Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Is the 338 Federal on a come back tour?

I noticed that the .338 Federal has been chambered in 6 Savage models for this year. I've always liked this little .338 cartridge and my dad has used one off and on for several years. His, with 210 Partitions, is quick death to most everything and anything inside of 350 yards. I wonder with the new offerings from Savage, if the round will make a come back?

I just hope they make more brass soon!

I doubt it. I e seen about 5 of them for sale since they came out and a grad total of zero boxes of ammo for sale.

There's some blue box ammo here but I've stocked enough brass to carry me through my remaining years.

A great cartridge in my little Kimber Montana.

I had one and I miss it . Never should have sold that rifle!

I've often seen .338 Federal ammo on shelves in Montana and Alaska, but not in all gun shops, of course. My dad has always been a hand loader, so ammo wasn't ever a big issue for us.

I don't know anybody who has actually owned one and used it on big game that wasn't impressed with this modest .338. I'd like to buy one for myself instead of borrowing dad's all the time.

No, it's just wishful thinking on ATK's part. ATK bought Savage last year and they own Federal Cartridge

Yep, I know about the ATK connection. I was just wondering if, with more reasonably priced rifles available in .338 Federal that maybe it would gather more of a following. It originally came out in Sako, right? And then later, in Tikka and Kimber. Was it ever chambered in anything else more "common man-ish"? I don't recall. My father's is a re-barreled Weatherby Vanguard (originally a .308 Win).

I think I recall Mule Deer once writing an article on the .338 Federal that was fairly positive but I can't recall which firearms it was chambered in at the time.

HC, I feel the same about the 358 Winchester.
However, I must know 20 folks who hunt every season and of those, nobody owns a 338 Federal.
It is kind of like the 325 WSM, it works but never was a favorite for the average guy.
I saw somewhere that most American hunters never venture above 30 caliber.....what a shame, in my opinion.

Ruger chambered them for a while.

I bought my dad one in the AW Ruger Hawkeye. It shoots great and hammers whitetails.

Use 308 Brass.

Perception is 90% of this business, just like every other. In most peoples minds, rounds like the .338 Federal:

Kick too much
Don't shoot flat enough
Are too big for deer

True or not, that's how ordinary folks view cartridges in this category. Added to the lack of available rifles and ammo, it's a deal killer. Winchester lost several shirts trying to sell medium-bore, moderate powered rounds.

Just be thankful the .338 Fed is based on the .308 instead of some non-standard case so it's easy to feed.

Ive owned a 358 BLR for near 30 years after I saw how effective it was in my hunting partners hands loaded with a 250 grain speer bullet over 44 grains of imr 4064, and in all that time (35 plus years) theres been other guys in our elk hunting club that have purchased similar 358 win BLRs and I'b be amazed if more than 3% of the cartridges fired through any of those rifles did not have a 308 win head stamp. as a result I don,t see ammo as a serious concern in a 338 fed which is very similar

http://milpas.cc/rifles/ZFiles/Misc/358%20Winchester/The%20358%20Winchester.html

It is going the way of the .358 Win, but I don't think it will have the same cult following because of the various rifles that were chambered for the .358

I even have a mannlicher schoenauer carbine in .358 When I had my BLR .358, it would shoot an inch. It was very handy for hogs and deer.

You're right about the ammo situation, of course, for most of us on here, but to the average guy, who already views handloading as something akin to brewing your own beer or raising bees, the notion of producing ammo for one cartrtidge using brass from another sounds like building your own airplane.

Every few years, someone writes an article on the virtues of the .358, and it causes a brief flurry of activity on Gunbroker and maybe two guys have rifles built or re-barreled. But then the fire dies down until next time.

I'd like to see Savage bring back the 99, chambered in .338 Federal, along with some others, but it will likely never happen.

His article was with a Kimber. At the time Sako, Tikka, Kimber and Ruger had rifles. I do think it was a mistake to not have much in the way of Remington, Savage or other lower priced rifles available. Then again, I don't know how much sway Federal had in that regards. Being that it's Federal's cartridge, I suspect ammo will always be produced. Availability is another issue. I asked them about some availability and they said the 200 Trophy Bonded Tip ammo was supposed to be produced last December. I have not asked or looked to see if it's available. Lapua 308 Win brass works great so I'm not worried about having ammo.

JES rebores/rechambers the 338 Federal. Shortly after the 338 Fed came out, I talked to Mr. O about having a Savage 99 in 300 rebored/rechambered to 338 Fed, but he told me that (at that time) he had done a couple of 338 Feds on the Savage 99 and the owners were seeing high pressure signs with factory ammo. Apprised of the risk involved, I opted not to have the work done and I think that Mr. O's warning, knowing that he was likely turning away work, speaks well of him.

The 338 Federal makes a nice little rifle when built on a Remington Model 7. The Bass Pro shop had a bunch of ammo in stock when this last shortage started. I think I had the only rifle within 100 miles that fired the 338 Fed. The ammo shelves would be nearly empty and there would be all this 338 Federal stacked up there. I'd pick up a box or two every time I went. I found out that I was a hoarder about that time…

I do and can. The primary reason I want correct head stamped brass isn't necessarily for me. I have a few young kids coming up and they're all into hunting/shooting. They're all pretty young and I try to teach them everything I can. It's just a safety thing I'm concerned about for the next few years. They'll learn the loading game in time too...