Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Rebore 308 win to 338 federal

I’ve been lurking around the campfire for awhile now, and have seen some older threads around this and similar topics. I understand that it CAN be cheaper to buy a new barrel, but can someone give me some realistic numbers to the cost to rebore a 308 Win to a 338 Fed?

In advance: this is a Bergara b-14 with plenty of barrel to work with (or it should be). Their barrels are more along the lines of semi-varmint than a spotter contour. I’ve been looking at this caliber for awhile, it’s interesting, suits my hunting style, a bit different, and i just want to try it.

Thanks in advance and apologies for a potentially drawn out and redundant topic.

Basically $250. Give them a call and they'll talk you through the options. They do good work. Note that existing markings on the barrel will likely be out of alignment afterwards.

http://www.35caliber.com/index.html

Thanks much!

I had JES rebore a Kimber Montana 243 to 338 Federal. Cost $250 and a two week turnaround. Plenty of barrel and rifle shoots great. I don't think you would be disappointed. Good luck

Thank you for the reply and encouraging review. What are you hunting?

I’ve had JES do a few of mine. Nothing but excellent work on his part. They do require a bit to smooth them out but JB Bore Paste and some shooting gets them smoother pretty quick. Then some DBC in the bore and they are slick.

Should be a cool conversion and you'll get to see zero difference in how shiet dies, do it's a double win.

I have had JES do 3 different rebores for me including the 308 to 338 federal. They all shoot bug holes with their given loads.
Jesse is easy to work with and so far everyone has been about a two weeks turnaround, shipping out to back at my door.
I think you will be quite happy.
Les

Thank you all for the solid feedback and encouragement! As i have twin 308s, this will be a cool second rifle in a different chambering.

Well, nearly a year after I asked this question, the project is complete. Started out as a Bergara B14 hunter in 308. Just got it back from JES the other day. Very excited to get it to the range and then on a late season cow hunt.

Please post a range and hunting report

you will like that 338

What was the turn around time?

I have a Ruger Hawkeye in 338 FED that I'm really happy with. Easy to shoot, easy to reload for, easy to kill game with the 210 grain Partition.

Congrats on getting it done.
I used mine ten days ago to take a nice Missouri whitetail. One shot and down. Great round!

^^ Nice buck!!

Bullet, powder?

Wow! Hammer of a buck! Congrats!

Finished product
-Bergara B-14
-JES Rebore to 338 Fed
-Iota Krux stock
-VX3i 3.5-10 (little more than I'd like, may switch to something lower like a 1-6x24)
-Cerakoted in a burnt bronze/tungsten mixture by Phoenix Weaponry in CO

Turnaround time from Jesse was just about 3 weeks from when I shipped it to when it arrived at my door. I fouled up and had this rifle cerakoted back when it was a 308. Bergara's standard bluing is garbage and rusted after one day in the field, even after drying and wipedown with rem oil wipes. Jesse did note that the machining process may mark up the cerkote job, which it did. Nothing I am upset about or that couldn't be re-coated in the future if it becomes a problem. Just a reminder (although obvious to many), that the order of operations for work like this does in fact matter. Haha, oh well.

Will get to range in coming days and post reports. All Federal Factory ammo for right now: 200gr soft point, 200gr TBT, 200gr Trophy Copper.

Will post hunting results if there are results!

awesome buck tanker

Drew Goodlin, Nosler Reloading Manual 6th edition, 2007:

"My favorite rifle has always been the Winchester Model 88 (a lever action discontinued some years back.). I have had several over the years chambered for various cartridges. When I began moose hunting in 1960, I looked for one in .358 Winchester, but they were rare and expensive, and besides, my .308 seemed to work just fine, as long as I used Nosler Partition bullets. Every time I did my job, it killed the moose, or elk, or deer in front of me.

But in 1971 a grizzly showed up in the midst of our packing-out my son's moose in Alaska. We never saw the bear, but it was there, and cover was thick, and I suddenly felt under gunned. When we got back home, I decided to fix that. I briefly considered finding a model 88 in .358 winchester, but ruled it out because Nosler didn't make a .35-caliber Partition bullet in those days. While they did make .33-caliber partitions, there didn't exist .33-caliber cartridges for the short action 88.

Thus was born the idea for what is now called the .338 Federal (back then it was called the .33-308 by normal people; I called it the .338 *****cat.) With encouragement from P.O. Ackely, I had my gunsmith, Larry Bloomer, re-barrel my .308, and I began load development (the story can be found in the May-June 1974 issue of Rifle Magazine.) I am now 82 years old and no longer hunt, but I can still remember my hunting experiences with this rifle and cartridge. And one thing that I remember is that I never found a .33-caliber Partition bullet in a dead animal. I have killed around 25 elk and moose combined with my favorite load of H4895 pushing the Nosler 210-grain Partition bullet. In every case, the animal died with a bullet hole on each side. I have not had to use this cartridge on an upset grizzly, and I'm happy about that, but I've always felt better having it with me when in their backyard. The .338 Federal doesn't have enough power to kill the animal and field dress it with one shot, but it does extraordinarily well on game and is easy to shoot. That's a good combination."

Look forward to hearing how it shoots. I’ve found the 200 TBT does well enough in multiple different rifle. Great bullet too.

Mainer in Ak. Makes me want to go load some 210 Partitions! The time I hunted elk with them the elk did not cooperate. Well, they did, I just passed up easy shots on a few 5x5s and a decent 6x6 knowing there was a bigger one around. I regretted that.

There’s a good article by Ken Waters, A wildcat of merit .338-08, in Handloader 177.