Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 300 magnum vs 338

I had to go and get some popcorn...

Coulda made me a sammich while you were in da kitchen.

Just make sure the popcorn is not evil looking.

For elk size and up? Conventional wisdom says yes. Though, with today's tougher copper bullets that penetrate and destroy like much heavier bonded lead ones, weight isn't as important as it once was. For me, the decision relies on how long of a barrel I can tolerate; which isn't long so I would pick the 338.

.338win has been my favorite for some decades,....but If you took it away and gave me an accurate .300mag
I would not feel lacking.

Something else is different about the rifles if you can shove 25% more bullet with the same amount of powder and find less recoil in the lighter round. Yes, the 180gr 338 is going slower, but the difference in bullet weight is big.

I have never enjoyed any 338WM.

I have a large bunch of 30 caliber magnums and have considerable time with them... but I am moving to the 30-06 more and more. My last several bull moose have been with the 06 and TTSX.

Denying simple physics is not a good idea.

I have taken elk/deer with both the 338 Win, 35 Whelen and a few different 300's. With great bullets I haven't seen anything that shows me the 338 does any better than the 300's. Saying that, I love the 338, but honestly I really like the 338 with the 200/210 class of bullets. Don't gain a darned thing over a 300 with a 200, but it does work well and usually whomps elk pretty hard. Going to try the 210 Swift's this year in my 338, just to try something a little different.

It's not as simple as physics though. While his statement is not entirely true, the felt recoil could be lower due to the build and fit of the rifle. Thus making his .338 more enjoyable to shoot.
-Jake

I've enjoyed my synthetic stocked 300 H&H for years now, been a great elk gun. I load 180 TTSX's to 3050 fps. 2 years a go I found a deal on another like stocked pre 64 M70 in 338, I bought it and loaded up some 225's, although it shot great , I came to find out that I had crossed the line when it comes to how much recoil I can handle well, so I sold it. No doubt the .338 is a great round, but I'll get by ok with my 300 H&H, for me the 338 was too much of a good thing.

Interesting discourse - and no one has told someone they are an idiot. Simply amazing!

Pondered this myself a while back. Settled on the 200 gr Noz in the 300. I don't have huge experience with either combo beyond a small sample of animals. The more big game I shoot or see shot the less I believe in 'knock down' 'oomph' 'shock' or any other term used to describe the effect of bullet impact on flesh, bone, and blood. The keys to knockdown seem to be bone and CNS disruption. In my mind the distinction comes down to the volume of the wound channel - a bigger wound channel wins. Slight differences aren't all that significant which is why some of the bullet/cartridge arguments are exercises in observation/experience. I think JB should shoot a bunch of bullets from a bunch of different cartridges into ballistic wax and measure the volume of the wound channel. I'd hazard a guess that 3-4 classes of wound channels would exist.

Duplicate post.

Your comments don't even relate to what I said. But whatever. He was speaking about felt recoil, both rifles were indeed the same (Echols Legends) and that is what he said.

This is very true. The conversation reminds me of the 7RM vs. .300WM or the .270 vs. .30-06 debates. Slight differences between chamberings that are far more alike than different.

BG animals don't DIE unless there is sufficient TRAUMA to the CNS or in the case of body shots; trauma sufficient to
cause enough BLOOD LOSS that they simply cannot continue to function.... yet myths perpetuate in some peoples
minds about 'knockdown' and 'shocking' an animal to death.

People have wrongly used WDM Bells experience with .318 on elephant to claim that larger dia. gave him better results
than his .256 and .275 due to increased wound channel, but Bell himself didn't put it down to wound channel size, rather
he maintained .318 was better for more difficulty shots simply because he found the larger dia.heavier bullet maintained
a straighter course through the animal to the brain.(ie; less incidences of deflection than .256 and .275).

But even In the case of .275, he stated only about 10% of ALL brain shot elephants required a follow-up, a problem which
diminished with .318 WR especially with the oblique-angling away shots through the mass of the neck...(256 and .275 were
prone to bending when hitting the spine) Naturally this will have some effect on the original intended course of the projectile.

Had Bell had something like the luxury of say modern tungsten 7mm solids, it may well have largely solved that problem!

90% of .275 brain shots were properly accomplished with ONE shot....rational conclusion:

shot PLACEMENT trumps calibre in the overwhelming majority of hunting situations.

WDM Bell and and Harry Selby were advocates of the primary importance of shot placement.
Phill Shoemaker, Boddington and anyone on 24CF with rational sense...will tell you the same.

Most people carry cartridges that are capable performers well beyond the capability of the people using them.
More often that not the cause of grief will be lousy shooting and/or poor choice of projectile.

Boddington must've changed his tune. I've read a bunch of his stuff where he touts the .338 for elk, and a minimum of 2000 ft-lbs of energy at the animal, not at the muzzle.

http://www.rifleshootermag.com/shooting-tips/shooting_tips_rs_essentialrifle_200808/

"The PHs and I are in total agreement: The best all-around choice for African hunting is a .375. Okay, but “all-around” is a general term,
and if there’s no dangerous game on the menu, I am convinced that the vast majority of African plains game are best and most
easily taken with a hunter’s favorite deer cartridge, be it a .270, a 7mm or a .30 caliber.

Yes, I know, African game has the legend of being extra-tough. Mostly this is hogwash. Animals such as wildebeest are tougher than others,
and some such as zebra can be both bigger and tougher. But there is no African antelope, pig or equine that will not succumb to a
well-placed, well-constructed bullet from any of these calibers.

The eland is a special case because it’s more than twice the size of any other antelope. A big bull of any of the several races can weigh as
much as a ton. I believe in a .375 for eland, but if you’ve read any of my stuff you know I’m a heavy-caliber, heavy-bullet sort of guy.

Honestly, even for eland you don’t need a .375. Perhaps a better and more versatile choice would be any of the fast .33s, a fast 8mm
(.325 WSM or 8mm Remington Magnum) or a fast .35 if you can find one (like the .358 Shooting Times Alaskan).

If you have such a rifle, and if it’s accurate and you shoot it well, you really don’t need anything else. On the other hand, if eland is not of
interest to you, you probably don’t need anything larger than a .30 caliber–and most of us will shoot better at a sustained rate with cartridges
that produce a bit less recoil. So if the largest antelope is on the game list, perhaps you should mate a fast .33 with something smaller and
more manageable, perhaps a .25 or 6.5mm, or your favorite .270, 7mm or .30 caliber.

If I had to choose the perfect single rifle for plains game, it would be my 8mm Remington Magnum. It’s a rifle I have used in Namibia,
South Africa, Ethiopia, Zambia and Chad, several times as a one-rifle battery. I have used it on eland, no problems, and I’ve also used it for
longer shooting in wide-open country, including gemsbok in the Kalahari and the tiny dorcas gazelle on the edge of the Sahara.

But if I decided to take two rifles I would probably go a bit larger on the upper end, perhaps to a .338 Winchester Magnum, and drop down a
whole bunch on the other end to something like the 7×57 in brush country or a fast 6.5mm or .270 in more open ground."

**despite Craig Boddingtons preference for .375H&H -8mmMag for eland, his young daughter successfully used 7mm/08
on her 200yd bull eland. The 7mm/08 says CB, being the rifle she has most confidence in using.

I wouldn't think so, and would use the 300 mags with 200 gr Partitions for elk sized animals without concern, to me the 338 really comes into it's own with 250 gr A-Frames or Partitions, I would really like to use my 338 on Eland, Nilgai or the Great Bears of Alaska.

Damn, I ran out of popcorn. I'll be right back..

[quote=JMR40]Any time you can shoot same or similar bullet weights from 2 different calibers the smaller caliber always wins. /quote] But everyone knows that a 243 will only wound deer while the 257 Roberts is Thor's hammer. :-)