Since neither of us plan on hunting for Grizzly anytime in the future, we have decided to pass on buying a .338 Win Mag. With interest in the .338 LM in civilian circles, there are more options for the cartridge than there once was, but you are still going to have more difficulty finding it when compared to other cartridges. Some of the other properties for determining stopping power include the expansion properties of the bullet and wound creation, which is tough for cartridge comparison purposes, and even shot placement. Barrel life is not as short in the .300 win mag as some may think. Receive our newsletter with the best articles covering guides, guns & gear. There are a lot of obscure rounds that some avid hunters or marksmen might not have heard of, but we would be willing to bet a large sum of money that anyone you speak to who has owned and used a rifle has heard of or handled the .308 Winchester cartridge. It's different for me - I really needed my 308 Norma Mag because my 30-06 didn't kill mule deer and elk dead enough, and my 338 Win Mag killed them too dead. vs. 338. However, a .338 Win Mag without a scope is missing out. Very hard hitting round and great at long distances. Now that we know how these bullets behave in flight let’s take a look at if they have the force behind them to be useful. We also cannot discount the recoil. The .308 Winchester uses .308″ bullets, the .338 Federal uses .338″ bullets, and the .358 Winchester uses .358″ bullets. .308 Norma , Nov 6, 2019 #16 Call me a wimp, but the 338 win mag with 250 grain bullets generates about 40 ft lbs of recoil, no thanks! Accuracy is a tough category to dive into in our opinion. If you have ever seen a video of a bullet passing through a ballistic gel, you get an idea of this energy. Then the same cartridge case sized to, 338 WM 1958, 264 WM in 1958. We have Bullet A, which has a weight of 100gr and a diameter of 0.2 inches and Bullet B, which has a mass of 150gr and a diameter of 0.2 inches. The fundamental specifications and dimensions of the.308 case remain the same, meaning the.338 Federal brass can easily be formed from.308 Winchester brass. Have shot 338 and 325 at range, 338 in the Win 70 , the 325 in the Abolt . This number does not take in to account the bullet design which you will need to keep in mind when we look at the numbers, or the velocity and expansion characteristics. The better is at resisting these factors, the less the trajectory is thrown off in flight. I picked the 338-06 over the 338 win mag when I had one built because of recoil. offers a decided advantage. These numbers are going to be critical when we reach the 308 vs 338 Lapua Magnum application section. Very hard hitting round and great at long distances. As we move out to points down range, we begin to see a general trend between cartridges, especially at the 300-yard mark. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction; that is one of the physical laws of our universe. Wind drift and drop are both less critical with that extra speed. Federal's offering is based on a.308 Winchester case necked-up to accept standard.338" diameter bullets. If you are one of the latter, let’s look a bit closer at what the BC is and why we consider it important enough to include in this article. Since neither of us plan on hunting for Grizzly anytime in the future, we have decided to pass on buying a .338 Win Mag. For that, we have to dive into hand loading rounds, and that is better served in a separate article. Long range hunters and experienced hunters taking Elk and Moose at longer ranges may appreciate and require the better terminal performance of the 300 Win Mag. Given what we now know, we already have a good guess of what we are going to see (Graph 8). She can drive tacks with her purple gun at 100 yards. My dad hunted bear in Alaska with a .338 win mag, back in the 70's. In the simplest of terms, a ballistic coefficient is simply a number that is derived from several variables taken from the cartridge specs including the bullet. For this comparison, we are likely to see a huge difference. We are completely aware that this is not by any means a comprehensive list given the amount of options available, but the sake of brevity, we have to limit our selections. We have compiled the SDs of the ten rounds we have been using for comparison. 338 Win Mag – the Ultimate Elk Round Many centerfire rifle cartridges are effective on elk. We can see an increased BC for the .338 LM rounds when compared to the .308 Win rounds. While the .308 Win also produces its fair amount of recoil, it’s nowhere near the level of the .338 LM. the .338 Federal fitsin short-action rifles. By looking at a wider selection of rounds with varying loads, bullet designs, and weights, we can see if this trend is more general towards the cartridges. The .338 LM can take much heavier bullets than a .308 casing, and the increased capacity and design of the casing allows the .338 LM to have a max case capacity double the .308 which would be needed to have the correct ballistics to be a useful cartridge. For hunting anything on the North American continent they’re both sufficient. When it comes to availability, there is also going to be a noticeable difference between these two cartridges. 9MM.223 / 5.56 45 ACP.22 Long Rifle.22 Win Mag 12 Gauge.308 Winchester 40 S&W.38 Special View All Calibers Ammo By Manufacturer Qualified Professional Ammo Recently Added Ammo .308 Winchester Overview. We will look at the bullet drop of all ten rounds out to 300 yards with the firearm zeroed in at 100 yards (Graph 5). We hope that this article has shed a little more light on the two cartridges and given you a better understanding of the two and allowed you to make more educated decisions on if these two cartridges fit what you need. A .338 with the right bullets is a deep penetrating powerhouse. The .338 LM rounds have nearly or over double the recoil energy generated when compared to all of the .308 Win rounds. 308 vs 30-06 vs 300 Win Mag: Cartridge Sizes. Too many times we see arguments for stopping power, but no one ever mentions that you can have the analytics down, but if you can’t put the round in the bread basket, those numbers don’t mean a whole lot. Winchester took their .458 Winchester Magnum case—itself a shortened and blown out .375 H&H case—and necked it to hold the .338″ diameter bullets the company used for its rimmed .33 Winchester. And as we stated earlier, you can really tailor both of these cartridges to better fit your shooting style and needs with hand loading. I use a target prepped .308 for coyotes when it's … The 338 win mag is by far the superior performer of these two. I might be wrong. Not as much as other cartridges, but more than the .338LM. The recoil is less in the 338-06 and you don't give up a lot of performance. At the 200 yard mark, all of the ten rounds are clustered tightly around the 3-4” mark. Even with the increased rifle weight, we used with the .338 Lapua Magnum rounds we still see a definitive increase in recoil energy when compared to the .308 Win rounds. Mag. 338 Win Mag. The numbers of this cartridge all point towards it being a highly effective hunting round for large game. The 300 Win Mag is produced by Winchester, coming into use around 1963. Mag., making for a highly useful cartridge. The .338 Winchester Magnum is a .338 in (8.6 mm) caliber, belted, rimless, bottlenecked cartridge introduced in 1958 by Winchester Repeating Arms.It is based on the blown-out, shortened .375 H&H Magnum. Best 9mm Ammo 2019 [Self-Defense & Target], 6.5 Creedmoor vs .243 Win – Cartridge Comparison, Best .40 S&W Ammo: Self Defense & Target Practice. Why? With such higher BCs, it will be interesting to see how the selected rounds stack up in other performance categories. Recognize what is in your sight, and that which is hidden from you will become plain to you. One of the main reasons we are always hesitant to try and go about comparing accuracy from one cartridge to the other is the numbers often lack repeatability. With the longevity of the cartridge’s popularity, though it might not be as prevalent as it once was, there is still plenty of options for ammunition with several nearly always available at a retail store that carries ammo. 300 Win Mag vs 338 Lapua vs 338 Win Mag: Picking The Right Heavy Hitter. The kinetic energy of this cartridge is nearly 3,000ft.lb at 500 yards with even larger numbers within that range which is enough to take on the really big and dangerous game. We shot and compared three popular options to help you decide on the best elk cartridge for your style of hunting. As you increase to elk size game, you generally want around 1,500ft.lb. For a lot of hunters and marksmen, recoil is often not one of the major concerns or points for deciding on cartridges. Many products featured on this site were editorially chosen. But it has competition..338 Federal Here’s the.308’s over-achieving offspring. For hunting purposes with the .338 Lapua Magnum, we like the Nosler Trophy Grade AccuBond 300gr. So it’s not even close in the price category. We plan on using this one for stopping cars after shtf. Energy transfer is not always 100% and how much is transferred also depends on the expansion of the bullet. Mag., and .338 Win. Again, for some of these, the sheer weight of hauling a gun capable of firing these cartridges might make them burdensome in the field. 300 Win Mag vs 308 Win. All rights reserved. As the bullet moves downrange, it is carrying kinetic energy that is generated from the mass of the bullet as well as its velocity. Your post is a bit vague, but with little to go on I'd pick 308 any day. Let’s first talk long range precision shooting. And given that the .308 rounds are generating around 20ft.lb of energy, which is considered as being enough recoil to influence a shot or cause discomfort to some, you get an idea of how powerful a round the .338 LM is. Energy for the 300 Win Mag and the 308 Winchester . Even so, both of these rounds stay supersonic throughout their flight and will deliver the proper terminal performance throughout this range, a plus for both cartridges. It can also influence your ability to make quick and accurate follow up shots. This is more geared towards less experienced marksman, but it can also influence shots of veteran firearm users. Regardless, it still gives us a very good idea of how the two cartridges stack up to one another. The higher the BC, the better the bullet is at resisting drag and wind drift. My dad hunted bear in Alaska with a .338 win mag, back in the 70's. This trend continues downrange to the 500-yard mark though we do see some variance in the amount of energy with the .338 LM rounds. So, though the .338 LM cartridges have higher BCs than the .308, it does vary from round to round. The 338 Winchester Magnum is arguably the best. Ever since the advent of the first metallic cartridge (the 22 BB Cap in 1845,) hunters have demanded rifles, cartridges and bullets capable of terminating everything from ground squirrels to elephants. What the number tells you is how well a bullet is streamlined. There are numerous factory loads available and just because they are not on our list does not mean we disregard their effectiveness. Outdoor Life may receive financial compensation for products purchased through this site. The primary difference between the 338 Win mag and the Lapua is in performance. Several components go into stopping power, and we are about tired of listening to the arguments for which component carries the most relevance for stopping power. The .308 Winchester was introduced in 1952 and soon after the casing was modified and adopted as the 7.62x51mm NATO round that saw action in Vietnam. While there are big differences among the (left to right) .308 Win., .300 Win. For certain situations, sure, but there will always be some point where one bests the other. This means that the momentum of a rifle's reaction will exactly equal the momentum of the bullet and powder gasses ejected from the barrel. Its range and power have also made it popular for big and dangerous game. At this point we see several .308 Win rounds showing more than 50” of bullet drop although the two lightest weight bullets show 45 and 46” of bullet drop. That’s splitting hairs for on-game performance, but makes a pretty big difference for long range shooting. We don’t discount the information that comes from a well known professional, but even then they can have good and bad days. We also think that the more rounds you send down range, fatigue from firing such a powerful round is going to come into play. is not currently loaded by the big U.S. ammo companies, but it is available from Norma. 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Hornady ELD Match 285gr rounds stock and muzzle brake no thanks down to.30 cartridge... 500 Page ammo comparison Handbook ( worth $ 43 ) for FREE right into your inbox shooters... Or the.338 Win Mag, back in the world and is forever linked with American.... Skip right over everything else and go straight to a 375 Mag that time range! Accuracy in 'standard ' ( non-Kimber rifles ) is the caliber at which medium-bore cartridges are effective on elk machine. Developed by Elmer Keith a popular and powerful caliber designed as a black cartridge... Makes sense as the kinetic energy that the.338 Winchester Magnum uses the smallest frontal surface (... Follow up shots for stopping cars after shtf performance category necessarily mean the.338 like a with. Help you decide on the 338 win mag vs 308 or the.30–06 to hunters and,...