Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338/06 Rebore

He will do a 270.

It’s not really a question of rechambering, it’s more of a question of barrel contour. You should have a finished contour of around .620” to get a .338 bore. May be able to use a .600” finished contour, but I doubt much less. You could cut the barrel back a bit to get to a finished .620” contour if you have a smaller finished contour than required to rebore. Got to have some meat on the bone when it’s all said and done. Like others have said, for all the work involved you could just get a 338 Win Mag and load 225 gr down at 2,700 fps and 250 gr down at 2,600 fps and still satisfactorily outperform a 338-06. I’d never dump a nice 270 Win for a 338-06, when 338 Win Mag are for sale all the time at reasonable prices. Folks buy them and can’t shoot ‘em. I call it the 300 Wby syndrome. Factory load use. However you can load the 338 Win Mag down to moderate recoil levels if you so desire. Just a thought.

While I agree with Rossimp's suggestions for barrel diameter in his post above, JES will rebore as long as the resultant barrel has at least .100" wall thickness. IOW, to become a .338 the barrel has to be at least .538 in diameter. Even featherweight contours are about .550 so most any rifle with a 30-06 based (or smaller) chamber can become a 338-06 at JES.
But I do like the .620"-ish size myself.
Rex

Will JES rebore stainless barrels?

All day long.

mine was a Model 70 in 270, and I had it rebored and never fired it as a 270.

Bought the rifle at Walmart in Butte Montana, after deer season... its the control round feed version, so that will give you and idea when that was, or how long I've had it..

already had a couple of 270s.... Great shape, no lousy looking stock or anything else...

$250.00 out the door.... Sold the stock for $125.00 and put a synthetic stock someone gave me...

sorry to ruin " a nice rifle" but consider the cost, etc.. It works just fine for me...

my 338/06 will shoot a 200 grain Speer/ Hornady/ Nosler out the barrel at 2950 to 3000 fps thru a 24 inch barrel.

think ahead.... tell her you traded off 3 of your other rifles for it...

works just fine , unless she knows how many you have now....

then ALL bets are off...

Someone PM'd me about this thread asking what I thought....well I guess I'm late to the party haha

I had JES rebore my 338-06 and cut the barrel back to 21" about 8 years ago I believe. I've used it to kill a couple caribou, moose, and grizzly bears. Since then I had it cut back to 16" and threaded it so I can shoot it suppressed in my backyard. Its a short handy lightweight setup that packs a punch. 210 Swift Sciroccos at 2700 fps or 230 ELDX at 2600 fps both pack a punch even from the shorty 16" barrel.

Certainly my go to rifle the last several years.

At 7.25 pounds with a 20 oz SWFA scope and a 16 oz suppressor on it, its quite civil to shoot, joy to carry, and settles nicely enough for me on target.

Awesome 338 Alaska.. that’s a very cool set up.

Someone mentioned Steve Timm and an article he wrote in Handloader #109.

I couldn't find the article online, but Steve did post his opinion on that cartridge in a thread I found on the 'fire created somewhere around 15 years ago.

I thought I'd add it to today's discussion:


DOGZAPPER:

I'm really enjoying the thrashing of the .338-'06. It's fun sitting on the sidelines, having killed well over 100 head of big game with the cartridge. Just sittin' here eating popcorn, watching the show.

Trust me, it is a GREAT cartridge.

I believe that logic would lead the elk hunter to a cartridge in which he has confidence. I've killed more than a few elk with both the .30-'06 and the .338-'06; they both work and work exceedingly well. My personal feeling, over many elk, is that the .338-'06 has the edge. Your mileage may vary, depending on the number of elk slain with both and prejudice if you have not killed lots of elk.

To some degree, it depends on the individual rifle, as well. Some rifles just have the "magic." They fit perfectly and seemingly kill way out of their league. I have a 7SGLC that shoots 120 Ballistics at 3,250 fps that handles like a fine English shotgun and is my lucky elk rifle. Bulls get up and the SGLC lays them right down....pronto.

So, is the 7SGLC a great elk rifle???? I can state that in my hands that my individual rifle sure as heck is.

Beyond all of this, the hunter himself is by far the most important element. We used to have rich-dudes show up in elk camp who never shot from year to year; guess what, they failed to kill and one of us grunts ended up running down their bulls and killing them. I cannot stress enough that the hunter should train year around, he should get lots of trigger time, he should practice in field positions (archery targets are great) and he should know the animal and scout, scout, scout.

The hunter is WAY more important than the cartridge or rifle.

Guns don't kill critters, I KILL CRITTERS!!!!!

Steve Timm

338-06 ballistics are so darn versatile for alaskan hunters.

Was cutting canoe trail up some sweeper and log jam-choked creek coupla weeks ago.

Set up my cot on shore to rest. There was something bizarre under my cot that i didnt initially notice:

An entire moose skull partially digested in some grizzly sht. The pieces were 3-4 inches in size. Eye ball sockets, jaw bones, skull plate. He mustve been getting old, to not be able to fully digest heavy bone.

Felt real nice, having a lil open sighted 338 rcm stoked with 275 grain a-frames. A mini express rifle, as light and handy as 30-30 model 94.........

Do you know what speed you get with 275's in the 20 inch barrel? I get 2720 with the 225's and 2530 with the 250's with RL17.

Riflehunter,

About 2300 fps with 55 grains of rl 16. Very mild load, mild recoil and fast follow-up shots.