The .338 Win. Mag.: There’s L...

When speaking about massive cartridges for looking massive North American sport, the .338 Winchester Magnum is a pure inclusion. It was launched in 1958 and, on the time, occupied a particular area of interest. The .338 pre-dates the .300 Win. Magazine. and 7mm Rem. Magazine., and was designed as an alternative choice to the long-cased .375 H&H. It promised to fill the function that the .375 did so properly, and has been well-liked ever since. Contemplating the alternatives we now have as we speak, nevertheless, there’s little purpose for a logic-driven hunter to decide on the .338 Winchester Magnum. It lacks the flexibility of the .30-caliber cartridges, and nonetheless beats the hell out of you with out providing you with true .375 efficiency.

.338 Win. Magazine. Specs

• Father or mother Case: .375 H&H
• Shoulder: 25 levels
• Case Capability: about 86 grains of H2O
• SAAMI Cartridge Total Size: 3.340 inches
• Bullet Weights: 200 to 300 grains (200 to 250 grains is commonest as we speak)

Why the .338 Win. Magazine. Was A Winner

When it hit cabinets in 1958, the .338 Winchester Magnum was distinctive. It was America’s model of a cartridge to hunt the large critters of the world, a lot because the .375 H&H had been since 1912. It was initially provided in 200-, 250-, and 300-grain hundreds — mirroring the 235-, 270-, and 300-grain a great deal of the .375. In actual fact, the .338 was made by shortening, and necking down, that belted .375 H&H case. It provided a extra trendy 25-degree shoulder and fewer case taper.

Extra importantly, this cartridge would match into a normal long-action receiver. Each of the favored magnums of the time, the .375 and .300 H&H Magnums, required an extended magnum-length motion that added to the price and diminished availability. This downside eased when Winchester adopted a magnum motion within the Mannequin 70 and Remington provided H&H chamberings within the 721. However even as we speak, the long-action magnums are extra broadly accessible and inexpensive than chamberings requiring a magnum-length motion.

The .338 Win. Magazine. compares fairly properly to the .375 H&H, with each 250-grain .338 and 270-grain .375 bullets attaining about 2,650 fps from a 24-inch barrel. In frequent 26-inch barrels of the time, speeds have been even higher. It’s a strong performer on any North American massive sport, and impressed sufficient confidence that it stays a well-liked possibility amongst hunters and guides for brown bear, grizzlies, moose, and elk. It tackled lots of jobs in addition to the .375, in a extra compact motion that was cheaper. In 1958, it made sense.

Why the .338 Win. Magazine. Sucks

For a few years, the .338 Winchester Magnum has lingered as a sub-optimal cartridge. I’ve used one usually, a Ruger Guide Gun I acquired in a commerce, and it’s all the time labored properly. For some individuals, that’s inspiring sufficient. But I’ve all the time felt that the .338 is a cartridge that’s caught within the center. It falls wanting the efficiency of the .375 Ruger — which additionally suits in a normal lengthy motion — and it’s stubbornly rigid in comparison with the .30/06. Even the .300 Winchester Magnum, which adopted the .338, is comparable on harmful sport whereas offering extra flexibility and flexibility. Contemplating a number of of the opposite trendy cartridges with related capabilities, we should conclude that the .338 has run its course.

Now this doesn’t imply that the cartridge doesn’t work — it continues to do many issues properly, for lots of issues. You may interpret my lack of enthusiasm as me declaring it’s simply no good; many readers usually draw this conclusion. This isn’t all of the case.

In case you just like the .338 and also you’re invested within the ammo and {hardware}, hold utilizing it. For the remainder of us, if we don’t have already got one, there’s merely no logical or compelling purpose to decide on the .338 Win. Magazine. for any process. The first purpose mine has gotten a lot use is that it’s bought a brief 20-inch threaded muzzle. I frequently pack it in my boat for creeping into lively bait websites and kicking the comb for bears which have been shot. After deafening myself whereas placing the cease to a grizzly bear that was hoofing it my means from 15 yards within the timber and rose brush, I put a suppressor on it. Now, recognizing that the .30/06 will fill that function nearly as properly, I’m retiring the outdated woman.

In case you’re not satisfied, it might be useful to look at the .338’s capabilities in comparison with different decisions we didn’t have again in 1958. We should ask ourselves: What job do we wish the .338 Win. Magazine. to do? And the way properly does it do this job in comparison with the competitors?

The .338 as a Harmful-Recreation Stopper?

One of many traditional roles of the .338 Win. Magazine. is a stopper of huge or harmful North American sport. Ask the typical American hunter what rifle they’d select in the event that they have been dropped into an alder thicket on Kodiak Island, and the .338 will probably be a standard reply. It could serve that objective. However if you’d like a giant gun that can knock out your fillings, there’s no purpose to decide on the .338 Win. Magazine. over a .375 Ruger or, for the actual daredevils, the .416 Ruger.

The .338 Win. Magazine. most intently imitates the efficiency of the .375 H&H when loaded with a 250-grain bullet which is able to usually be about 2,650 fps from a 24-inch barrel. Manufacturing unit hundreds as we speak vary between 200 and 250 grains, with the original-style 300-grain load now extraordinarily uncommon. Most .338-caliber bullets within the 275- to 300-grain vary as we speak are usually not ultimate for the Win. Magazine., however meant for extra trendy cartridges just like the .338 Lapua and .338 Norma. A baked-in downside with the .338 Win. Magazine. is that the chamber design and head peak don’t permit for these lengthy bullets. One might actually pay for a customized reamer to headspace off the shoulder, tighten and lengthen the freebore to permit for these bullets. However then you definitely’re transferring as much as a magnum-length motion and that’s lots of bother to nonetheless are available in behind different customary trendy cartridges.

My chief grievance in regards to the .338 Win. Magazine. as a possible rifle for this function is that, whereas it kicks practically as laborious as a .375, it simply doesn’t provide what the .375 Ruger does when it comes to efficiency. Evaluate these recoil figures, calculated for an 8.25-pound rifle with a 20-inch barrel. In a information gun, the .338 has about 40 p.c extra recoil than the .30/06, and solely 27 p.c lower than a .375 Ruger. In follow, this checks out. Each the .338 and .375 are punishing to shoot from a bench, with the .375 kicking more durable, however not loads.

Total, I haven’t discovered the terminal efficiency of the .338 to be dramatically higher than the .30/06 — and it’s actually not as versatile. In actual fact, when utilizing rigidly-constructed bullets, I’ve been a bit upset in wound channels on black bears from my .338. For the black and grizzly bears I’m coping with in inside Alaska, my Information Gun in .30/06 will work simply as properly, and is considerably extra nice to shoot. It’s loaded with 175-grain Lehigh Protection Managed Chaos bullets that are fracturing copper hole factors. I can let you know from expertise, these will shoot by a moose and depart an enormous wound channel when fired from a .308. If I really feel the necessity for extra, I’ll step as much as the .375 Ruger.

The .338 Win. Magazine. As A Searching Cartridge

The place the .338 actually begins to fall behind its contemporaries is at barely longer distances. It’s completely appropriate for lots of looking functions, however hardly ever preferable. As a result of the ammunition choice is restricted to lighter-for-caliber bullets today — with 220- to 230-grain being commonest — affect velocity drops under 2,000 fps earlier than the heavy recoil would make you assume. In case you’re pairing the rifle with heartily-constructed bullets, that may spell disappointment. Traditional confirmed bullets just like the Swift A-Body, Nosler Accubond, and copper bullets just like the CX and TSX received’t develop a lot or create a dramatic wound cavity a lot under that threshold. Most of those have a printed minimal growth velocity of 1,800 or 1,900 fps, however you’re skating on skinny ice at that time.

Learn Subsequent: Townsend Whelen’s Top Big-Game Cartridges

With some of the ballistically environment friendly .338 Win. Magazine. Bullets accessible, the 230-grain Hornady ELD-X, the bullet drops under 2,000 fps at roughly 530 yards when fired from a 24-inch barrel at 2,750 fps at. For a 225-grain TTSX, that’s nearer to 425 yards. Evaluate that to the 212-grain ELD-X fired from the .300 PRC at 2,900 fps from an equal barrel. It doesn’t drop under 2,000 fps till about 680 yards — with about 10 p.c much less recoil. A 7mm Rem. Magazine. or 7mm PRC firing the 175-grain ELD-X at 2,900 will keep above 2,000 fps for roughly 710 yards. The takeaway is that whereas the .338 delivers a bit extra up entrance, there are lots of higher choices for doubtlessly longer photographs. In case you should use the heaviest sensible .338 bullets, choose a .338 Norma or Lapua and a minimum of receives a commission to your mind harm. 

In case you’re solely looking up shut, higher cartridges are solely restricted by your creativeness. The lowly outdated .30/06 will kill something a .338 will kill inside 300 yards. So will a 6.5 Creedmoor for that matter. If you would like the nice and cozy and fuzzies from taking pictures heavier bullets, a 35 Whelen or 9.3 x 62 would ship passable outcomes with much less recoil than the .338 Win. Magazine. 

Closing Ideas

Whereas the .338 Win. Magazine. introduced some actual benefits to the market when launched, time and expertise have caught up. From a 24- or 26-inch barrel, an excellent 250-grain load remains to be on the heels of the .375 H&H, but it surely’s diminished in shorter barrels which have gotten the usual, and the beltless .375 Ruger delivers full H&H efficiency from a 20-inch barrel. The .338 is lauded for spectacular killing energy, however extra environment friendly cartridges and bullets ship higher affect velocities at longer distances, with much less recoil. 

Although within the fading twilight of its profession, rifles and ammo for the .338 Win. Magazine. aren’t more likely to disappear quickly, and there’s not a compelling purpose to do away with yours in the event you prefer it. However in the event you’ve bought a recently-contracted case of magnum fever, there are higher decisions than the .338.

 

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