ORIGINAL: seattlesetters
Someone else mentioned it, and I'd have to agree. With a .338 Federal, you can hunt anything that lives in North America and have a solid 300-yard range. All this with recoil equivalent to the .30-'06 and trajectory equivalent to the .308 Win. In terms of knockdown power, it beats both of them.
I just bought a rifle in .338 Federal. I doubt I'd ever need anything else, except for pronghorn or mule deer on the open prairie, where I'm going to want my .270 Win. However, I'm sure I could just work my way to within 350 yards and handle those shots with the .338 Federal, too.
I agree the .338 is a stellar caliber. I would have to say, however, that the .30-06 is all I will ever need in North America. I read on the Alaskan DNR website last year that, not only were magnum calibers not needed to take brown bear, but that the .30-06 was all you needed to harvest bear (that and good aim). I went back about a month ago but couldn't find it (the quote) again to give people the reference. In any event, Teddy Roosevelt was happy using it to take an elephant (with iron sights no less). That's not to say it isn't prudent to use a stronger caliber for brown bear, it is (and elephants too), but throughout history, an element of danger was always part of hunting, so I personally will not choose to go with a magnum caliber. That's just me (and maybe I'm foolish). The 338 Federal would be nice to have though!