Should work fine. After all if a 264 Win Mag won't do it, better move up to more power. Thats the answer these days..

Power was not/is notreally the issue, just a fun sideline toan instace where, yes a 338WinMag (though nota archtypical goat gun)worked fine for antelope, besting the laser-wand-264, andlacking nothing includingdecent trajectory.

In this case,the 338WinMagprovidesthe only other rifle already available to the author....tuned, sighted, and familiar to boot. The author appearsnot to be a recoil pantywaste (not that a 338WinMag is that much of a kicker) so for him it is a win-win-win.

The author asks:

Answer (IMO): Yes you can take it and it is likely that someonewho tries to "make you a fool" over it may find the tables reversedcome hunting day.

NJheadhunter71, I'd recommend a 200 yard sight in.
Sorry to hear about your NEF, may well bea blessing in disguise.
Just for fun, listen for the bullet impact.

You are much better armed for any big game animal with the 338 than with the 243 IMO. I can't feel much difference in recoil between the 338 and the 300 Win Mag. Nor much difference in terminal performance.

I have killed pronghorn with a Weatherby Mark V .340 Wby. Mag., and will use it again with no hesitation. Good luck.

The 340 kind of weeds out the under powered rifles like the 338 Win. sort of leaves them in the dust.

Nothing wrong with the 338-win mag. You are lucky you have a back-up rifleto fall back on.

Good luck hunting,

WK

I'd use a .50 cal Barret on Pronghorn if I had nothing else.

I got back from my goat hunt last week and the 338win worked perfectly.My guide and myself glassed him from about 600yrds away and thought he ran off the ranch but upon further inspection the goat he saw runoff the property with some does wasn't theone Isaw with the wide spead. Once we realized this we were on thestalk. One thing I learned about hunting the wide open of NE Wy. is just cause it looks flat from a mile away doesn'talways mean it is. So we used this to our advantage and madeour 400yrd crouching desent into the dips of the ranch. I already had the shorterlegs on my bipod extended. With me directlybehindmy guideand with him holding the decoy in front we started to crest a small hill where we saw him some 300 yrds behing it. As we neared the top we both simotaniusly dropped at the sight ofblack tips poking above the sage and stubble wheatjust 80yrds from us (so much for practicing at 300yrds) He didn't have to say a word andI was already in a layingshooting positionto the right of the decoy. The goatcought a glipse of the decoy as we hid behind it.At this point there were a few thingsI wasworried about.1. Was this the goat? 2. Was the guides hearing still going to work after I touched the shot offof my 338win equippedwith a muzzle brake ? 3. Was this damn thing going tomove forward and give me more than a neck shot? At first the guide said k shoot"but I declided spitting outsomething about me being the taxidermist and thinking 338 + 210 partition + about 3 feet of sewing threadon a big oldexit hole.Well, since it was ruttingtime the goat acted real aggressive towards the decoy and was snorting and then pumped up his chest with hisfront legs positioned close together and did a 10 foot charge. All in one fluidmotion I looked at my guide (with fingers in ears) flipped the safty off,put the cross hairs on the front blade and waited for the goodold "take em" response from my guide. In what seemed like 2 minutes was all ofabout 10 seconds.My rifle barked and I saw the goat buckle and drop beyondthe hill. As we high fived andwalked to the spot were he was last standing I silently said to myself (now what the heckam I going to do for another 2 days and 15 hours?)I also thought, wasI picky enough? Should I have shopped more? All these questions dissapeared as I walked up on my loper. There was a quarter sized hole behind the last rib on the opposite side and not alot of meat damage.Boyis he a dandy? He was 14" on the left and 13 7/8 on the right with some good palmation and a nice spread. I also did some varmint hunting therest of my stay and still didn't see a goat as nice, or at leastI convinced myselfinto believing this. LOL Thanks to all that posted!Sorry for the long story. Here is a pic

Thats a goat to be proud of! Good job!

I just took one with my 30-06 using 165 interbonds. A bit much for antlope if you want to talk about adequecy, but the antelope is now in my freezer and there was never a second shot needed. Use the 338 and feel good about it. EJ