Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting All hail the wonderful and mighty .338 Winchester Magnum

I just read thru this whole discussion, since I am a faithful 338 man. When I was younger I read everything that I could get my hands on that was written by Elmer Keith. He was a big proponent of the .33 caliber rifle.

A few years later, I decided it was time that I go elk hunting before I got too old and decrepit. I knew I was going to use a 338 and bought the first stainless rifle I'd ever owned, a Ruger MKII with the boat paddle synthetic stock. It shot decent groups, but beat me up so bad that I almost gave up on Elmer's beloved 338.

Then one day I ran across a Remington 700 in a gun shop. I decided to try it and couldn't trade off that Ruger fast enough. I'm still not sure what model this Remington is, it's got a tupperware stock, is ADL configuration, stainless metal work with a very rough finish. I mounted a Leupold 3-9x compact on it and never looked back.

This Remington is a pussycat compared to the Ruger, and even better since I swapped out the recoil pad for one of the new sorbathane pads. All I've ever shot in are Noslers, 200 gr BTs for deer and 250 gr Partitions for elk. Even though the Remington is a lot lighter than the Ruger, it's much more pleasant to shoot. I think the poor stock design on the Ruger with it's tiny hard rubber butt pad was the culprit.

I finally was able to go chase elk in Idaho in '93, I was unsuccessful but had the time of my life. A broken ankle, bad knees, a few surgeries, a divorce and a layoff have kept me from going back. But I've been using that Remington 338 for Kansas and Arkansas whitetails ever since, and killed between 45-50 with it. I haven't had to bloodtrail one yet. I can't say the same for deer shot with lesser calibers, I nearly lost the biggest deer of my life (325=350 # on the hoof) after putting a 130 grain 270 bullet thru it's lungs.

There is definitely less bloodshot meat with the 338 than with the 270 or other fast movers. A lot of that is probably due to bullet construction.

I have a lot of rifles now, but when deer season rolls around the 338 comes out of the safe and gets shot a time or two to check zero, then kills a deer or two for the freezer.