I recently had the good fortune of acquiring a Remington 700 BDL stainless chambered in .338 RUM from one of our fellow AR members. Having owned a .338 Win Mag for several years, I had always wanted to try one of the larger capacity .338's, but had never seriously considered purchasing one.

However, I came across a great deal featuring the aforementioned .338 RUM, and I couldn't resist. The rifle came with dies, brass and an assortment of loaded rounds. When the rifle arrived, I mounted a 3-9x40 Redfield on top, and headed to the range with the loaded rounds, and a few reloads of my own.

I was extremely impressed at the range. For whatever reason, recoil did not seem to be any worse than my .338 WM, and I had no problems firing 30 rounds from the bench while sighting in and testing reloads. I was pleasantly surprised with the accuracy of the gun, as well. With one of the loads that came with the gun, and one of my own loads (102 grs. Retumbo under a 225 grain Hornady Spire Point), it printed two different 3-shot groups of well under an inch (my load with Retumbo was right at .878).

So far, I couldn't be happier. I plan to slap a 4.5-14x40 Nikon Buckmaster on top in the near future, and swap out the J-lock bolt shroud. But, other than those minor alterations, I think I'm going to keep it exactly as it is. It's gonna be fun hunting with it, and shooting targets at long range.