Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 Federal

I have not been on this forum for a while but was wondering what your thoughts are on the 338 Federal for deer. This subject may have been beat like a dead horse but I have missed out on any discussion about that caliber.

Im big on it myself...lot's like the good ole .358win.
Do a search on 338 Fed. There's a ton of threads on it.

All reports are that it is excellent on deer, not to mention larger species. Certainly hits harder than 06, which is itself an excellent caliber for deer. No compromise on mag capacity like in .338 Win Mag either.

I myself was leaning towards the 358W until really checking out 338 ballistics.It just cannot be ignored,& IMO will give the 358W a run for it's money.

Which is better,well slip a coin.But I like the fact that I can load everything from 180gn-300gner's.
250 & 300gn Woodleigh's mated with the Sako 85 Finnlight,well that's going to be a real sweet deep woods rifle.Weighing in at a tidy 3.1kg(6.8lbs) ready to work.

250gr TSX FB in the 338Fed with SD=.313 & BC=.425.Now that's going to DIG DEEP AT ANY ANGLE.

Also when you look at Woodleigh projectiles,the 338" projectiles have the wood(BC & SD in the same weight) over the 358'ers.
http://www.woodleighbullets.com.au/Bullet%20List%202.html#anchor

338",250gr RN SN,SD=.313,BC=.332
358",250gr RN SN,SD=.279,BC=.300

Slightly better ballistics verses slightly wider projectile=Cant go wrong with either IMO .

PS-Anyone have the new Sako 85(In 308W length action)?If so measure the mag box for all of us <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/help.gif" alt="" />.

tez
do you have velocities for the 250gr. bullets in the 338 fed? I figure that those bullets will be pretty long and eat up alot of your case capacity. The 250gr. bullets for the .358 are shorter so they dont take up as much powder space.

Just curious if there is load data out for the heavy bullets in 338fed. I havent even seen a load that is 225gr. for the federal cartridge.