bsa,
My .338 is a little heavier than yours, eight pounds on the nose with a sling and three rounds in the magazine, but that feels about right to me, since most .338's are carried far more than they're shot.
When I first built it in the 1980's, most "authorities" said a .338 should be relatively heavy because of the recoil. It originally went a little over 9-1/2 pounds field-ready, and even in my 30's I got pretty tired of packing it up mountains, especially when holding it in my hands while sneaking through lodgepole thickets. So switched to a lighter-contour barrel and lighter synthetic stock, and found even 250-grain loads didn't kick all that hard.
Of course, by that time I also owned a .416 Remington Magnum that weighed 9 pounds all up. Recoil, like everything else, is relative.
