's 7mm, .30's & .338's are equally capable in the right hands and I'm convinced in the case of 6.5's some 135 plus yrs generations of Scandic Moose hunters would agree with me! In fact: any caliber from .223 & up are very capable game getters in the right hands, the right situation, using the right load combination and using plain common sense as for distance and shot opportunity! Yes, bigger bores produce bigger holes, but they don't necessarily makeup for better killing-power! With that kind of logic one would also have to assume that the US military & Nato must have been really screwing up big time back then, by adapting a .223 bore size, right? Surprisingly: my 'go to' calibers these days here in <img class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" alt="🇨🇦" title="Flag: Canada :flag_ca:" src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f1e8-1f1e6.png" data-shortname=":flag_ca:" /> haven't changed much: despite the fact that most hunters opt for bigger bores out of fear of running into big predators, while hunting in grizzly country and am personally having experiencing several grizzly encounters each season: they still are the 6.5Grendel, 6.5 Swede, 6.5CM, 6.5-284, 7x57Msr, 7mmRSAUM & on occasion the old trusted .308Win.! Just my 2 cts worth on opinion & experiences!</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Smithy62, post: 1974382, member: 112065"] To put it politely: I call ‘bs’ on that as I can look back on a world of different experience & knowledge on that issue! I’ve been hunting (aswell as gunmaking) for over 44 yrs and having built, owned and used most calibers under the sun, I always seem to go back to 6.5’s & 7mm bores. However: by far my most used go to calibers have always been in some kind of 6.5 bore during my approx. 23 yrs of living, working and hunting in mainly NZ’s alpine South Island. As you all most likely know by now, which country, with a couple of exclusions, doesn’t have any closed seasons on most introduced big or small game species and most hunters hunt year round! All depending on weather conditions; either alone or along with my hunting buddies, we would usually be out hunting each weekend or at least each forthnight! Sometimes we even hunted several times a week, whenever the weather had been bad for weeks in a row, with less then ideal hunting conditions! Doing these times we tend to shoot loads of reds, elk, chamois, thar, goats and yes, big mud-covered wild pigs with always the same outcome! I might even go asfar as saying: chances are that some of us would be shooting more game in one or two yrs, then most of you are able to shoot in a lifetime! Granted that most shots were done at short ranges while bush-stalking, considerable nrs were taken over longer distances; especially so during the mountain hunting. Fact is: knock on wood, asfar as I’m concerned, the first one not dying instantly on the spot or getting away still has to occur! My advice; check your hunters shooting abilities and familiarity with their rifle & caliber combination before you head out, practice proper shooting distances, proper shot placement and using the right bullets for the job! Although: I’ve since moved on from NZ a decade and a half ago and live now in 🇨🇦 : I still nourish countless fond NZ memmories! The lesser fond ones were at times when I helped out with guiding, whenever the gunwork was slowing down during NZ’s Winters. This where mostly US, Australian & the odd Canadian hunters, who would usually like clockwork arrive with some kind of big bore magnum! Frankly; I’ve never observed more chances missed due to maybe the unfamiliarity with terrain, climate and habitats of NZ’s game animals, more animals missed, animals wounded & running off just to be tracked later with dogs and some, not all, just to be recovered at these times, then on any other hunting occasions before! Usually caused by the few that didn’t bother doing any test-firing at our local range, who would end up blaming their guns, their equipment, which had supposedly suffered some kind of damage during transport! So you tell me, what conclusion should I need to draw from this? From experience; I know the .25’s, 6.5’s, .270’s 7mm, .30’s & .338’s are equally capable in the right hands and I’m convinced in the case of 6.5’s some 135 plus yrs generations of Scandic Moose hunters would agree with me! In fact: any caliber from .223 & up are very capable game getters in the right hands, the right situation, using the right load combination and using plain common sense as for distance and shot opportunity! Yes, bigger bores produce bigger holes, but they don’t necessarily makeup for better killing-power! With that kind of logic one would also have to assume that the US military & Nato must have been really screwing up big time back then, by adapting a .223 bore size, right? Surprisingly: my ‘go to’ calibers these days here in 🇨🇦 haven’t changed much: despite the fact that most hunters opt for bigger bores out of fear of running into big predators, while hunting in grizzly country and am personally having experiencing several grizzly encounters each season: they still are the 6.5Grendel, 6.5 Swede, 6.5CM, 6.5-284, 7x57Msr, 7mmRSAUM & on occasion the old trusted .308Win.! Just my 2 cts worth on opinion & experiences! [/QUOTE]
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