Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles A look at the 338 Federal 3 years later.

truth, I don't know who will chamber it moving forward, but it is too simple with a 308 shell necked up to go away.

Need to save my pennies..

It (338 Federal) started out with 4 factory offerings. That's more than the 260 Rem, the 358 Win, the 257 Rem Robts, the 250 Sav, the 338 WinMag, and a bunch of others had in the beginning. And the first two mentioned didn't even enjoy four factory loadings in their whole life.
Federal has since added a fifth load. They obviously see enough sales potential to keep working with it.

There are actually 7 loads now including the Fusion load:

180 Accubond (Federal Premium)
185 Soft point (American Eagle Brand)
185 TSX (Federal Premium)
200 Soft point (Federal Premium)
200 Fusion (Fusion)
200 Trophy Bonded Tip (Federal Premium)
210 Partition (Federal Premium)

Bigsqueeze:Steyr is also making 338Fed, DPMS and Armalite chamber one olso on "AR10" size action. The reports on the semi auto versions are quite good in the US.
Dom

Heck, what Marseille says just helps everything out. The ctg will be around for awhile. All the ctgs I mentioned are still around in some form or another, some are huge and all are cool in their own. Everyone should have a good 338 Fed, don't ya think?

....Didn`t know that. The more rifle makers,,,,,,,the better!!!

,,,,,,,,,,Yeah I know! For some, doing some research,,,,"FIRST",,and,,"BEFORE" expressing some knee jerk opinions,,,,is a little too much to ask!

It kinda makes common sense that IF a cartridge weren`t popular, OR there were trends indicating such, the rifle makers wouldn`t be chambering it. Un-popular chamberings, leads to very few rifle sales!!!! Not a good way to run a rifle making business!

Including the 308, anything based on the 308 casing; 243, 260, 7mm/08, 338 Fed, 358 Win,,,ISN`T going anywhere!!!

I had my chrony at the range last month and a fellow was shooting his .338 Fed and handloaded 180 TSX bullets. I let him setup and fire several rounds through my chrony. I was a bit surprized to find out it only registered an average 5 shot group at 2485fps.

I would have though that it would have done at least 2650fps but not so! I'll stick with my .338/06 and 210 grain Nosler Partitions. I get 2680fps using IMR-4320 powder!
If I shoot 180 Accubonds in the rifle, it's velocity jumps up to 2950fps, which I believe is a whole lot better than any .338 Fed loading is going to be able to match.

The guy was loadind very gently. Look at John Barnsness article in Rifle some time ago, here in France with 225 Speer BTSP, 41,7grs of SP9 (close to TAC same manufacturer)i get 2365fps from my Tikka T3 22 in barrel, primer is CCI250, OA cartridge lengh is 2,82in.With a french powder close to IMR4895, slightly compressed we come to 2410fps with good accuracy and regularity (CCI200). With VN540 and 250grs Sako Hammerhead (CCI200) i got 2310fps good for close range big game. Cases are Federal.
All speeds mesured from a Gamma master � around 18�c temp and at 200feet above sea level.

To put it another way, the number of animals that I would be leery of using a .338Fed on from 300yards and under are few in number.
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Soooo... Pretty much the 338 Federal is the sexiest thing goin right now in recent cartridge developement.

I would agree with that statement. It's very sexy to buck the trend of super magnums and super short magnums and get something that just seems to work. 338 bullets are sexy and so is the 308. This makes one sexy offspring.

Tonk, You're leaving alot on the table if your 338-06 is only doing 2650 with 210s and 2950 with 180s. Better whump 'em up some.
Factory Fusion 200s have gone as high 2705 from my 338Fed Tikka.
Handload 185 TSXs are at 2870 in my Kimber.
Even the factory 180AB loads were good for 2740.
When I had a 338-06 with 23" bbl my 210 loads were quite a bit above 2700.
Just thinking you should still be able to do alot better than you are. You are at 338 Fed levels at the moment, but you are correct in saying the 338-06 SHOULD do better than the 338 Fed

This rifle is now used by my wife and we detuned it down a 125 fps, less recoil as well. This rifle in question shoots less than 1-MOA from the bench for her and it suits her just fine.

Now Nosler's #6 reloading manual states, that the 338/06 does a top velocity of 2690fps out of a 24 inch Lilja barrel. This is by the way a MAX LOAD!

I suppose it is possible for someone to have a slightly faster barrel or chrony that registers a few points difference than Nosler's. However, you not going to be getting much over 2700fps and that's a fact.

Why this cartridge isn't more popular here in northern New England is a bit of a mystery. It should be a natural.Jack O'Connor once wrote that he thought the ideal eastern deer rifle would be a .33 caliber based on the 7x57 case. The .338 Federal is about as close as you can get and you can get it in a variety of short action rifles. Part of the problem perhaps is that the .30 calibers just plain work here and traditions die hard. I doubt that I have seen more than one or two .338 Federals on the racks in the gunshops here. I'd be willing to bet that those rifles are still there gathering dust and perhaps a few fingerprints.

The .35-Whelen started the ball rolling years ago, as it gave many hunters the big bullet they needed for such game as bears and moose etc. All this without the price of what it cost to own a model 70 Winchester in the .375H&H caliber.

Then the wildcat known as the .338/06 came along, after Elmer Keiths .333 caliber appeared. The .338/06 is the most logical and gives the hunter all he or she needs in despatching the largest of big game animals. Now days, it is a shoe in with reloaders, as there are so many good bullet weights to choose from as well as premium bullets to get the job done on bigger animals. It is pretty quick too, when you stoke it up with those 180 or 200 grain bullets! 2900 feet per second out of a 24 inch barrel, is not hard to achieve at all. It will do anything the .338 Win mag will do under 250 yards!

So is it 2450FPS with the 180 or 2700FPS in the Fed?

The 185 TSX runs 2600 fps out of mine, from an 18.5" barrel. All I can tell you... .

Dennis

muledeer, suspect you may want to weigh in on the "Kimber Montana in 338 Federal anyone have any luck getting it to shoot?" thread. Go visit...

From my Tikka T3 22inch get around 2700fps or 820m/s with french spherical powder, close (near the same) as TAC, not far from John Barnsness test in rifle...good all around load for me on all euro game, but prefe Partition or Speer bullets.