which would be a better platform to take 338 federal hot loaded handloads?

dont ask, it's a lever thing...

IMO the Savage 99 is maxed out with the pressures of the standard .308 family of cartridges.

If one insists on hotloading the 338 federal one might rather look to something like the Browning BLR or yes I suspect the rotary bolt of the Winchester 88 would do it as well.

Just for shits and giggles.....why do you think there's significant gains to be made by hotloading this case?.....None of the 308 family of cartridges are underloaded by the factory as the 30-06 is. The most one might gain by hot handloads is not worth the risk.....what are we talking about?????.....maybe 100'/sec max!!!!!

ah,
hmmm,
well...

a used blr in 358 (or savage 99) can be had in EXCELLENT condition for 7-800 .. i think the new blrs are offered in 358 for a like price.

if you take an 99 and rebarrel it, you are looking at
400 for a beat to death 99
200 barrel
150 install
100 bluing
_______
850 --

or you could spend 500 for a nice 99 or 800 for a nice 88, and have the barrel rebored for 300...


or get a nice 358, what you would probably get brass, dies, and bullets for.


Boomstick,
load data is an easy estimate.

if you have the same bullet weight in the 308, 338, and 358, the 358 will send it faster

ROUGHTLY the same SD bullet will go the same speed, in the same case

For example
308 with 180gr bullet 2700
338 with 180gr bullet 2800 MAX
358 with 180gr bullet 2975 max

308 - 220gr~2400
338 -225gr ~2450
358 - 225 ~2560

It's a very easy thing to understand, the same case, opened up to a bigger round, will send the same weight faster OR the same SD about the same velocity, which results in heavier bullets.


Besides, heh, you got a 470 AR to finish!!

jeffe

470 a.r. comes first

The Sav 99 is hard to make feed, and I would not modify one.

Dan,
not picking a fight... but perhaps you meant the BLR can be hard to make the rounds fit into the browning's nortoriously too short mag... savage 99's are REKNOWN for their easy feeding, from the rotary mag, which changes when the clip model came out.

jeffe