338 Federal

[A Nimrod]

Can you use 308 cases for a 338 Federal round ?

TIA A Nimrod

[PPpastordon]

My surprise is that there are no answers here.
"YES!" It just takes a little reforming.

[Black Prince]

ANIMROD

If you are going to do that, first aneal the cases and push the neck expander through the .308 case solwly and with adequate lube or you'll split the necks. If you aneal the cases first and go slow, you can make .338 Federal cases from .308 brass 19 out of every 20 cases without spliting the neck.

The .308 Federal is a fine cartridge but you will want to make sure you don't use hard bullets in it that are designed to expand at .338 Win. Mag. velocities. Hornady makes two VERY GOOD bullets that weigh 200 grains in .338 diameter. One is a spire point (Hornady bullet No. 3320) and the other is flat. (Hornady bullet no. 3315) They are both wonderfully accurate in my .338 Mag. but they are too soft for it and comletely blow up on impact. They should be just the ticket for your .338 Federal though, and you might want to give them a try. For a general hunting bullet for whitetails, the Hornady flat point bullet in your .338 Federal ought to be mighty fine. You won't spend any time looking for wounded deer if you place that bullet right.

I've used a 30-30, a .308 , a .300 Win. Mag., and a 30-06 over the last 40 years on whitetails. I was amazed at the difference in killing effectiveness that going to a slightly larger bullet diameter to .338 made. They don't even move out of their tracks when hit with the .338 diameter bullet. A hit in the same place with any of the 30 calibers would kill the whitetail, but it may go 30 or 40 yards before expiring. In the deep south where I hunt, it is so dam thick that 30 or 40 yards can mean two hours of looking for an animal you know you killed and he is right there somewhere but you can't find it in the thick brush, cane, briars and vines. And there are BIG rattlesnakes and cottonmouths in that thick brush too which is a good reason to KNOW that the deer isn't going to move after you hit it. 30 or 40 yards doesn't mean much in some parts of the country, but it dam sure does in the south.

If you have had similar hunting experience with your .338 Federal, I'd appreciate it if you'd give us some feed back on how you rate it's effectiveness against some other cartridges that you've used, especially other .30 calibers. It would be instructive if you could rate it against its parent cartridge, the .308 since I still have one of those that I keep for a back-up rifle and to loan to brother-in-laws that come to hunting camp with no rifle.

[Boomer Mikey]

The 200 grain Hornady spire point is a very accurate bullet in my 338-06... 3/4 moa. I never could find a load for the 225 Interlock that worked for me. My Ruger MKII 338 WinMag likes the Sierra 250.

The 338's kick hard at both ends, I was interested in the 338 Federal until the 375 Ruger came out... another project,

Boomer :Fire:

[6pt-sika]

I already have two boxes of loaded ammo and a set of RCBS dies for the 338 Federal .

But I can't decide whether to get a barrel for my TC Pro Hunter or get one of the stainless synthetic Ruger Hawkeyes .