Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire 338 federal or 35 whelen for a new hunting rifle.

I went with a 35 Whelen because I was using a long action BUT also "Whelen" sounds cooler than Federal.

This thread has me thinking of sending a Remington Model 7 308 with a 18 inch barrel to JES and have it bored out to .358 WIN....

My 338-06 (non-AI) gets just over 2500 fps with a 21" barrel with 250 A-Frames. The load I used to play back up on Kodiak to my wife on her 9.5' brown bear. Granted it wasn't needed and I didn't get to shoot as it died from one shot from her .308 win

Was gonna go with the 338 Fed and 35 whelen route at one point.

Now I went with the short action (358 win) as my short range sub 300 yard woods gun and a long action (338-06) as my longer range open country backpack gun.

I guess I kinda went the reverse of what the OP is looking at

I don't have a 338 Fed, but I do have an older 338-08 AI, pretty close to the same thing.
Regarding Fire forming, I just neck up 308 brass, load bullets to full charges and use them for practice.
For hunting I use the now fire formed brass with some version of Nosler, a proper amount of RL15 and go.
I have it because it came at a good price, I always have a good supply of .338 bullets and Reloader 15 because I have several other .338 rifles, and it will kill anything I'm ever going to hunt at ranges I feel good about, and it's a pure joy to carry in the high country.
Not claiming it's better than anything else, but it works OK..

So fire forming seems like a technique I'll look at further down the road. First I'll probably get a reloading manual and read it. I looked at that rcbs kit and it looks nice plus it comes with a rebate of 500 speer bullets. That's not too shabby. Any suggestions on optics?

The best educational manual I ever found was called "Metallic Cartridge Reloading"
It not only had load data but went into depth on why things work, such a burn rates. I had commited much of it to memory before I loaded my first round.

Like to hear more about it. I can't imagine you gain too much velocity, but a little 'free' velocity is never a bad thing, and reduced brass stretch is a bonus. Do they feed well? Do you know the case volume of the AI brass?

You don't have to fireform 06 brass to make .35 Whelen. I can't speak for other brands of dies but the RCBS comes with a tapered expander. Run the 06 through the FL sizing die and load them up with your preferred load. Wouldn't be any different than using new Whelen brass for the first loading. I did it that way for several years before I came into a large stash of new .35 Whelen Remington brass, new and unfired. Never had a problem.
Paul B.

^^Nor 338 Federal Brass. Just neck up some Lapua 308 Win brass if you can't find the 338 Fed brass.

I don't push it too hard, staying close to 338 Fed loads. It feeds well, never had any problem with the brass, never checked the case volume.
Most accurate loadings are 45 grs RL 15 with 215 gr Sierras or 210 Noslers.
I've never been one to push my rifles, if I feel I need more I just go bigger.

RL 15 is one I've never tried. So many good choices out there. With those bullets, Leverevolution and MR2000 really shine.

Hands down, a 358 Winchester:) I really wanted a 338 Federal when they came out but I wanted to start reloading and the 358 has a lot of options and had the reputation of being easy to load for.

I think the 358 Winchester I have along with the 9.3x62 that I want will be a Dynamic Duo.

Send John Barsness a PM and see if he can point you to the article he wrote in Handloader magazine #254, August 2008. Good article in there comparing the 338 Federal vs 358 Winchester with some good loads in it as well.

I've read somewhere on the internet that you can't reload brass from Hornady's superformance whelen ammo, is this true? For the first year I plan on shooting factory ammo and that's the cheapest whelen ammo I see out there. Guys on here say it's easy to just resize 06 or 308 brass to either cartridge, so maybe I wouldn't need the brass from the superformance.

IMO, I would recommend just using factory cases for either caliber since you are just starting out in reloading. Plenty of other things to keep track of without repurposing brass.
I have no idea about Hornady ammo as I only reload, but find it hard to believe that it can't be re-used. Maybe you can't replicate the powder, but the brass being different? I doubt it.

My opinions are just that, it short action? 358 W. Long action? 30-06

The 358 has a better shoulder for my single shot stuff than the Whelen, and will do all I want to put up with in light rifles for a 35. It has more bullets and options than the fed, imo.

I know I still have some more research to do on both calibers, but does the ballistic coefficient really matter out to say 150 yards? The 338 federal seems to take the cake vs the 35 whelen in the b.c. department.

No,BC does not matter at 150 yds.

35 Whelen, just cause its famous.

i just loaded up some 200 and 250grain hornady in .358. Easy to do. What is kind of a jaw dropper is looking at that 250 grain bullet lengthwise next to the 308 casing.

Your missing the boat on the 358 winchester. Those old ballistics charts based off of the old Winchester SilverTips is nowhere near what reloading or modern ammo is capable of. The 358 Winchester is probably the most efficient cartridge made. You can shoot cast bullets, pistol bullets, rifle bullets and heavy for caliber big game bullets. I went with the 358 over the Whelen because I wanted to start shooting light loaded cast bullets to replace a lot of my 22 rimfire shooting. Basically I wanted one gun I could shoot year around and nothing come close to a 358 Winchester.

Here's some reloading info. If you compare the TKO numbers to other calibers it backs up what people with a 358 say. It kills better than it should.

http://www.reloadersnest.com/frontpage.asp?CaliberID=191