and miss the chance to get a rifle now? You must be kidding!

The 338-win mag would "help" make your rifle battery complete. You will still need severalmore rifles to make you collection complete.

The 338-win mag is a great choicefor north america large game.

I will be hunting Alaska in 2007. I willbringing my bow & my 300-win mag.

I have a .300 Win Mag and subsequently have little use for a .338. Hard to imagine what you couldn't kill in North America with this rifle pushing a 200 grain Partition or 180 A-Frame. But going up from a 30/06, the .338 would be a good choice. If I need something bigger, I think I would skip the .375 and go all the way up toa .416 Rem Mag.

I would by-pass the 338 in a heartbeat. If its to big for the 30-06 then I want a 375 H&H or much better yet, a 416 Remington Mag. I had one of those for several years. I bought it for a Big Bear hunt but never really used it for that. I stayed with the 30-06 although I had the 416 along. The 416 is a stopper big time. I have also carried the 45-70 Marlin in Bear country with complete confidence.. The 4550 Marlin and the 444 would also serve well. If lomg range big stuff in in your plan, then the 375 H&H would be the ticket. I quess I wouldn't buy any caliber based on price alone. I also would agree thith BC. If you get the trip planned then take a more serous look at hardware. JMO.

And here I thought the 338 was the thing. I suppose if I got a 45-70 and a rifle that could handle hot loads from it, it would do dandily up to 100 yards or so.

I would go with the 45/70 . with some hot loads this thing will make a serious wound channel. Love the 06 it is a great calibur. They would be great partners.

Any thoughts on the marlin? Can it shoot the hot 45-70 loads?

The Marlin will handle any 45-70 load you put in it and with these full loads is easily a 200 yard gun on even the largest animals.

I have a 1895 marlin. I have put some hot loads thru it. But can't find any loads that shoot under 1.5MOA that are hot. For example, I have been working with IMR4198 and 300gr partitions. I get 1.5MOA easy with 42-46gr. But after that I get vertical stringing and gets worse the closer I get to 52gr. I am kicking out at around 2000fps. Not exactly a hot load. But it does the job. I might start working with 3031.

1.5 MOA I could live with. How much can you get one for?