My brother-in-law has too much spare cash and picked up another Ruger 77 stainless boat-paddle rifle. I do all of his reloading for him, he does my taxes.
He has the same rifle in 7mm Rem Mag as well and we have that down to 1/2" groups at 100 yards. Anyway, he bought this .338 Win Mag for a song, and it came with a Timney trigger and lapped rings. We hadn't shot it yet, so he brought it out last time we were at the range. He likes to shoot his mags, but not the recoil, so he has a Caldwell Lead Sled. He shoots well out of it, and the 225 gr. Partition handloads that came with the .338 shot 4 shots and made one big hole at 100 yds. I wish I had the load data for those loads... Anyway, we got it sighted in and I asked to shoot it. I, being an idiot sometimes, wanted to feel the full recoil of the rifle. I shot the first three shots from a cross-legged shooting position. Not bad, 3 shots under 2" at 100 yds and recoil was tolerable, much less than anticipated, because I rocked with the recoil instead of my shoulder taking all of it. Then I wanted to see how well I could shoot it off the bench. 3 shots totaled up a .35" group, but the recoil was considerably more noticeable! I've had shoulder surgery from a baseball injury in my shooting shoulder, and I'm still feeling the effects of the bench shooting a week later, but I did shoot 10 more rounds from the bags. GREAT shooting rifle, I haven't been a fan of Rugers until I started loading my BIL's ammo for them. The .338 Mag recoil was still MUCH less than I figured it would be, if I needed a heavy rifle for NA game, that would be my choice. I've also done load development for a .338/378 Wby., but that had a brake on it and the recoil was quite mild, but the muzzle blast about took your cap off!
Selmer
