I few months back I bought a .338win for a heck of a deal. I bought it used, sort of. I bought it from a friend, who bought it to go elk hunting. He bought it and 2 boxes of ammo, he only shot one box of ammo through it and sold it to me. I shot the other box up before buying it from him and it shoots great, 1 1/2" groups with the factory ammo. I've ordered some Winchester brass,225gr Barnes X triple shock bullets, Redding dies and I've traded for a 2.5-8x36 Leupold scope. Sound good so far?? I'm setting this rifle up to hunt Zebra and Wildebeest in RSA this summer. With hopes of maybe one day using it for Eland in Africa, plus maybe moose and bison here. My problem??? Its got a 26" barrel and I just don't like it. I'm thinking of having it cut down and recrowned to 23 1/2" or 24". Other than the lost muzzle velocity what side effects, if any, would there be from cutting down?

One good thing about the .338WM is that it was designed around 22-24" barrels so whatever is lost you will not notice. After lugging a 26" barreled 7 mag through the woods last fall, I'm glad every other rifle I have uses 24" and less. My 338 shoots extremly well with 225gr. X bullets and IMR 4350 out of it's 24" tube.

Having shot .338 Win Mag rifles with both 26 and 24 inch barrels, I agree that little velocity would be lost by chopping your barrel a couple of inches.

HOWEVER, the statement that the cartridge was developed for use in 22 to 24 inch barrels puzzles me. The ORIGINAL Winchester Model 70 "Alaskan" had a 25 inch barrel!!

I have owned a 26 inch Ruger Number One and a 24 inch Remington Classic in .338 Win Mag. The velocities obtainable with the two were virtually identical. However, those old much revered old Model 70's had a 25 inch tube.

Many on this forum like .338 Win Mags cut clear to 22 inches, but the 24 inch barrel on my 700 Classic suits me just fine.

R F

My friends wife has a 22 inch barrel on her 338 and another friend has a 338 with a 26 inch tube.

Both barrels were cut with the same reamer. Head space is .002 tighter on the 26 inch tube.

The 22 inch barrel is about 20-50 fps faster.

That tells me that within reason barrel length doesn't much matter on the 338 Win.

Jamie

You are correct. I have owned five and currently own four of these wonderful rifles and they do have 25" bbls. I get about the same velocity from the 23" bbl. on my Dakota 76 though-with 250 N.P.s as I can load it hotter due to the longer throat.

I do prefer a 23" tube in this caliber and I have owned and used 12 rifles so chambered in the past 36 yrs. If, there is anything better for B.C. hunting, they haven't invented it yet.

Charlie Sisk,a Texas gunsmith with an inquiring mind,cut 1" at a time off of barrels and recorded the velocities.The results are at 24hr.The losses are much less than we are lead to beleive.

I went with 23" on my 338WM, perfect!

MtnHtr

Great choice of bullets.

In our tests so far, the new 225 TSX has averaged under MOA.

Thanks Terry! To be honest I read one of your post about them before ordering thanks for the advise. Got any load data you'd care to share?

I've had 26", 24" and 22" 338 WM's... I like 22" The bore-volume, case capacity ratio of the 338 WM puts it squarely in the 30-06 camp and no one will dispute a 30-06 works well with a 22" bbl. Try H4350 or RL22 with any 225 for 2,825-2,900 fps (depending on bullet and barrel).

Brad

I like 24" barrels for the .338 Win. Mag., mostly for the sake of better balance, and for significantly reduced muzzle blast compared to the shorter barrel lengths. I dislike barrels longer than 24" for any hunting rifle, but see little advantage to going any shorter than that in the .338 Winchester.

Velocities can vary a great deal with this cartridge, no matter if the barrel of your particular rifle is 22, 23, 24, 25, or 26" in length. You either have a "fast" .338 Win. Mag. barrel or you don't. For example, I've seen factory-original pre-1964 Model 70s with the original 25" barrel struggle to make 2600 fps. (250 gr. loads) without signs of excess pressure, while I've seen the exact-same loads used in rifles with custom 23 and 24" barrels produce over 2700 fps., and with perfectly acceptable pressures.

AD

Yup, my experiences have demonstrated the same thing. My 70s average just over 2700 with 250s, my Ruger No. 1 was slow-so I sold it, and so forth. A custom barrel-chamber is the way to go for those who can afford it.

What makes a barrel fast?

OKShooter in pressure testing two 30.06s came to the conclusion the there are no fast or slow barrels,just some that take more powder to generate the same pressure.I would agree about the fast part,I had a 264 barrel that popped primers at starting loads and went dead slow,but that was an exception.

I read an intersting piece by P.O. Ackley where he stated that on an average rifle 40% of the theoritical velocity was "consumed" and converted to heat, by the rifling in the bore. So fast or slow barrels can be attributed to friction in the barrel, whether that friction is from rough spots, a change of twist rate, depth of rifling, actual bore diamter, etc.

I am sure that chamber dimensions also play a part in the speed equation.

BigBullet