Anybody have any experience with this round? I'm thinking about maybe an African plains game hunt in a few years, Sable, Kudu, Gemsbok (not any of the really dangerous stuff...).
How does the .338 Federal's recoil compare to the .300 Win Mag? I'm slightly recoil averse. I suppose for the game I'm thinking about, my .30-06 would suffice, if I was extremely careful about my shot selection. But, I'm looking for an excuse to get a new rifle, and the .338 Fed looks interesting for what I'm considering. This is still in the very early planning stages...
You would be better off going with the full length .338 Win Mag, first because of ammo selection, and second not many companies even make rifles chambered in .338 Federal, and the companies that do are selling the guns for a lot of money.
Yeah, the only one I know of so far is the Sako M85. Again, one of my concerns is a bit of aversion to recoil. I made the mistake of buying a .30-06 when I was too young and too small to really handle it and I still have a tendency to develop a flinch if I don't REEEEAAALLLYYY focus. That's one of the reasons this cartridge interests me. The TKO values on the round are in between the .300 Win Mag and the .300 Wby Mag., and I'm interested to find out how the recoil compares.
My brother has a 300 win mag that drives 200gr. nails down range, and with a muzzle break/ aka boss system, it kicks like a 243, so basically nothing. I would imagine the .338 Federal kicks like a mule, i know very little about that caliber besides the .338 portion. I am looking to get a .340 with a muzzle break hopefully soon.
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My brother has a 300 win mag that drives 200gr. nails down range, and with a muzzle break/ aka boss system, it kicks like a 243, so basically nothing. I would imagine the .338 Federal kicks like a mule, i know very little about that caliber besides the .338 portion. I am looking to get a .340 with a muzzle break hopefully soon.
A muzzle break and the BOSS system, which was the brainchild of Browning, are two different but alike things.
It should compare very close to the 338-06 which is an excellent round for NA game. Articals in Guns and Ammo a while back featured it on a couple Elk hunt where it performed very well. I don't think it will fly far unless someone besides Sako gets abourd. Nothing wrong with Sako but the prices may foil many who want to try the cartridge. On the up side, it would be a very simple and pretty inexpensive rifle to build from scratch since any good short action would work fine.
For a pure hunting round there are many cartridges that will perform the same duties. That may hurt its sales as well. In the end, most everything based on the 308/30-06 case will perform well with less recoil than the Magnums. Of course it will never be able to match the 338 Win Mag for ME and MV.
Myself, I love the idea of a good whacker without fierce recoil. For some it will be the perfect cartridge. Its kind of a special nich proposition.
Anyone care to explain how you take a 308 case, neck up to a 338 and shoot the same weight bullets at a higher velocity? Higher chamber pressures from more bearing surface or what? I feel dumb all of a sudden.
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.338 Federal
