Hello Everyone,

I have a 338 Ultra Mag that I got a great deal on. I bought it as a "poor man's 340 Wthby" The owner hated the recoil and wanted to dump it.

I bought it in 01' for a brown bear hunt I had planned, but my financial situation has changed abit and that hunt has been put on hold for a couple of years.

Anyway, I love shooting the gun and have cooked up a couple of different loads for it, but haven't been able to get hunting these last two years. I have a bit of cabin fever here and would like to hear your experiences with this caliber.

I am especially interested to hear who has shot brown bears with it, but would like to hear any other stories (testimonies) good or bad dangerous game or not, concerning the 338 RUM.

Thanks,

Autumn Pulse

Hey, how are ya doing?
I have one. It must be one of the best 338's out there.
My gun will shoot one big ol hole at 100 yards. It likes 250gr. bullets the best. Hornady is my number one bullet then Swift-A-Frames. I use VihtaVuori Powder N-560. My loads are MAX. But safe in my gun. With no problem. 0r PSI sign. 93.5 gr. for the Hornady and 92.5 for the Swift.
It will shoot 225 gr. bullet ok too. 95gr. of 7828 with a Nosler Partition. This one will do 3/4 inch group.
My Gun is a Remington 700 KS custom shop. 3x9 Swarovski scope with Talley Mounts.
I have used alot of diff. powders, I think the VihtaVuori N-560 is the Best for me.
I have taken two Elk, one Black Bear from Alaska with this rig. All one shot Kills. They went down so fast looked like a train hit them.
Wish you luck with your 338-RUM.

While I do not own a .338 Remington Ultra Mag, my buddy does. He was lucky enough to take it to Alaska and shoot a brown bear with it this last fall.

The gun performed quite well. He was using factory Federal loads with the 250 grain Bonded Bear Claw bullets. The first shot was broadside and a complete pass through. The bear turned and came towards them so he was shot again in the chest. This dropped him on his nose. The second bullet was recovered in the bear's hip. I have seen the bullet and it is a perfect mushroom with GREAT weight retention.

Since then we have worked up some handloads for the gun using lighter bullets for lesser game. We have loads for the 200 Nosler Ballistic Tip and the 225 Nosler Accubond that shoot extremely well. My own personal .338 Win Mag will not shoot the Accubonds for crap, but this Ultra Mag shoots them like a varmint bullet. (three shot groups under a half inch!)

Have fun with that big gun, R F

I have a load cooked up with Nosler Accubonds as well. You are right, they shoot extremely well through my 338 RUM. If I get the chance to go after a big Brown, I will probably load up some 250 grain Northforks or A-Frames. I have heard good things about the the Trphy Bonded Claws, but also heard that the N-forks and A-Frames might be a little tougher.

I would love to see how the those Accubonds perform on one of these Roosevelt Elk though. I have shot a couple of Rcky Mtn Elk over in Montana when used to live there. My 300 Win did a flawless job on them with a 200 grain partition. But, like I said in my first post, I have not been able to get in front of anything with the RUM as of yet. I will try to get black bear hunting here in WA state this fall and possibly give it some action. Elk this year, is still a very large maybe.

Thanks for the posts.

Autumn Pulse

I have a 338RUM and would like to get a 250gr bullet to go as fast as possible accurately. Don't know if that can happen.

Maybe it's a little too soon for bear hunting stories with the .338RUM. However there are lots of bear stories and the "Alaskan" (.338WM). You can find the best story I can think of. This true story relates to a hunter near Anchorage who came upon four grizzly bears feeding on a moose carcass, and how he killed three of them as they charged. One ran, and the last one he killed dropped in front of him as he shot it through the brain at point blank. The story was published in Larry Kaniut's book, "Some Bears Kill."



I read another story about a bow and arrow "brown bear hunter." He was carrying a loaded with 250-grain Nosler bullets .338WM rifle. The rifle hung from his shoulder, as he walked several paces ahead of his guide, bow in hand. All of the sudden he came upon a dark shape on the grass, and he realized it was a sleeping brown bear. He was maybe 25 yards from the bear, and suddenly the bear awoke and charged. he dropped the bow and grabbed his rifle, and fire it on the bear before he could bring it to his shoulder (the bear didn't give him time to aim). At the rifle's report, the hunter dropped on the ground in the fetal position awaiting for a chewing, but the bear never came. He carefully peeked in the direction he had seen the bear, and noticed the bear was on the ground a few feet in front of him, dead. The bullet had broken the bear's neck.



last year there was a hunter walking on a trail. It was very windy, but he was looking for moose. He walked pass some large rocks, and a grizzly jumped him. The grizzly charged from behind the rocks, but he was holding his rifle, and as he was being pushed down by the bear he managed to fire it. The noise scared the bear a few feet away, then turned. The hunter was getting up when the bear charged again, but didn't have time to bring the rifle to his shoulder, and fired it from the hip. The bullet hit the bear killing it.



I was reading a story at another hunting forum. According to the teller, his friend was using a .375 H&H, and he was using a .338WM. They were looking for a big bear to kill, and both shot a large brown. Both rifles were fired, and the bear was hit several times, but it ran into the brush. They waited for awhile before tracking it through the brush, and ended up being charged by the bear. Again they fired their rifles at least twice each, and the bear dropped a few paces in front of them. These two guys swore to never use .338's nor .375's for grizzly hunting. They were talking about .416's and .458's for their next hunt.



That's when I told him a story about some hunters that were resting in their tent, and their guide was a few paces away in his tent. It was in the middle of the day, but a brown bear decided to come up right to the tent to sniff around. One of the hunters poked his .458 Mag out the door, and shot the bear at point blank through the jaw. He fired his rifle one more time hitting the bear somewhere on the body (I don't remember the exact location), but the bear ran. The guide had to run after the bear, and finally killed it with his rifle.



Sometimes "size" does not matter, I guess. Better to hit the right spot just in case?