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.

Don’t neglect to try the following bullets to n the .338 Federal. All have shot very well for me and performed superbly on game:

160 TTSX
180 AB
200 SST

If you can't do it with a 180gr 308, I'm sure a 180g 338 is really gonna knock the snot out of it

Now there you go, ruinin' everybody's fun!
But your point is well taken, despite the fact that the 180 will go a bit faster in the .338. And of course it'll slow down a little faster too. And make a little bigger hole, but maybe penetrate a little less. Oh heck, who cares. Let's all just get our Looney on and have fun!

Rex

For those who commented on my buck, thank you. For those who asked about the load, it was a factory federal fusion 200 grain.

I tested several loads last year in preparation for an elk hunt. It shot several loads very well. But then I concentrated on another JES rebore in 338-06 and kinda dropped the ball on getting this rifle fully ready and loads loaded. I did however remember it shot this factory load very well and I had purchased 6 or 7 boxes of it. ...So, that’s what I took hunting.

I recovered the bullet under the skin on the off side after traversing the heart and lungs on a slight quartering away shot. He staggered maybe 10 or 12 yards and was down.
Les

Okay, range day...
I'll just start out saying that I do NOT reload, yet. I plan to and I really like the 165gr Accubonds in my 308 and look forward to the 338 versions, whatever weight they may be. Just as I don't reload at the moment, I am also at the mercy of my local public range. I didn't think to ask for the targets back and measure them for the most accurate of results, but I was able to take pics of the displays of the targets. Apologies for the grainy photos.

1) The rifle: the 338 Fed was a joy to shoot. Really not much of a difference from some of the 308 165gr loads I've shot. As this was a rebored barrel, I figured to go through a break-in session before I got to the ammunition selection process. This proved easy enough and the rifle quickly came into its own after about 20+ rounds and a few cleaning breaks.

2) Soft points 200gr Vital Shok: I had a grip of these so they were my "plinking" break-in rounds as well as a test round. I was not impressed... at first. After the break-in session I shot these again and had a remarkable 3 round group for me. 3 shots at just about 1MOA, before I got greedy and sent 2 fliers (pic below). Still very accurate. I was able to repeat groups with stacked shots twice more. This will continue to be my practice round and a deer round. I also wouldn't hesitate to take this in the field for elk, unless those of you here have strong reasoning or objection to this. I figure at 338 Fed velocities and 200gr, the cup-n-core bullet can't be a BAD choice. I know there are better choices and I have one, but a decent second choice.

3) Trophy Copper 200gr: Really wanted this bullet to work out. It didn't. 2.5" groups at 100yrds was one of the better groups. Rifle didn't seem to like it, this will not be my load.

4) Trophy Bonded Tip (TBT) 200gr: The group pictured is right at 1MOA. I shot 4 more confidence groups, identical results, 1 of them was sub-MOA. To be clear, I am not what I would call a MOA-shooter. Not with any regularity at least. This will be my primary load until I find the courage to get into reloading.

Overall, Bergara makes a great and accurate rifle, minus their appalling bluing job. The IOTA Krux stock stiffened this rifle up considerably and provided for more consistency. Reboring the rifle to 338 Fed from JES Rebore made this rifle more accurate than it ever was from the factory. Finally I have the rifle I wanted with a load (200gr TBT) that gives me confidence for mule deer and elk, so long as I do my part within my comfortable ranges.

In my opinion it worked out well to have the TBT shoot the best. Nothing in North America you can’t hunt with that round. I’ve chrono’d a decent number and they are close to what they advertise. FYI the 200 Trophy Copper was much slower than what the box said when I tried those. Look forward to hearing how it all works on an elk!

I have not used the TBT, but it’s predecessor the Trophy Bonded Bear Claw killed like the hammer of Thor. Happy Trails

That 200 TBT shooting well might give me pause on trying to load my own. It’s a really great hunting bullet!

Sadly, the late season elk hunt didn't pan out. Got my hopes up too high. When it connects on meat in '21, I'll post results.

I have a Rem 722 rebored by JES. It's a fantastic shooter but keep the copper solvent handy. It's the only rifle that I shoot factory ammo in, and it prefers the cheap Federal Fusion 200gr. Just not able to match the combined velocity and accuracy of that stuff. The most promising handload I've found uses the 200gr Woodleigh and 8208XBR. I also tried the Nosler 200AB and Barnes 210gr but they are long for weight and eat into the powder space quite a bit. Next up is the 185TTSX, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Yes...

160 gr. TTSX is a monster on meat within all reasonable range for that cartridge (300 yards)

8208 XBR is good with the 185 TTSX. AA2230 for max velocity. TAC is very good too. FYI, the 160 TTSX is just the 185 without the boat tail. For what ever reason that 160 has always been the easiest to get to shoot very, very well. AA2230 will get you well over 3k FPS. I’m currently using H322 which shoots the same in very cold temps (2940s).

I’m having a 99 rebarreled to 338 Federal. I’m hoping the 160 TTSX will shoot well it. It should be hell on the Whitetail and pigs where I hunt. An occasional Aoudad comes out once in a while too.

Would a Winchester 670 243 make a good 338 Fed rebore?

I couldn’t bring myself to rebore a Rem 700 243 with young hunters in the family.

It was just a “fun” project before with no hunting need. Now I’m not even sure ammo could be located or the components very easily obtained mainly powder and primers .

I don’t know how a rebore will work since I never had one. Seems like most people here think they are great. I can tell you that the .338 Federal is one great round. It hits hard and is very accurate. Mine is in (what used to be cheap) a Savage that I bought on sale. It became my go to rifle. Your .308 is no slouch though unless it’s shot out.

Rebores work very well!
I trust the process enough that I sent a brand new model 70 to Jesse for reboring to 338 federal. I ordered a nice swirly from McMillan and later added a wrap around front sight with a detachable peep.
It shoots like this.





And kills like this.

One other thing worth mentioning.
Those groups were shot at 100 yards with a Weaver Fixed 4.75 power scope!
Les

Not sure there is any real separation in the field from a 308 Win and 338 Fed. In general most .33 spitzer bullets are built for magnum velocities and expansion. Typical jackets are thicker for the .33s than a .30 so range and impact velocities make a difference regarding expansion at 338 Fed speeds and distances. With a 308 Win in hand already better separation in use/performance would be a 358 Win or a 375 Raptor IMO. Best of luck on whatever you decide.

That’s a heckuva GREAT buck! Congrats and cool 338 Federal.

Yeah sorry, I realized I already posted pictures on this thread before.
Oh well, he is a nice buck. I just picked up his European mount Thursday.

That’s okay. Doesn’t hurt my feelings to see bucks like that!

Great buck!

Do you have more pics of the rifle? A Model Featherweight 70 with some open sights would be really cool.

Last, which Hornady 200?

Hello prm, I have read a lot of your posts on the federal and you seem to have more experience with it than most. I appreciate all the research and information you have provided.
Anyway, you are right on the featherweight but this was “built “ on one of the Portugal built ultimate shadows. I need to take some more pictures of it for posterity. I will try to get that done and post some.
The bullet was the 200 Interlock. I still have a few but wish I had many more.
The buck was actually shot with the 200 Federal Fusion factory load. It shoots very well in this rifle.
Les

Here are a few more pictures.









I like the way it turned out.
Les

Great looking rifle! Clearly performs too. Thanks for sharing pics.

I’ve not shot those 200 Hornadys, but I’ve never heard a bad word about them. Too bad they were discontinued. I guess the Speer Hot Core is similar.

Finally some results. 1st rifle in CO, and the 338 fed did the job. To get ahead of the questions: 200gr Fed Powershok, Speer unicor cup/core bullet. 274yrds, complete pass through, minimal meat damage for a high lung shot. She ran 60yrds and that’s it. Couldn’t be happier. 338Fed was a great project and has become my go-to elk gun.

Great to see your follow up report.
Congratulations on a nice elk! Glad it all worked out for you. Wishing you continued success with your 338 Federal.

Congrats!
I'll build a. 338 Fed one of these days.

Nice shot!

Cool rifle too. Dang nice work!

Thanks all. I wanted this rifle to “like” more premium bullets, but I’ll feed it what it shoots best. As other state ad nauseam: shot placement is the key. Confidence in the equipment and your abilities is crucial. I don’t think I’ll ever feel “under gunned” for what and how I hunt

Thank you! Style points go to the creative and technical minds at Iota for the Krux stock. It’s stiff, well balanced, and fairly light weight.

The 308 and 180's would have done the same. Way I see it..mb

But he didn’t want to use a 308 and 180s. Quit raining on his parade.

Appreciate the support! I’m happy and dry! The beauty of this hunting community is that we can all share our hunting experience and learn from one another. Good luck to all this hunting season.

Great looking rifle!

Thanks Nubs

The 338 Fed is a good all around big game cartridge. If there’s a drawback it’s .33 cal bullets on this slower platform. If handloading or purchasing ammo some attention should be given to bullet design and jacket thickness. Most .33 bullets are designed with thicker jackets for magnum velocity integrity. Most .33 on the market are magnums thereby seeing 200 gr and 210 grain velocities at or above 3,050 fps or roughly 450 fps-600 fps faster than a 338 Fed with 200-210 grain loads. The TTSX would work well on large game, don’t over look the SST on deer and similar size game it opens, expands and destroys soft tissue and lungs yielding a great deal of trauma and shock. It’s the only bullet I use on whitetails in 308 Win with 165 gr. Matching cartridge to bullet to game is job one in the field. Good luck on your next hunt.

Congrats on getting your rifle "bloody" Nubs! Life is too short not to try out different calibers, rifles, bullets on game. I have used the Magnum 338s on game, but did have a little ruger 77/338 Fed for awhile ( I had an artificial joint put in my right wrist, so heavy recoil hurt a bit! ha But I'm gristled up now!) I even had a brake put on it. I shot it alot, but my Marine SIL used it on mule deer with the 180AB. another friend uses his Tikka 338 Fed/185 TSX on elk, all with good results. I found that TAC gave me a bit over 3000fps with the Barnes 160 TTSX, thats 7mm Mag territory! I am a tad OCD, so I ended up selling it and later on bought another Ruger 22" in 338 RCM as I feel its like a 338/06 and I just wanted a tad more oomph....which the difference is mostly "in my fevered Loony Mind, OK?.. ha Have a Ball Pard!