If you are serous about the 45-70 Marlin, Check out the Corbon and Garret sites for real bear stopper loads. Cape Buffalo too. A fellow from Handloader Magazine killed two Cape buffalo with one shot. He was using the Corbon load as I recall. In the Marlin rifle. Another guy took the Big Six in Africa with the Marlin 45-70. The Buffalo hunters of years past took thoudands of american Bison out to 600 yards with the Black Powder 45-70 loads.

There is nothing wrong with the 338. I just never found that it outperformed the 300's enough to be worth while and the 375 and 416's are head and shoulders above the 338. Never found a nich for the 338 enen though I owned two of them. A Ruger and a Savage.