I was wondering if my 30-338 win was good for hunting. I just picked it up this week and I don’t know a lot about it could someone tell me about this cartridge ???

Noting the small dimensional differences, you're asking "Is my 300 Winchester Magnum or 308 Norma Magnum good for hunting?" to which the answer is yes.

Your 30-338 is a wildcat, formed by necking a 338 Win Mag down to 30 cal. Or a 7mm Rem Mag up to 30 cal. It performs about like a 300 WSM, so just shy of 300 Win Mag speed. Good caliber.

The 30-338 and the .308 Morma are virtually the same round. So, you can often use the same load data. I used the 30-338 for several years and liked it a lot. All 30 caliber magnums are excellent long range performers with the right bullets. I no longer have a 30-338 mostly because I don't want to put up with the recoil not because it's not a fine cartridge.

Mine weighs like 10 pounds it is massive So I won’t have to worry about Recoil
very much

What kind of powder and how many grains of powder did you use also what kind of bullet did you use

When I had one, a Ruger action and a cut rifled 26 inch barrel I used 3100 (70 grains) and a 190 grain Hornandy BTSP.

Thanks for the information

My rifle liked H4350 and I use two bullets mostly, 180 NP and 180 gr. Sierra BT. I don't remember the load off hand, but I got a little over 3000fps with both bullets. I used it mostly for elk, I don't remember using it on deer but I did kill an antelope with it. WAY more gun than needed for a 100 pound animal. Never shot an animal over 400 yards with it, but it put a serious hurt on the elk I killed with it. With any wildcat there is a lot of load data out there that'll come close to being dangerous, so when reloading use caution.

I had a 30-338 built some years ago on a pre 64 M70 action by garrett acculite. Douglas 24" barrel with express sights. Many 5 shot groups at 300 yards under 2" with IMR 4831 and a 180 partition.. killed the hell out of Elk. Nosler data was used in one of their old reloading manuals... 3000+ fps with the 180. Used 150 gr. Bullets with 4895 for a popgun load for deer.

A1, this caliber was popular in the late 50’s and early 60’s when WW released the .338 , but before the .300 Win. Hit the market.. Several of my older pals shot this caliber.. By the time I was buying, the Win Mag. Was on the market.. Great caliber. I would sooner have too much than too little in a hunting rifle... Go shoot and enjoy..

I owned a 30-338, built on a PF M70 action with a 24" Douglas 1-12" twist barrel. It would top 3100 fps with the 180 Partition
using 75.5 grains of Norma MRP [very similar to Reloder 22] It shot lights out with that load, often under 1" at 200 yards.
With it I shot about a dozen elk, a couple right out past 450 yards. It was a light rifle, so recoil was definitely there, but it
was a very effective hunting round IMHO. I sold it several years ago, and built myself a custom 308 Norma Mag, which is
very similar in performance. Only 2 Elk and two moose with it so far, but all one shot kills. Eagleye.

Thank you everybody for this information!

I bought some 200 grain Sierra game king hollow points.
I was thinking IMR 4350 was about 66 to 67 grains thought that would be a really accurate load.What do y’all think about that load???

I remember now that mine got 2974 fps with the 190's.

I don't know of 200gr HP Gamekings. Sierra's 200 spitzer BT Gameking is an excellent elk bullet, IMO, and is designed for magnums.

IMR 4350 is a bit on the fast side, but it should work fine working up to 66 or 67 grains, or maybe a bit more. You can expect 2800+ out of the top end, with 2900 possible if you have enough barrel. Plenty for elk and other big animals. There are better bullets for deer, again IMO.

ChaseA1, BTW Nosler's #7 has reloading data for the Norma 308 in the appendix. Would be a good place to start.

Well my 30-338 was built on a post 64 action and has med heavy sporter barrel that is 28" long and velocity wise out preforms both my 300 Win Mags as well as my 308 Norma. The barrel is long but cheap velocity, it was also throated to seat a 180 gr BT at the base of the neck so as not to intrude in the powder capacity. OAL is around 3.56" and muzzle velocity at 3150 fps with IMR 4831 and IMR 4350 loads. It wears a MK4 LR leupold with 300 Mag 180 gr dial on it which doesn't match the actual flatness of the trajectory as good as it could. Something I need to fix with a new dial I suppose. Damned accurate. The older Sierra manuals had data on these. MB

There was a pretty good article in American Rifleman last year on the 30-338. I skimmed over it and forgot about it. This past summer I was asked to sell an estate for a lady whose husband was a competitive shooter as well as his dad. His dad used a 30-338 at Camp Perry back in the 70s and won several long-range Palma matches with it. He had 2 rifles chambered in the caliber. One was a custom-made Palma rifle on a 700 action the other was a hunting rifle on an FN 98 action that was built by Bill Wiseman in Texas. The Palma rife sold on Gunbroker for peanuts. I tried to sell the Wiseman on here as well as a few other sites. After it brought little to no attention. I decided to keep it for the fact I had several 100s of rounds of formed brass, a few hundred loaded rounds and everything I needed to load for the rifle for the next hundred years. The gun came with a set of NECG custom quick detach scope bases that retailed for nearly $500. After the fact, I wondered what I was thinking trying to sell it. The gun is so accurate it's scary. I've been shooting 196 gr bthp over 4350 and a 180 gr Speer BT over 4350. Both rounds at 100 yards are too close for me to want to move the zero. The only bad thing about shooting a rifle this accurate is when I missed a nice 10 pt at 125 yards this year, I had only one thing to blame the miss on.

It will kill anything in North America, except the big bears.

Who the fu ck told you that?

Not a true statement at all. With 180gr or 200gr partition I chase a big brown bear all day long with one.

When I had my 30-338 built, it started as a 300 winmag in a Ruger77. Their mag wells are to short for the 300WM imo.

My memory ain't what it used to be. I checked my rifle last nite when I got home it does not have a 28" barrel it's 30". The rifle is 50" total length yeah it's a big damn gun and probably wouldn't make a good brush gun.
30" .644" at the muzzle weighs in at 11 lbs. The guy who had it made wanted it for long range elk hunting. Originally set up to use the 180 gr NBT which is still a good bullet but with the recent developments of the 215 Bergers , Hornady ELD X heavies and Nosler Accubonds their maybe even better choices for LR. Gotta burn some more powder in this one this winter. One of the more consistent qualities it has is that every time someone else handles it they immediately start whining about how long the barrel is. That is how you separate shooters from whiners, the few that have shot it besides myself understand the utility of it's length after they shot it and quit whining about it. MB

Fu ck an A John. I may just have to buy that 308 Norma die set from you and we'll go show these guys what that sob will do to a big bear....

How many big bears have you seen shot to lead you to believe it won't work on big bears?

Not true. I’ve seen it fail to kill a pronghorn also, so no good on them either, and I talked to a guy from Tampa who took one for elk and it didn’t work- failed so badly that he was the only guy in camp to go home tag unpunched.

Sounds like:

1. Idiot shooters

2. Poor bullet choice

3. All of the above

For the record, I'm decidedly pro-idiot-shooting. There should be a season, with regs and tags.