Oppinions on .338 Win Mag?

[boattailed bandit]

Hey guys and gals. I just took on to trade a .338 Win Mag. Its a Savage 10/110. Completely stock. I have never had what i would consider a designated long range rifle or round. Was pretty happy with my .270 win and what i could do with it. But this being a new rifle and the terms of the deal were too much to pass up. So here i am with a round that i have heard about, but know nothing about really. So what can yall tell me about the round other than its expensive and semi hard to find? In my mind it will be my anythin in NA rifle as well as target practice. Ive heard mixed things saying i would be better off getting a 300 mag instead but im not so sure. I have no balistics on this round so i dont know truly what its capable of either as compared to other more popular rounds. Any help and information yall could give me on it would be great. Thanks.

 

[WildRose]

It's a great round but not generally considered a long range round. Yes the 300wm is a much better LR round.

The .338wm however will absolutely kill anything in North America with ease out to 600yds, take big bears off the list and then you can extend that range out another couple of hundred yards farther.

 

[boattailed bandit]

Thanks for the info. Really 600 is as far as id be comfortable hunting as of right now. So will i be getting better balistics out of this as opposed to my .270 win?

 

[boattailed bandit]

Also, would i be better off cost wise going with somthing like the 300 mag vs the 338? Or would it be pretty comparable?

 

[Deleted member 46119]

I never hunted mine but...

Accuracy had some serious potential. 225gn bullets seem the general sweet spot. 185 TTSX was rockin.

I never tried 250s but confident it could be driven fast enough.
285s were a little slow for purpose.

Of course you could do what I did, rechamber in 338/26-Nosler.

 

[WildRose]

Also, would i be better off cost wise going with somthing like the 300 mag vs the 338? Or would it be pretty comparable?

Cost and performance wise you're better off with the 300wm.

There's just nothing you can't do with the 300wm and it's such a popular cartridge there will never be a shortage of brass.

Of course part of the benefit of the 300wm is the availability of Lapua brass for it and if you are going to load your own it's the best brass on the market.

You already have the .338 though if I read you right and for your purposes it's quite adequate so you might as well stick with it.

If you get serious about moving out beyond 500yds in the future you can rebarrell for "30 Nosler", 300wm, or 300 Norma Mag in the future and stay with your original action and stock.

I put "30 Nosler" in quotes because it hasn't been released yet but I'm confident it will be in the near future.

 

[Pdvdh]

Re: Opinions on .338 Win Mag?

Of course part of the benefit of the 300wm is the availability of Lapua brass for it and if you are going to load your own it's the best brass on the market.

Lapua stopped sale of 300 Win Mag brass about 4 years ago. Wish they still made it.

 

[WildRose]

Re: Opinions on .338 Win Mag?

Lapua stopped sale of 300 Win Mag brass about 4 years ago. Wish they still made it.

WTH? Hopefully that's not a permanent condition.

 

[EXPRESS]

I'm curious to see what the comparison looks like if you are shooting 250gn Bergers at 2750fps out of the .338 win mag, compared to the 210gn Berger, going 2850fps out of the .300 win mag.

Looks like the .338 still comes out on top.

Am overlooking something?

 

[WildRose]

I'm curious to see what the comparison looks like if you are shooting 250gn Bergers at 2750fps out of the .338 win mag, compared to the 210gn Berger, going 2850fps out of the .300 win mag.

Looks like the .338 still comes out on top.

Am overlooking something?

I'm not seeing how you can get to that velocity with the 250gr bullet in a .338wm without going way over max pressure looking at the available load data I can find with a quick search.

AmmoGuide Load Finder

 

[EXPRESS]

Sorry you are right, the first load I looked up was a Nosler factory load with a 250gn partition, which listed 2810, so, never having shot with a .338, I supposed it was a benchmark, but looks like it's a hot factory offering. Would it be fair to say a more realistic expectation might be 2550? Maybe 2600?

Even in that case, it seems like a pretty good contender to the .300 win mag, while hitting much harder in the first 300, which is where a lot of the hunting goes on.

 

[MudRunner2005]

Hey guys and gals. I just took on to trade a .338 Win Mag. Its a Savage 10/110. Completely stock. I have never had what i would consider a designated long range rifle or round. Was pretty happy with my .270 win and what i could do with it. But this being a new rifle and the terms of the deal were too much to pass up. So here i am with a round that i have heard about, but know nothing about really. So what can yall tell me about the round other than its expensive and semi hard to find? In my mind it will be my anythin in NA rifle as well as target practice. Ive heard mixed things saying i would be better off getting a 300 mag instead but im not so sure. I have no balistics on this round so i dont know truly what its capable of either as compared to other more popular rounds. Any help and information yall could give me on it would be great. Thanks.

You still don't have what could be designated as a "long range rifle or round". That is an inside of 500 yard caliber. Ballistically bastardized from the get-go. Not enough powder to properly push that big heavy bullet around IMO. That is my opinion.

After owning one that wouldn't even shoot a 3" group at 100 yards, I say steer clear. If you want a .338 caliber bullet, go for a bigger case like the .338 RUM. But if you want something based off the 7mm RemMag case, then I'd build a 7mm RemMag and be done with it. Much easier caliber to tune. Not to mention you can shoot game with it out to 1000 yards with 180gr bullets. Flatter trajectory. More velocity. And should hit about as hard or harder thanks to the faster trajectory over the .338 WM.

This is just my opinion.

 

[SansSouci]

The .338 Win Mag is one of the cartridges that will be with us after many more really good cartridges fade from memory.

I have a .338 Win Mag. I've had it for 30+ years. It's doable at benches, but not for many shots. It will kill everything in North America, but so will the '06. That's why I have never hunted with it. In fact, I've never taken it hunting. The way I have it figured is that the 7MM Rem Mag will kill every bit as dead yet won't kill my shoulder. So when I have a tag for a critter larger than mule deer, I take my 7MM Rem Mag. I'm fixin' to modify that somewhat. I think from here on out, I'm hunting everything with my .270 Win. Funny thing about the .270 Win is it seems to kill stuff just as dead as my 7MM Rem Mag, & it has only a 22" barrel.

The .338 Win Mag is extremely accurate, and it ain't half-bad with versatility. It can be used with great success on repeated hunts for Alaskan moose, coastal griz, interior griz, and polar bear. But then again, I believe that Inuits & Eskimos use the '06 exclusively for these critters.

Here's my advice: you probably won't regret buying a .338 Win Mag. It truly is an excellent cartridge. It will kill every bit as dead as the .338 RUM & just as effectively. It will shoot far farther than 95% of hunters can shoot. For a big magnum, it's not all than expensive to shoot. It will work as advertised out of a 24" barrel and 8 pound gun, but it will hurt when bench shooting, but nothing like a .338 RUM.

BTW, if you hand load, you can get 2700 FPS with 250 grain Partitions. Ain't nothing walkin' away from from one of those.

I my lifetime I've seen a lot of what I thought were excellent cartridges bite the dust. I'm sure that there will be many more that will wind up with sand in their cases. But I think that the .338 Win Mag is here for the long haul. Were it legal, with a FMJ bullet, it'd shoot through-and-through an elephant. The question, which I should have asked when I was a lot younger and susceptible to gun magazine propaganda, is whether one needs a .338 Win Mag to hunt everything in North America.

 

[Tikkamike]

for the one rifle man that 338 win is a great choice. I have killed elk out to 880 with mine using 225 ttsx. It is not known as a long range round and there are better for long range but the 338 win is one of the best all around cartridges ever made. It is a hammer I am certain you will love it.