Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 Federal Rifles

A 30-06 loaded with 200 gr bullets outperforms 338 Fed in every measurable way with about the same recoil. A 308 with 200 gr bullets equals it. A .338 bullet is about 1/2 the thickness of a dime greater in diameter than a .308 bullet. The 338 won't make a bigger hole and it won't penetrate any deeper.

That's why nobody is buying or making them.

A 30-06 loaded with 200 gr bullets outperforms 338 Fed in every measurable way with about the same recoil. A 308 with 200 gr bullets equals it. A .338 bullet is about 1/2 the thickness of a dime greater in diameter than a .308 bullet. The 338 won't make a bigger hole and it won't penetrate any deeper.

That's why nobody is buying or making them.

I'm a fan. Working on a laminate for a Hawkeye All Weather in 338 Fed, hopefully ready to hunt this fall. Not sure about the red pad though.

As a gunsmith, in the last 20 years or so the most popular request for the 338 Federal from my shop have been builds on the AR type rifles.

I have made 5 bolt actions in 338 Fed, but probably 12 on the larger AR actions. Every one that I have made a 338 Fed for however has been very pleased with the cartridge's performance in the field. It's a shell with real merit, but one that never caught the attention of the shooting public. Too bad. It truly does a good job in the field on every type of game from antelope does to moose, and it does so with a shorter barrel and less noise them many of the more popular belted magnums and the big shells baes on the 404 Jeffery shell. In the AR10 style guns it makes a rifle not any lighter then any other cartridge, but still it's been a rifle/chambering that has had some degree of demand. And it's as accurate as any other in that type of rifle with MOA results being normal.

All cartridge's that gain a big portion of the market are "fad shells" at one point or another. Some like the 338 Fed (and the 358 Win) never even hit the fad stage. Yet real usefulness and true merit as a game killer is not enough to gain entrenched popularity. I am guessing that timing is the most important thing.

Some cartridge's gain that standing. Cartridge that WERE a fad at one time that are now part of the conversation by which most other shells are measured are (as a few examples) 30-06. 308 Win. 270 Winchester, 30-30, and 375H&H. All old enough that few are alive today that remember when they were fads. But if you read writings from the 1900 to 1930 ear you'll see how they too went through the fad stage. Today we see many that fail to achieve the fad stage and some that are gong thought it now (most notable the 6.5 Creedmoor) I for one believe the 6.5 Creedmoor is here to stay because it's extremely close to the ballistics of one of the world's best and most balanced cartridges, the 6.5X55 Swede. (run at the same pressured in equally strong actions)
But cartridges that came and never caught the eye of the 'buying market' include the 338 Fed and the 358 Winchester and several others too. That's not to say they were commercial failures for any reasons in their performance, but just that the timing of their "birth-days" was not what the gun buyers were wanting for the most part around their introductions.