Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Thinking of a .338-06

Ha, Va, you caught me editing my post. Still says the same thing, just re-arranged.

szihn, As usual very well stated! Those are almost exactly my views....only you said it much more eloquently and with much more evidence! memtb

I have a Sako 30-06 I could send to be bored out. Sounds like a fun cartridge. I didn’t read the entire thread, how much does JES charge?

Depends on what groove. http://35caliber.com/

Steve Timm also has a nice article on the 338-06.

My experience with the 338-06 has lead me to the conclusion that penetration is not an issue. Out of the 1/2 dozen elk, and all the deer/antelope. I have recovered exactly one bullet. A 210gr NPT that completely penetrated the chest of a cow elk and lodged in the lower front leg bone. With all the lead in front of the partition gone.

From what I have seen a 210gr TSX do. It is going to take something significantly bigger, or heavier structured to catch it. I shot a bull at 285 yards quartering to me. Entered on the front ball joint, shattered it into pieces, through the vitals/liver and exited at the back of the ribs. I would have loved to recover that bullet.

I have caught lots of flack for stating that bigger diameter bullets hit harder, but that is my opinion. If you can have the same weight but bigger diameter bullet driven at similar or slightly higher velocities than the 30's. Why not?

I believe for this thread the confusion is a likely typo by baldhunter. "The 338-06 A-Square is the same thing as 338-08." I read this as a typo and it should have ended in 06 and not 08. A 338-08 is most similar to the 338 Federal. As it was originally written it isn't true. As a typo and it should have compared to the 338-06 then, yes, the 338-06 A-Square would have been the same. Just my two cents input here.

Model 70....rebored from 270 to 338/06 by Bob West up in Eugene before he passed....
he was one of the last guys around who had trained under P.O. Ackley as a gunsmith.

as said, recoils like an 06...with H 380 has a fast velocity...primary bullets used have been
the older Hornady 200, 225 and 250 grain SPs....has caused two 338 Mags to spend most of their
lives as safe queens....

Just like an 06 only more of the good stuff.. its a 338 mag in an 06 case...

you'll enjoy it.

Yes it was a typo.I didn't catch it.Thanks for pointing that out.Fixed it.

Check with them..I don't think they like to rebore hammer forged barrels...to hard apparently

SAKO had a reputation for harder than average barrel steel so might be two strikes against that barrel. But if he is willing it will be a very good barrel.

Thanks gentlemen.

I always try to give good answers so as to help all who are interested. A wise man learns from the mistakes of others. I have made plenty, but what I know now is not a theory anymore. I KNOW what I know and what I don't I can sometimes make a good guess about when it comes to bullets because of my understanding of bullet design and performance in a class.

However I still make mistakes now and then and when I do I try to immediately tell everyone, so they don;'t have to repeat it. It's best for everyone and best for the game heard too.

I love the old saying; If I light your candle with my candle, it will not diminish the light of my candle."


Oh,,,,, Just in passing. I did catch the question about the 338-06 and the 338-08 being the same. No, they are not. The 338-08 is now called the 338 Federal and is based on the 308 Winchester case.

The 338-06 is (just like it sounds) based on the 30-06 case.

I am sure most others see what the poster meant to write, and also caught the typo.

I have a 338-06 and a 338 FED. I've only shot a couple of deer with each of them at distances between 100 and 250 yards and couldn't see a meaningful difference in terminal performance that couldn't be attributed to a variety of other variables.

I doubt you'd see a meaningful difference between those two and a 30-06 either.

I've had more positive results on deer with a 223AI over a 35Whelen.

It's only bigger game that it seems to make a difference. Inside of 250 yards, for deer, I'd take a 223 everyday of the week and twice on Sunday over anything 06 based. Cept maybe the 25/06

Yup. At one time I was all set to send the parts off for a 338/06 build. Swapped a 1-10 .308 barrel in at the last minute and had it chambered for 30/06 Springfield. No regrets at all. 😉

That's the thing about the '06 ........ You have to either get a lot bigger/faster or smaller to see any major improvement over what it's been doing for over 100yrs. Sure takes the fun out of wildcats.

+1, thank for the info and experience.

The old 30-06 is a great round.If I would have rebarreled the one I had rebored to a 338-06,I most likely would have stayed with the 30-06.But for what it cost me for the job,I figured what the hell I'll give it a shot.It runs a 200gr bullet a bit faster than the 30-06 with 200gr bullets,fairly close to the speed and energy of a 300 Win Mag with a 200gr bullet and not all that far behind the 338 Win Mag,all of that in a 30-06 case.I think it says a lot for the 30-06 case.Brass for the 338-06 is cheap to make from 30-06 brass,Shooters Pro Shop has 200gr Accubonds and Ballistic Silver Tips 2nds for under $20 a bag.Probably more than what I need for most of my hunting,but like the 30-06,I think I can kill just about anything on the planet with it.Here is some load data.

In my view the .338WM is perfect for me and all my hunting in Alaska, but as I get older the recoil of a .338-06 is not bad at all. As others have mentioned, there is nothing wrong with a .30-06 case topped with a .33-caliber bullet. It just becomes from just about perfect to perfect the older I get. I have been thinking about a .338-06 for a few years already, so one of these days....