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

I will hold out now but I had some load work to do and there was no way I was waiting. I will strike down a lot of 225 PTs when I see them on SPS now that I know they will shoot.

I didn't like the stock on my one and only 338, a boat paddle stainless Ruger MarkII. If that rifle had been a 30-06 I would still have it but that hard rubber buttpad and 250 gr. bullets pushed to 2600fps was hard to enjoy shooting. Especially prone. At any rate I killed two elk with it. The first was a long shot of 450 yards. The 250gr. Sierra failed to expand and the elk went over the mountain it was shot on and to the top of the next before it laid down. It was 4 below zero and the wind was gusting 30-45mph. quartering and carrying that elk 1 1/2 miles was no pleasure, don't forget the creek that had to be crossed. The other elk was shot 50 yards out with the same bullet and dropped at the shot. I have since built a 35 Whelen which kicks less and gives similar ballistics.

I call these the �Three Sisters�. Left to right, .338WM, .300WM and .30-06.



Between them they have made 5 elk hunting trips and put 5 elk in the freezer. Even with the .338 pushing a 225g @ 2740fps, recoil in the field isn�t bad because I�m usually wearing several layers of clothes which cushion the blow. The factory pad on my .338 has been replaced with a much softer pad, which softens the blow considerably. Not much different now than the .300WM pushing a 180g @ 3050fps.

Admittedly, when wearing a tee shirt at the range the tire tread �pad� on the magnums can leave a mark.

Odd that the original buttpads are made from the hardest rubber known to man. I did like the rifle though, the Ruger MarkII is a fine action.

I reviewed one of those Stainless Ruger's with the 'orribull boat paddle stock about 20 years back and it shot so well, putting 5 into .9" with enough regularity that I asked for a second rifle and it did the same.

I bought the prettiest one.
John

I've thought the same thing. You guys get the line marks on your shoulder after firing a heavy kicker too? The recoil pads (or lack thereof) were definitely crap... CH is correct too, I've always thought of that pad as a "tire tread" as well.

Good Luck BSA, hope you get a goodun!!

I HAD 1 (one) 338 WM, Ruger Tanger before the Hawkeyes. That thing kicked harder than ANY rifle I've ever shot, including a 375 HH. That tanger hurt me every time I shot it. I did work up a load with 225s and IMR 4350 that gave 2900 fps and 1" groups - outside to outside of bullet holes.

I got rid of that 'beast' and have never missed it.

Now in all fairness, the 375 was a Rem 700 with a good recoil pad. The Ruger only had a butt pad. It took me some time to figure why that 338 kicked and hurt WORSE than the 8 R Mag I still have, also a 700 BDL.

I could try another 338 WM now but only in a rifle with a decent recoil pad.

Again, Good Luck.

My .338WM is a tang safety Ruger. I did replace the recoil pad with a Decelerator pad, but not until it was shortened to 22". I think my .300WM kicks more.

The old red pads off the walnut stocked tang safety model 77's do in fact say "Good Year" on the inside. Yes they are very hard. Get good mileage though.

That's funny bigswede

Had a couple .338's and have always liked the 300 win mag better.

The .300 is easier to fiddle with because the best bullets are easier to define,
Deer sized game, simply anything or something in the 165-180 grain.
Larger game, the better 180's or 200's.

The .338 can be simpler because most are bought for a hunt that will never come after Brown Bear or Moose, so most rifles will cover the same game as the .300's.

The difference here is that all .338 bullets are made for the .338 so you don't have that separation of suitability for the magnum case you get with the .300 where the bullets are largely made for the .30/06 and can sometimes fail to perform in the larger case for usual shots under 200 yards, which is most of them.

Gonna punch out one of my .338 Win to .338 Edge just for the fun of it.