Originally Posted by smallfry

. . .
Really the paranoia and guilt ridden responses over the 338 wm are facinating. "Too much recoil, ohh if you own one you can down load it to a 338 fed or 338-06, ohh by the way there is no advantage over a 300 but it's acceptiable to use it as a 338 fed... "

If you have a good opportunity to buy one and you are interested, then buy it! 338s have a great selection of projectiles and make good all around rifles. You can always compare cartridges. I prefer 338s/340 wby over 300s and prefer 30-06s over 300s. 338s can be housed in a relatively light weight rifle and have a lot to offer.


You might want to get your quotes right before you start "quoting" people. I didn't write "Too much recoil", I wrote "you can control recoil by loading down to .338-06 or even .338 Federal levels but still have full power when you want" and then went on to enumerate - without judgment - just what I meant by "full power recoil" with "Full power recoil is around 32 foot-lbs". Whether that is "too much" for someone is not for me to decide.

When I bought my .300 WM the first loads I developed were at .308 Win and then .30-06 power levels, not because I couldn't handle full power loads but because I didn't have either one of them and knew that full power loads .300 WM were rarely necessary. While I don't regret developing those loads, once developed they were never used again because I soon ended up with multiple .30-06s and a .308 Win and used them instead.

By the time I built my .338WM I felt no need or desire to develop reduced power loads for it due to the other options available to me. What I ended up with was a 225g AccuBond and SST running 2742fps and 2707fps respectively. Not quite max loads but very accurate and not much different than you would expect from full-power loads in a 22" barrel like my rifle has.

Here's a photo of some of my options. From left to right, .338WM, .300WM, .30-06.

[Linked Image]

And here are some of the results of using those rifles:

.338 WM, 225g AccuBond, 487 yards, my longest shot on game

[Linked Image]

.338 WM, 225g AccuBond, 265 yards

[Linked Image]

.300 WM, 180g Barnes MRX, 400 yards

[Linked Image]

.300 WM, 180g North Fork, 260 yards
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.30-06, 150g AccuBond, 282 yards
[Linked Image]

Is it "acceptable" to load a .338 WM down to .338 Fed levels? Of course it is, and it is still a very viable option for elk out to at least 400-450 yards. Recoil is far less (with a 180g bullet at 2728fps about half a full power 225g load at 2882fps), case life is longer, powder costs are reduced by about 35%, they still make big holes and animals will still drop dead. And no, loading .338 Fed-level loads doesn't prohibit a person from using full power loads when desired. While I'm not recommending buying a .338 WM , loading it to .338 Fed levels and using it for elk in open country, it would be a fine choice for a variety of other purposes.

For example, the recoil of some of my .45-70 loads are over 51 foot-pounds and make the heaviest .338WM loads look like pussy cats in comparison. The loads my daughters and I like to shoot most, however, are 300g and 350g hardcast over 13.5g HS-6, at 1167fps and 1091fps respectively. Both of these loads will penetrate 12 one-gallon water jugs, have the trajectory of a .22LR and, at about 7 foot-pounds, generate about half the recoil of a .30-30 factory load. And they cost about $3 per 20 to build. If hunting deer in close cover I would grab these loads long before I would grab my high recoil "Rhino Blaster" 460g/1812fps loads. All told I have developed 19 different loads for my .45-70 using bullets from 300g to 500g and velocities from 1091fps to 2247fps. Most of them, including my preferred elk hunting loads, are in between those extremes in recoil.

No paranoia, no guilt.








Last edited by Coyote_Hunter; 11/27/15.
Coyote Hunter - NRA Patriot Life, NRA Whittington Center Life, GOA, DAD - and I VOTE!

No, I'm not a Ruger bigot - just an unabashed fan of their revolvers, M77's and #1's.

A good .30-06 is a 99% solution.