Which of these two rounds do you think is better ballisticly. Yes the 338-08 is a wildcat (308 win necked up to take 338 bullets). I'm only interested in performance.
Both could be built in the same compact package. Bullet selection & a little flatter trajectory favor the 338-08 but neither are long range rounds. Or is this race too close to call?

Doug Humbarger

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NRA Life member

Ken Waters made up a 33/08 and got excited about the new at the time 180 gr Ballistic Tip bullet. He ran the numbers and of course it's a slippery bullet.

I just fell into the .358W back in 1966 by chance. There was a 99F for sale cheap and I grabbed it. At that same time my hunting skills improved a lot and there was more game around. So it was instant success.

I have no idea how the 33/08 will perform but the 180 Speer in the .358W is about as good as it gets up to at least 240 yards.

I have 3 .358W's now and I know where there are two more. I have no desire to bother with the .338 bore. But for a wildcat guy starting out from scratch it could be lots of fun. There is also the 200 gr flat nose .338 Hornady bullet. That should be interesting for woods game of deer size.

The the August 2000 issue of Petersen's Rifle Shooter has an article titled "The Big .338's Mighty Magnums" where the .338-308 is mentioned, and a few handloads for it are listed. The article was written by Wayne van Swoll.

Some of the velocities shown for the .338-08 are as follows (.33 bullets):

185-grain Barnes-X = 2,810 fps
210 NOS Partition = 2,600 fps
200-grain Hornady = 2,670 fps

For the powder charges you will have to read the article. For what I can tell, the .338-08 is a flat-shooting cartridge (with the lighter .33 bullets) that "treads on the hills of the .338-06." It should be a great deer to elk cartridge that is easy on the shoulder just like the .338-06.

I can not comment on the 338-08 other than what I have read from Waters etc. I do own 2 .358 Win. One is a Sav 99 the other is a single shot pistol. If you head over to www.sixgunner.com and check out some of Paco Kelly's articles on the .358 I think his loads will surprise you. Though you will do well to heed his warnings. He has 2 articles in the Back Issue section on the .358 plus a new article on favorite loads that mentions the .358.
It seems that either will do anything you need with in reasonable ranges though Paco makes the case that the .358 is not just a short range affair. One thing though is that unless you either (1) Stock up on .358 brass or (2) Winchester continues their "seasonal" runs of brass you may end up forming either of these rounds from .308 brass. Sean

I would imagine that the .338-08 would have proportionately, the same ballistic advantage over a .358 Win. as the 338-06 has over the .35 Whelen. Frankly, over normal and reasonable hunting ranges, I think it would be 6 of one and half dozen of the other. JMHO.
Paul B.