I have a savage .308 that i thought to re-barrel to .338 Fed someday. I recently looked the cartridge up online and there is no talk at all anymore but there is a lot of ammo out there.
Question 1, Is the cartridge good or not after all the dust has settled?
Question 2, Best bullet choices Deer, Elk?
Preferably just one round for both, heavy for deer but effective. So I could invest in stocking ammo before it dies off..?
Still thinking to do it.
Lou
Sorry guys, I mean factory ammo. It was what was suggested at one time for this cal. as I don't currently cast.
Lou
Well the title of the thread and I would imagine some might pass it by who have an opinion or information.
It should read .338 fed, not .308.
Brad
like the 358 WCF the 338 Fed has it's boosters, but it's not in danger of replacing the 308 WCF/7.62x51 NATO anytime soon. As far as getting ammo - my thought is if you are committed to getting the gun then the ammo will not go to waste, and if you shop wisely, you should always be able to get your money back out of it.
je suis charlie
It is better to live one day as a LION than a dozen days as a Sheep.
Thomas Jefferson Quotations:
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. It's not exactly tough to find components
Originally Posted by Theodore Roosevelt
Ammo will eventually dry up. So stack it deep now and purchase the tooling to reload your own. Cartridges come and go quickly because someone always comes out w/ something "better". I like the 338 Federal but when you have rifles that will do the same things it's hard to justify the purchase.
If you want a 338 and a short action it's a great choice. I have always been a fan of 338 and 35 for North American hunting.
'The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.
Daniel J. Boorstin
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The .338 Federal is supposed to be pretty awesome. I don't see how they get the velocities that they get, without crazy pressure. It gets velocity way above the .358 Win.
Mrs. Hogwallop up and R-U-N-N-O-F-T.
Maximum 62,000 psi for .338 federal and Maximum 58,740 psi for 358 Winchester, so it should get a velocity gain in the fact that the same size case is pushing a smaller diameter projectile with a higher pressure.
je suis charlie
It is better to live one day as a LION than a dozen days as a Sheep.
Thomas Jefferson Quotations:
"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."
I put an Adams & Benet .338-08 (.338 Fed) barrel on a Savage 110 action and have had a ball with it. I used the LA receiver because the 300gr boolit in the necked up .308 case is almost exactly the same length as a 30-06 round. It shoots these boolits @ 1875fps into 1 MOA all day long!!! 32 gr of IMR 3031 pretty much fills better than 80% of the case too.
With Sierra 225gr jacketed it'll do 2400fps easy for a serious thumper!
Don't think you'd be disappointed with the .338 Fed, it's going to the woods with me in a few weeks to see how it works on hogs with the 300 gr boolit.
I will build one one day.
Yeah me too. I no longer own a single stainless steel rifle for inclement weather hunting. I'm inching closer to the day when I want to lower the maintenance threshold. When that day comes I'm going to get one of those nifty Kimber rifles and stick a .338 federal or .358 winchester barrel on it.
Last edited by fatnhappy; 11-02-2014 at 09:20 AM.
I have been kicking around the idea for awhile now. I am just waiting for the right platform I guess. I annealed and necked up 200 pieces of LC match brass awhile back when I was "Super sure" I was getting one.
Often times though I think a 338 winmag would be better. More stuff available, I can load to 338 Fed levels with cast, or I can go buck wild and give myself a nose bleed!
I like the 338 Fed for a lot of reasons, own 2 now and will be happy to add to that.
Without much load work-up time available, cast with weights from 200-275 grains have all shot well enough for hunting with reduced loads in a lightweight Tikka T3. The same rifle has no problem maintaining MOA accuracy with full power jacketed with 200 and 225s.
With the 308 and 358 Wins being so great, a .338-308 has got to be good.
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