338 win mag recommendation

[16Bore]

It's more S's than G's.....

Don't make it complicated. Yeah, I know...you're pumped and want your own thing and what not. Sometimes, at the end of the day, all we really need is an ice cold Coke.


I.E. 30-06. Easy to find, does it all and almost pisses guys off as much as a 270 when you out shoot them and their custom Ultra Compact Super Short Wiz Bang Magnum...

 

[16Bore]

And study some ballistic tables....hard. The stuff is more similar than different and overlaps like a fat girls belly

 

[stratofisher]

I have a browning A bolt with the BOSS system and the .338 is an easy shooting gun. The BOSS really tames the rifle.

 

[luke moffat]

And study some ballistic tables....hard. The stuff is more similar than different and overlaps like a fat girls belly

Bhahaha your analogies are hilarious.....and true!

 

[280twoeighty]

A Ruger M77 would be a solid choice. I have one and had a custom brake put on it and a trigger job. A dream to shoot. Although I am not using it. I could be talked in to selling it.

 

[wyosteve]

Yes Luke, it's a Rifles, Inc. Love that gun and accuracy is outstanding.

 

[amp713]

Thanks for all the input guys but now I feel like I have more questions than answers. The reason I was looking at the 338 was based off ballistics of factory off the shelf loads. The 300 win mag was close and the 30-06 wasn't far behind either but I was just looking at the most hammer at 500 yards without some crazy drop. My biggest complaint is my 25 gets there and gets the job done but sometimes (like last month) the elk keeps going and doesn't hardly look hit. I put 3 rounds into her costing a fair chunk of meat before she truly acted hit. And even then she still made it a ways. I've dropped an elk at 400 with it but I want something that hits hard enough the elk is noticeably hit and preferably stopped right now. Have seen 30-06 and 300 leave fairly same results as my 25 so that's why I was looking for just the heavy hitter.

Ya grizzly is fairly out of my reach but elk moose black bear are not and living next to a tribal rez where they do raffles for bison tags constantly I may end up doing that one day...

But maybe i was focusing too much on that number. With what my 25 does if I even just double my energy down range I'll see a big change.....

Sooo.... I guess time for more thinking.

Also I am mostly an archery hunter but with a 3 year old and another baby on the way rifle hunts may become a little more common.

 

[wncbrewer]

I have a ruger M77 mark II in .338 that my old man recently gave to me. I have only spent one day at the range with it so far, but I can comment on the recoil.

It's pretty rough on my rifle. Rough enough that I've decided to have a brake installed. Could be that I'm a recoil patsy but it's noticeably less pleasant than my M70 featherweight in .270 even though it's a substantially heavier rifle.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Yellowknife]

I've been using a .338 this year and shot a couple animals with it. Planning on dragging it to Kodiak this spring if it all works out.

Generally though, I don't think you will find the .338 will do anything magical that a .30 won't do for a typical shooter when it comes to "knocking them down". It's a good round and I like it a lot, but as said by many, shot placement will trump everything. A .300 is a big jump from a .25, but the .338 WM is only an incremental step past that and also as mentioned... it's best in at least a medium weight rifle. A really good shooter might see a difference if enough animals are taken, but very few people are going to shoot a .338 enough to become that kind of shot. Particularly in a light rifle. Under most normal hunting circumstances, I would suspect that the difference between a 30-06 and a .338 WM would be a few steps at most, and that assumes you can shoot them equally well.

I'm personally a 30-06 fan, because it's easy and cheap to shoot and does the job nicely. I like the big guns too, but the '06 sees the bulk of both range and field time, and for me that includes the option of moose and/or grizzly most years. In my gun closet, the .338 is specific to Brown Bears, and saw moose action mostly just to keep in tune. I'm not too stuck on calibers though... most of them seem to work.

 

[elkguide]

I gotcha. Looking for that magic bullet. We would all like that. If it ever becomes available, it will sell like hotcakes!

Sorry for the rough intro. Having watched elk taken with cartridges up and down the spectrum, I have a preference for the .30 magnum calibers. They just seem to give the most consistent performance on elk to me. I've watched elk dropped in their tracks with both a .243 and a .25-06 and I've watched two elk get back up and run off after being hit with a .338.

The .300 mags have recoil to deal with but it is a recoil that most can tolerate (or brake) and they have a wide selection of bullet weights to choose from if you are hunting different varieties of game. The difference in felt recoil over the .308 and/or the .30-06, to me, is so little that I opt for the more energy and flatter trajectory of the magnums. The only caliber rifle that I have seen that consistently made an immediately noticeable effect on an elk is the .45-70. And there is some noticeable recoil as well as quite a trajectory to learn with that caliber.

So keep looking at the tables and going to every gun shop you can and handle every breed of rifle that you can because once you settle on a caliber, then you have to decide on the brand of rifle. If you have friends with rifles in different calibers, ask them to let you shoot them too. So much fun in trying to find the best rifle out there.

I've had the privilege of shooting most every caliber from the .17 to the .45's and I have a "few" of them around. If I'm hunting in some ridiculously steep country or hiking a long ways in, I'm probably going to grab a Kimber Montana in either 7mm-08 or .300 WSM. But if I'm close to home or the truck, my go to gun is usually an old tang safety Ruger in .300 WM that weighs over 9 pounds. So get to "work" deciding what the best rifle and caliber is for you and let us know what you decide.

 

[luke moffat]

I've been using a .338 this year and shot a couple animals with it. Planning on dragging it to Kodiak this spring if it all works out.

Generally though, I don't think you will find the .338 will do anything magical that a .30 won't do for a typical shooter when it comes to "knocking them down". It's a good round and I like it a lot, but as said by many, shot placement will trump everything. A .300 is a big jump from a .25, but the .338 WM is only an incremental step past that and also as mentioned... it's best in at least a medium weight rifle. A really good shooter might see a difference if enough animals are taken, but very few people are going to shoot a .338 enough to become that kind of shot. Particularly in a light rifle. Under most normal hunting circumstances, I would suspect that the difference between a 30-06 and a .338 WM would be a few steps at most, and that assumes you can shoot them equally well.

I'm personally a 30-06 fan, because it's easy and cheap to shoot and does the job nicely. I like the big guns too, but the '06 sees the bulk of both range and field time, and for me that includes the option of moose and/or grizzly most years. In my gun closet, the .338 is specific to Brown Bears, and saw moose action mostly just to keep in tune. I'm not too stuck on calibers though... most of them seem to work.

Well said! I bought my first big game rifle that wasn't given to me by my dad in 2005. Ruger M77 MKII stainless. Had a timney installed and a MB. It's actually a lot of fun to shoot being nearly 9 pounds all up and having a MB installed. Generally it only gets brought out during atv or boat based hunts as I have better rifles for hiking with. It is hell for stout and shoots under an inch with 225 accubonds at 2900 fps. No plans to let it go but I don't see it doing much that a 30-06 won't.

I am not too hung up on calibers either. Really when it comes down to it we would make whatever is in our hands at the time work just fine.

 

[amp713]

Went and checked out a few today and most of those guns were on the light side! The ruger action was rough and I wasn't a fan. Favorite I put my hands on was the savage 116. Also looking at bullets the price from 300 to 338 was 6s in fact the heavier 338s cost less than the 300 (Hornady Superformance which is what I shoot out of my 25-06)

 

[Yellowknife]

Went and checked out a few today and most of those guns were on the light side! The ruger action was rough and I wasn't a fan. Favorite I put my hands on was the savage 116.

The SS Rugers are always a bit rough to start. They don't come from the factory with the same polish as say, a Winchester 70. They break in fairly well though. I used a bit of JB Bore Paste on the current .338 while working the action, and that helped get things polished a bit quicker. Most Ruger magnums are going to be 9+ lb guns when scoped though. Makes it an easy shooter, but not the best packing rifles in the world.

The last Savage 116 I had was even rougher and never did smooth up like I like. That gun eventually went down the road. Opinions on guns certainly vary though!

 

[ST52v]

Tikka T3 Hunter .338 Win Mag with Rings Rifle JRTA334 for sale! - EuroOptic.com

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[MTHunter20]

You don't hear a ton about the Savages but they really are great guns IMO. If you're OK with a push-feed action, I think it's hard to go wrong with them. Mines been a great shooter.

 

[16Bore]

You will now that Rinella is toting one.....

 

[robtattoo]

You will now that Rinella is toting one.....

I thought he shot a Carolina Custom? I know his show's been sponsored by Savage for ages, but I didn't think he carried one.

 

[MTHunter20]

I've seen him carry one in a couple episodes but I think he carries that custom rig most of the time.

 

[16Bore]

You mean as in Savage commercials? I don't watch jack on cable. But yeah, it's savage nation. IIRC he gave away the CC 7. Which is gay that I actually know that.

 

[rileybassman]

The SS Rugers are always a bit rough to start. They don't come from the factory with the same polish as say, a Winchester 70. They break in fairly well though. I used a bit of JB Bore Paste on the current .338 while working the action, and that helped get things polished a bit quicker. Most Ruger magnums are going to be 9+ lb guns when scoped though. Makes it an easy shooter, but not the best packing rifles in the world.

The last Savage 116 I had was even rougher and never did smooth up like I like. That gun eventually went down the road. Opinions on guns certainly vary though!

Kinda surprising - i have a 116, and a 16 lwh, and my wife has a 116. All 3 are smooth actions. They were a hair rough when we first got them, but a good cleaning and shooting smoothed them right up. My 116 is close to being as smooth as my 50 year old model 70.
Little tip i learned for all my rifles is i put a hair of tuff glide on the bolt and slide rails - makes a pretty big difference.

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk