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I am wondering. I have a 338-06AI that I am shooting 250 Hornadys out of really well. Given a 225TSX or a 250 Partition. How big and nasty of a game animal would you use it for? I am thinking anything in North America except for Polar bear and grizz.I beleive under the right situation I would drop the hammer on one of them also. Anything anywhere else that would not eat you or stomp a waterhole in your ass. Just wondering. I have not killed anything but paper yet, I hope to next week. | ||
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Best off to stick with varmints and small southern whitetails  Actually I'd use mine (very close to a 338-06 but not)for everything we have around my parts (deer, moose, black bear). I'm taking it next week for a Catskill deer hunt and my friends are all ready yanging on me for bringing too much gun. It'll kill what you find and hopefully I can give a report on how well 225gr Hornadys work on deer. If it prooves to be enough gun. --------------------------------- It's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it | |||
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I wouldn't have a problem usuing it with 250 grain premium bullets on grizzly bears. Under ideal circumstances it is powerful enough to take anything that walks. Having said that, circumstances are rarely ideal in dangerous game hunting and something bigger is better but the round is powerful enough to bring down an elephant. The price of knowledge is great but the price of ignorance is even greater. | |||
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I would use it on mountain grizz but would feel better w/ a bit more gas. I have used my .338-06 up to Zebra, Kudu & bull elk, all w/ the 210grNP. I have no complaints.  You could probably take buffalo & othe DG in Africa w/ a good 250gr solid, but it isn't legal & again, I would want a bit more gas when my butts on the line.  LIFE IS NOT A SPECTATOR'S SPORT! | |||
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 If you were talking to native Alaskans you probably would be different answers. These guys have been droping polar bears with 30-30s for more years than I care to count. I guess they're just a tougher breed.  rogerOld age is a high price to pay for maturity!!! Some never pay and some pay and never reap the reward. Wisdom comes with age! Sometimes age comes alone.. | |||
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although a 375 or 416 might give some comfort if a Griz charged me, I would gladly lay 5 rounds of a good heavy 338 bullet as best I could, and hope I never needed all of them, I believe Nosler's author in an older manual mentioned 'accidently' running into one on a moose or caribou hunt, dropped it point blank with a 210 PT. Would rather a 225 or 250, but the 210 is designed to dig deep in large animals, and does from all reports seen. I would confidently use a 338-06 and Whelen in a 100% reliable rifle on ALL game in this country, and feel much better personally than with a 30-06. That is just me. | |||
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Yeah, but we never hear about the ones that get eaten.   When your butt is on the animals menu, you want the biggest round you can deliver accurate shots w/. The .338-06 w/ 250grNP is a good start. LIFE IS NOT A SPECTATOR'S SPORT! | |||
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I'd use it on anything on north america. With the right bullets, the bigger critters wont even know the difference. Is it the perfect bear "stopper"? well, there are better choices but I wouldnt worry a minute about going after a coastal brownie with one. A lesson in irony The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever, to 46 million people. Meanwhile, the National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us... "Please Do Not Feed the Animals." Their stated reason for the policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves." Thus ends today's lesson in irony. | |||
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On that note, if you screw up the shot with the 338-06 or a 404 Jeffery, your not going to know the difference either until you place the shot correctly. Shot straight and in the right location. I think a lot of people have gone overboard on caliber in the last 10 - 15 years. | |||
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I would use mine on anything, and I repeat anything in NA. Africa is only conjecture for me because I've never been there. But I can't imagine it not working on everything except the big stuff. Elephant, Rhino, hippo and cape buff come to mind. It would probably work on those critters with the right bullet selection and more importantly great shot placement. But it wouldn't be my first choice. | |||
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I would also use a 338-06 for anything in N.A. -------------------- THANOS WAS RIGHT! | |||
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It takes confidence!!! I would take anything that walks with the .338-06 just knowing that I am shooting the Kodiak 250's. As I now have two of them and have used both my .338's for everything in my parts. Still working these two .338-06's over of mine. RMiller, do I know you? Am asking cause I know of a Miller that flys to the remote. If so we are rugged to say the least. This friend of mine that I see only briefly knows quite abit and has been around. You ever been above Ft.Yukon? | |||
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bartche, you have my attention. I'm of the so called "breed" and have searched thru this ARforum for others like me but they aren't available. What you have mentioned is idealic. Meaning everything has or have been used. I too have used the inexpellable or is that a word the venerable .30-30 to take a grizz. It is always the close "shot" that makes the difference. I have seen some remarkable shooters that would literally amaze the "real" world shooters with rifles that would literally shake you up. Good note and thank you and take care. | |||
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sorry to report to your wry humor there fred. but as Long as I have lived up and down the Koyukon and the Chandalar and the Yukon there has not been an incident of "natives" being eaten. Now the white coloration, "yes" it has take place, is it because they don't have Oh I get in now it is money!respect for those that seek a good hunt1 | |||
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Great feedback, I agree that I too would want the 250's IF shooting a large bear. Confidence in the round, and my ability to shoot well with a 338-06 is more important to me than trying to go much larger. I guess if something was trying to eat me I might could jack a 416 bolt and empty it quick enough, but where those slugs might go is anyone's guess! I would stop at 338 WM or 375 H&H, but I do believe I could do as well or better with a 338-06 or even Whelen as I know I can shoot them well. I know many MUCH smaller calibers have been used on Griz, but I would feel 'well armed' with the above. By the way, I would love to hear what action/platform you guys have built your rifles on. Mine was a 700, but I won't trust another for what I would use a rifle in this ctg for, the dang bolt handle just FELL off after firing round 300x or so as the action was NEW when it was built. Mind you NOT ONCE was this bolt handle EVER beat open, or hammered on. It simply was defective in the way it was brazed. Scary to say, when I checked a New in box SS BDL 338 WIN MAG, it TOO was NOT adequately done, missing alot of material when you looked underneath the handle where the braze should have been. SO, it went back to Rem. also BEFORE ever having a shot fired. Both have been sold. Hard to trust things like this, but that is just me. I would venture many Alaskan's use Mauser/styled CRF rifles when it comes to bolts? | |||
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Built my first and in the process of doing my second on pre 64 action w/rebored original 30'06 barrels. The first was on a fwt w/22" barrel and the second is on a standard w/24" barrel. Love it. | |||
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My point grzz, (toung in cheek) was just because a person or persons use a certain rifle/cartrdige doesn't make it the right choice. Inuits may shoot polar bear w/ a .223, doesn't mean one should choose that for his hunting rifle/round regardless of how "tough" one is. Thumping rounds start at .338bore & go up. You can kill just about anything w/ a .22lr if you have the time to wait for it to die. Bigger bullets always make bigger holes.   LIFE IS NOT A SPECTATOR'S SPORT! | |||
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The last issue of Hunter magazine had an article by Phil Shoemaker entitled "Rifles for Alaskan Brown Bear". One of the hunters had a 338-06 and was using 225 grain tsx bullets and took a 9 1/2 foot brown bear. This was the lightest caliber in the article. | |||
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Hey Roger, I hear they take them with 22s when using dogs to distract the bear! Guts? Or nuts? Maybe both?  | |||
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I've got a circa 1999 M70 CRF Sporter that I rebarreled with a 24" Lilja and chambered in .338-06 . It came in quicker than expected, barely in time for a trip to RSA for plainsgame in 2000. Loaded some 250 Swift A-Frames and sighted in via flashlight (TRULY!) the night before we left. Took a large waterbuck, an impala, a blue wildebeest and a livingstone eland all with one shot from 40-90 yds. Zero drama. Came home and finally crono'd those loads; 2440 fps. Next year with 225 NP's at 2550 fps I took a large bull elk at 330? 340 yds? ( I forget which, but over 300 yds) again, one shot and flop. I have since settled on the 225 NP's as my "universal" .338-06 choice. Would I take it to AK for truly large bears?? NO. Would I use it for anything else here in NA and for plainsgame in Africa? You bet. FN in MT 'I'm tryin' to think, but nothin' happens"! Curly Howard Definitive Stooge | |||
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Read report few years ago in Varmint Hunter Mag hunting polar bears with 22 hornet-shoot, watch wait to die. Not much place for them to go/hide. Anway, FN, my 4320 loads spit 225's at 2670 in a Hart 23". Nothing to sneeze at, your 250s were close to money. 2500 or so is likely about it, perhaps a tad more in some, but you were right there. Muygrande, A couple of years ago, a CRF FWT M70 NRA auction gun in BEAUTIFUL Fajen stock sat there in the local shop, unfired for about 700-750, barrel looked lighter than I wanted for rebore, and I was not sure if it could be done, but the stock had a beefier foreard to grab vs. the FWT stocks. It BEGGED to have a 338-06 barrel in that Gorgeous stock and since I believe Fajen was no longer, called Win and they said they might scrounge an extra stock up if I wanted a custom shop gun, but heck why pay them twice and then some to do what someone else can do just as well? That was another lost opportunity! If anyone seen those guns/wood you know what I am talking about, great design, nice cut checkering with finer pattern, etc. etc. I would have floated/bedded it and sealed the wood, and I doubt it would have given any trouble. I seem to recall many CRF M70's, Rugers SS/SYN, and Sako's in the mid/large bores when in Bear country. Oh, I did fire a 416 Rem mag once, the floorplate flew open every shot and the owner had it built on a classic 300 Rem gun and the stock transmitted ALL the recoil, I really would hate to have been in a tight situation needing to place shots and fast as the recovery had to have been slow. It pointed almost straight up, perhaps a brake would do the trick. | |||
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Drove to deadhorse twice chasing caribou with my bow. I have not done any bush flying. -------------------- THANOS WAS RIGHT! | |||
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I'd have no problem with the 338/06 for anything in the lower 48, especially with a 250 grain bullet.... I WOULD have said that, for Alaskan Grizzley....until recently.... I have the unique opportunity, at a local animal rehab place, that my son is doing some work for via Boy Scouts.... They have wolves, cougars, eagles, tons of raccoons, black bears, and two Alaskan Brown Bears, that were brought there as cubs, after their mother had been killed by a train in Alaska 14 years ago... The male bear, is like a big dog in the way it acts... It comes right up to the fence, and it will sit up if someone holds a food wrapper in the air... and do all sorts of bear acting that the tourists love... The fact is that this is an opportunity to get close to a brown bear, within 10 feet, and safely look at one, that is tame.... and also weighs in at 1400 lbs! Until looking at this animal close up, you wouldn't think it weighed that much, until you did look at it close up! I am a guy that thinks that a 223, or 22.250 is fine for deer, especially a lot of the antelope sized ones... and a 243 or 6mm Rem is fine for elk in the hands of a good shot, and a 6.5 mm is fine for elk period.... Well CLOSE UP to a 1400 pound, non agitated Alaska Brown Bear.. I wouldn't want to be out HUNTING one, without a minimum of a 375 H & H.... and a 416 of some sort, really sounds a lot more comforting.... This things claws are longer than a ghetto hookers fingernails..... NOW I can see why a 458 Mag is as common on the shelves in Alaska as a 30/30 is in the lower 48.... If I had Alaska on the agenda, I'd opt for a bigger caliber...one the lower 48, I think it is one of the best...I own one! | |||
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with PROPER bullet placement and unagitated game, and the correct bullet... well, let's just say that the 303brit has killed more african game than any centerfire, with the possible exception of th e7.62x39.... followed, perhaps, by the odd mauser round... the 338-06, with PROPER bullets, ir probably good for everything short of elephant, in a "sniper" situation... i would exclude ele, buff, and anything but shooting hippos in the water (which I think is CRAP) ... so, eland, kudu, moose, elk, and just about every other grass eater there is... lion and leopard? certainly enough gun when things go RIGHT... what happens when thing aren't perfect or go wrong? Why do you think i always hunt with a bigbore?  jeffe opinions vary band of bubbas and STC hunting Club Information on Ammoguide about the416AR, 458AR, 470AR, 500AR What is an AR round? Case Drawings 416-458-470AR and 500AR. 476AR, http://www.weaponsmith.com | |||
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Polar bears with .30-30's?? Make that "polar bears with .22 Hornets......" "Bitte, trinks du nicht das Wasser. Dahin haben die Kuhen gesheissen." | |||
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If your barrel has a proper twist rate and your rifle feeds roundnose bullets don't forget the Woodleigh 300 grain for close work on thick critters. | |||
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