Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles A tale of two 338's

I bought a M-70 classic stainless boss equipped 338 WM in the classifieds here last week, got it yesterday evening, brought it home and to the rifle cradle it went, coated the bore with carb out, while in the rifle rest, I mounted, loctited, and lapped a set of tallet lw's in, mounted an old spare matte 4.5-14x40 AO, [ I know, chitty eye box, but hey, it was there] after the carb out treatment I foamed it up good with wipeout, let set for three hrs, coated it again last night before bed, and let sit upside down all night.

Got up this morning pushed a patch through it, and mounted a painted, bedded and pillar bedded factory Tupperware stock I had Darren75 here at the fire paint plus add a spacer to give me a lop of 13-7/8ths inches, went to see my old buddy at his machine shop, he cut the threads for the boss, filed the muzzle flat, that will do for now till I have time to take it to my 'smith for an 11 degree recess, came home and went to the load shop, 70 grs of RL-17 sent the 250 gr A-Frames to 2743 fps in the Winchester, went in and grabbed my 26" barreled Kimber SA, it registered 2796 fps, not such a bad loss with the Winchester having only 22"s of barrel left.

I fired a couple with the Winchester to get close to center at 100, moved the target out to 200 yards, while it was cooling I fired 5 rounds from the Kimber, they went about 1.5" for 5 at 200 yards, not surprised, that old rifle has been accurate with any bullet I've ever fired in it, I miscounted my ammo, had only four rounds left loaded with the new brass, the Winchester, chitty crown and all put 4 rounds into roughly the same 1.5"s at 200 yards, shocked the hell out of me, boss hell, who needs em.

Both rifles weigh right at 8.5lbs all up, I am a happy bastard today.

I had one of those (without the Boss) and with a 275 grain Swift A-Frame it was brutal off the bench. Traded it off and I have no regrets.

I found them both completely comfortable off the bench with the 250's, but hell, I've been drinking beer, grilling chicken and smoking Dominicans this morning, may have been shooting a bit comfortably numb, works done, I'm at the farm for the weekend, let er rip!

Sounds very nice rifles shooting well, some beers Sounds like life is good.

If you have the opportunity and inclination pictures of the “new” Winchester would be appreciated

Thanks GRF

Thanks GRF, a fine weekend it will be indeed, I'll have to have Wifey send a pic to DirtFarmer, maybe he will post it, I'm really liking this 22" barreled 338, a real tight cover pit fighter if you will, stainless/synthetic and only 8.5 lbs all up says you can carry and hunt it anywhere.

Ran the numbers on the 250 gr A-Frames at 2746 fps, +3 at 100 will get a 240 yard zero and only be 5" down at 300, 20 down at 400 and still packing 1950 fps, plenty of punch for easy 400 yard hunting of all conus game, deer to moose.

Sounds like a good pair gunner

Thanks Buddy, I'm kinda stuck with the 250 SAF's for awhile, I must have 7 or 8 hundred of the things left, glad they flew well in this new rifle, have thought about the 250 NPT's and 225 gr TTSX's as well, the Swift may not give up much to either as far as hunting, just a bit of trajectory and drift.

Hard to go wrong with a swift a frame buddy.

Rah-Jah that, I don't have any heavier game experience with them, just blowing through deer and medium sized pigs like they're made of newspaper. have seen chit fly up behind them so hard and fast I thought I missed ; ]

Well not all of us are built like an armored tank either.

Aiming fluid.

Everyone should have at least two, of perhaps the finest, all around factory cartridge produced today! Congrats. memtb

Shot a .338 some years back. Pussy cat it was. Shilen with one of those new fangled syn stocks. Very accurate as cannons go.

The wife loves hers.....maybe, not so much, from the bench! memtb

I agree buddy.

I love mine too, I just don't get too carried away with shooting it either... I'll shoot a 5 shot group once a year, right before elk season and then put her away until elk season, then repeat again next year.



Going to be pulling her out of the safe here pretty soon

I ‘would’ agree FOR those who need a 338 WM. Surely WT aren’t that hard to kill. Point being unless you hunt game ‘bigger’ than WT......


Jerry

Alright Jerry, it's damn good for wooly mammoth. Now if they would just hurry with that clone, dammit... What more could you ask for?

Those sound like nice rifles gunner, but they're practically BB guns compared to your 338-378 Wby.



If you're getting 2,750 fps out of those 250 gr bullets, I assume you could get about 3,000 fps out of a 225 gr Accubond. You would be increasing both your velocity and your B.C. with a bullet tough and effective enough for anything on the continent. Not necessary, but seems like an ideal bullet for that gun.

jwall You’re very correct.....certainly “not” needed, if Whitetail and hogs are the biggest game on the docket! But, if you hunt a variety of large game, sometimes at extended ranges, AND want one rifle/caliber to do it all (I know....blasphemous).....the .338 WM, is pretty hard to beat! memtb