First post here. I thought I would contribute some thoughts and experiences. When i read about the 338 and the supposed power, I took the reference to the 7mm simply as giving a reader a warm fuzzy feeling that it has enough power to play ball with bigger animals and it gave the reader a quick comparison power wise to an established round that everyone has a firm knowledge of. i don't think they are aimed at targeting the same audience.
I think both are overkill for deer. The 7mm rem mag I only think is needed if you are really shooting at longer ranges for deer 250+ yds.
I think the 338 federal is great as a under 200 yd or less black bear/hog gun. It can be put together in a more compact package and gives a bit bigger hole in animals that tend to have a bunch of fat to plug up a hole. I built mine as a black bear rifle. T/C Prohunter with an MGM 19" barrel and 1.5-6 vx-3 on top. It is great to drag thru the brush. Since I didn't get a shot at a bear i took it out for deer season. 185 TSX went in in front of the near shoulder and blew through the far shoulder. The deer was at a slow run at about 65 yds. I was shooting off hand uphill. It laid down about 20 yds from the point of impact.
I think few of us actually need a super fast super flat magnum at the distances we shoot. My biggest complaint is half of the guys I know are shooting deer at 50 yds with a 7mm or 300 mag using discount bullets and are surprised when their cheap bullet has no consistency in expansion or just epically fails. Previously I hunted everything with a hand me down model 94 30-30 with open sights. so maybe i have a bit of a skewed outlook on life.
