Should I buy a .338?

[Don Fischer]

I was just thinking about the first 338 I got. Came back from Germany in 1970 and was stationed in Lakeside, Montana. Had a 7mm mag I'd got in the rod and gun club in Germany that shot really well. But took it out wandering in the tules in Montana and got to thinking about grizzly bear, idea hit me a 7mm mag just wasn't enough. Worried about it for several more outing's and saved enough to get my first 338 mag, felt a lot better then. Got a box of factory ammo with it to try shooting on the way home. Fired off three rounds and had the blackest shoulder ever, hurt like hell! Since then I spent 4 years in Montana and went in pretty deep quite often, never ran into a grizzly. Also spent a year and a half working in Alaska when I got out of the service and never ran into a grizzly up there either! Shot one deer with that rifle in Montana and hit it in the shoulder at about 50 yds with a 225gr Hornady and darn near split the thing in two, shoulder's weren't worth a darn after that! If I was going into grizzly country today I'd probably take my 30-06 loaded with 180gr bullet's. Funny how time and experience can change your mind on things!

 

[stk]

Might even go crazy and put a fixed 6x Leupold on it.

You could do that. Or, if you want your friends to admire you and your wife to love you, I’ve got an extra S&B 6x42 and an extra Swarovski 6x36a. I might even sell one to you.

 

[MTLabrador]

You could do that. Or, if you want your friends to admire you and your wife to love you, I’ve got an extra S&B 6x42 and an extra Swarovski 6x36a. I might even sell one to you.

Hmm. I’ll have to think about that.

 

[MTTW]

Funny how time and experience can change your mind on things!

People who are sensitive to recoil never change their mind about recoil, but they sure try to change everyone else's. They try to serve up their recoil sensitivity as some intellectual high ground. Just own it, a bruise on your shoulder is like a broken nail.

 

[buffybr]

People who are sensitive to recoil never change their mind about recoil, but they sure try to change everyone else's. They try to serve up their recoil sensitivity as some intellectual high ground. Just own it, a bruise on your shoulder is like a broken nail.

Yes, "a bruise on your shoulder is like a broken nail", and like the broken fingernail that irritates you and catches just about everything that you touch, the pain from a recoil caused bruised shoulder will continue to hurt the more that you shoot and will develop into a flinch. Maning up to bruised shoulder is not the answer.

 

[MTTW]

Yes, "a bruise on your shoulder is like a broken nail", and like the broken fingernail that irritates you and catches just about everything that you touch, the pain from a recoil caused bruised shoulder will continue to hurt the more that you shoot and will develop into a flinch. Maning up to bruised shoulder is not the answer.

Thanks for telling me what should irritate me. I need to work on my recoil sensitivity so I can be more like you.

 

[buffybr]

" wandering in the tules in Montana and got to thinking about grizzly bear, idea hit me a 7mm mag just wasn't enough. Worried about it for several more outing's and saved enough to get my first 338 mag, felt a lot better then. "

I've lived and hunted in Montana for almost 50 years, both places where I lived (one in NW Montana, and now in SW Montana) I have had black bears as close as on the deck of my house, and grizzly bears sighted and left their tracks on my land within 1/4 mile of my house. I've never seen the need to carry a gun for grizzly protection every time I go out of my house.

For 20 some years I had horses and packed my hunting camps into the wilderness areas just north of Yellowstone NP. In all those years I only saw and encountered one grizzly bear. He came into our camp because we had 2 elk and a moose quartered and hanging in the stockrack in the back of my pickup truck. The night that I encountered him he was no more than 10 yards from me, and the 2 shots that I fired, one over his head and the other into the tree next to him didn't phase him, but when I picked up, threw and hit him with a golf ball size rock, he ran away.

A couple of years ago I went on a Brown bear hunt in SW Alaska. I hunted with my .375 RUM, and my guide carried his .300 Win Short Mag rifle.

 

[buffybr]

Thanks for telling me what should irritate me. I need to work on my recoil sensitivity so I can be more like you.

I really don't care what irritates you, that's up to you. When I used the word "you" in my reply above I wasn't specifically refering to you (MTTW), but people in general. I get broken fingernails often, I have one right now, and it irritates me everytime that I catch it on something. At times I've tried super glue or epoxy to cover the break so it won't catch on things, which irritates me.

I shoot just about every week throughout the year. Each range session I shoot up to 4 pistols, at least 2 rifles, and 2-4 rounds of Skeet with one of my 12 ga shotguns. That totals over 5,000 shells a year. I don't like recoil, so I do what I can to minimize it, which, for me, IS NOT "just owning it" or "maning up to it." Two of the pistols that I shoot every week, one is chambered in .357 magnum and the other in .44 magnum, so to minimize their recoil, I shoot .38 and .44 special loads. My weekly Skeet shoooting is not any kind of competition, but just for fun, so I just shoot 3/4 oz 12 ga loads.

To minimize the recoil in all of my shotguns I have replaced the factory recoil pads with Limbsaver, Decelorator, or Kick Eez pads. I've put mercury or mechanical recoil reducers in the stocks of 3 of my shotguns and my 2 hardest kicking rifles, my .300 Weatherby and my .375 RUM. I had the barrels ported on my competition Skeet and Trap shotguns, and had KDF muzzle brakes installed on my .300 Wby and .375 RUM rifles.

So if you really want to be more like me, you don't need sensitivity training, just follow the science, like I did.

 

[Dan O]

Well that was fun!! He bought it so let him enjoy it and he can decide if he likes it or not. I think he will. Just my opinion

 

[MTLabrador]

I've lived and hunted in Montana for almost 50 years, both places where I lived (one in NW Montana, and now in SW Montana) I have had black bears as close as on the deck of my house, and grizzly bears sighted and left their tracks on my land within 1/4 mile of my house. I've never seen the need to carry a gun for grizzly protection every time I go out of my house.

For 20 some years I had horses and packed my hunting camps into the wilderness areas just north of Yellowstone NP. In all those years I only saw and encountered one grizzly bear. He came into our camp because we had 2 elk and a moose quartered and hanging in the stockrack in the back of my pickup truck. The night that I encountered him he was no more than 10 yards from me, and the 2 shots that I fired, one over his head and the other into the tree next to him didn't phase him, but when I picked up, threw and hit him with a golf ball size rock, he ran away.

A couple of years ago I went on a Brown bear hunt in SW Alaska. I hunted with my .375 RUM, and my guide carried his .300 Win Short Mag rifle.

It’s interesting how the grizzly bear situation has changed around here over the last 20-30 years, especially where I like to hunt. If you spend enough time in the mountains where I shot my last bull, it’s when, not if, you’ll have a bad run-in with a grizzly. This will be a comforting companion on return trips to the meat tree.

 

[MTTW]

The sights on that rifle make it look even better. Mine didn't have iron sights.

 

[Dan O]

The sights on that rifle make it look even better. Mine didn't have iron sights.

Neither does mine, it wears a 2x7 Burris and is always set on 2x. It's a bit heavy according to today's rifles but it has always performed as needed.

 

[MTLabrador]

The sights on that rifle make it look even better. Mine didn't have iron sights.

I wanted one specifically with iron sights. They look classy and they’re handy to have for bear patrol duties too.

 

[rjthehunter]

If a 338 is bruising your shoulder, you should probably learn to shoulder the gun correctly... recoil is a mental game.

Once you stop worrying about and thinking about it, it's not an issue.

 

[noharleyyet]

I have a bud who shoots a 338 RUM for Texas whitetail...first time he fired it he split the webbing between his thumb and index finger. His quest for engineered recoil mitigation began in earnest...but he wasn't recoil sensitive, still isn't.

 

[GoWyo!]

Yes, yes you should. Edit- yes, yes you did. Congrats.

PS I’ve got three Sako .338’s, all with iron sights. Wait, I gave one to my son.

 

[Don Fischer]

People who are sensitive to recoil never change their mind about recoil, but they sure try to change everyone else's. They try to serve up their recoil sensitivity as some intellectual high ground. Just own it, a bruise on your shoulder is like a broken nail.

Probably anlot of truth to that. I shot that old 338 a lot just to get used to the recoil. Got to where I could use it shooting sage rats, couid even fire off 20 rds fromthe bench, no problem. But go a couple months without fireing it and had to start over. Those two 338's and the 7mag too cured me of shooting magnums but those 338's were a lot harder to overcome than the 7mm mag.

 

[Brad]

If a 338 is bruising your shoulder, you should probably learn to shoulder the gun correctly... recoil is a mental game.

Once you stop worrying about and thinking about it, it's not an issue.

Hard to know where to start with such a mountain of misinformation...

"If a 338 is bruising your shoulder," it could be that the stock is a poor design, doesn't fit you, has a steel butt plate, or any number of a dozen issues with has nothing to do with holding a rifle (not a gun private) correctly.

"Recoil is a mental game." I'm guessing you never took physics. First and foremost, recoil is a physical action that "can" have a mental effect.

"Once you stop worrying about and thinking about it, it's not an issue." Yup, that's what I'm going to say to myself in the ring with Mike Tyson.

 

[rjthehunter]

Hard to know where to start with such a mountain of misinformation...

"If a 338 is bruising your shoulder," it could be that the stock is a poor design, doesn't fit you, has a steel butt plate, or any number of a dozen issues with has nothing to do with holding a rifle (not a gun private) correctly.

"Recoil is a mental game." I'm guessing you never took physics. First and foremost, recoil is a physical action that "can" have a mental effect.

"Once you stop worrying about and thinking about it, it's not an issue." Yup, that's what I'm going to say to myself in the ring with Mike Tyson.

If you're bruising from shooting, odds are you're not holding the butt firmly against your shoulder.

I've shot up to a 416 Rigby with no issues or bruising. That's around 58lbs of recoil with a 10lb rifle.

Yes it's physics, but you're likely also scared of the recoil and overthink it. I'm 5'10" 180lbs. It's not like I'm a beast. You need to allow yourself to go back when the gun goes off. Go with the recoil... the only time you should ever have a bruise is if you're not holding the gun against your shoulder, or you're backed up against something like a tree while shooting...

If it's really physics and not just people being sensitive about it, then why do I have no issues with recoil?

Count the 100s of rounds I've fired from a 416 and 500 or so rounds from my 338 as my experience.

Are you really going to compare shooting a rifle to fighting Mike Tyson? Wow! Tell me you're scared of recoil without telling me you're scared of recoil...

 

[Brad]

If you're bruising from shooting, odds are you're not holding the butt firmly against your shoulder.

I've shot up to a 416 Rigby with no issues or bruising. That's around 58lbs of recoil with a 10lb rifle.

Yes it's physics, but you're likely also scared of the recoil and overthink it. I'm 5'10" 180lbs. It's not like I'm a beast. You need to allow yourself to go back when the gun goes off. Go with the recoil... the only time you should ever have a bruise is if you're not holding the gun against your shoulder, or you're backed up against something like a tree while shooting...

If it's really physics and not just people being sensitive about it, then why do I have no issues with recoil?

Count the 100s of rounds I've fired from a 416 and 500 or so rounds from my 338 as my experience.

Are you really going to compare shooting a rifle to fighting Mike Tyson? Wow! Tell me you're scared of recoil without telling me you're scared of recoil...

Hard to know where to start... your basic understanding of firearm/stock design, and recoil is flawed. Makes me think you're fairly young. As you age, your ability to tolerate recoil will start to diminish. I promise you.

"If you're bruising from shooting, odds are you're not holding the butt firmly against your shoulder." That "could" be one explanation, but there are many others including a poorly fitting stock, poor recoil pad, etc.

As to you having "no issues with recoil"... you're the first person I've ever run into that doesn't, which puts you in a special category of person best left un-describided for civilities sake.

I've spent my entire life shooting (have had six 300's, five 338's, two 375 H&H's and one 416 RM)... I know a little something about it. It takes consistent practice to stay "recoil proof," especially as you age.

My best friend started Nose Guard at the U of MO. A beast of a guy with a 630lb squat and 450lb bench. Yeah, he knows how to take a hit. Like me, also a rifle nut. He decided to build a light weight 416 Wby on a Mauser action. Fiberglass stocked, it was sub 8lbs scoped. I remember going out to our ranch to sight it in and print some 100 yard groups. He got it on paper, then shot three, three shot groups at 100 yards. It grouped the 400 grainers like a varmint rifle. I remember him getting up, pulling up the sleeve of his shirt, and exposing a massive hematoma... sure, he wasn't holding the rifle firmly lol.