I ordered an Adams & Bennett barrel in this caliber and have a '98 Mauser sporter and a 1903A3 Springfield sporter as candidates to wear it. This caliber has interested me for a long time and I finally got around to doing something about it. Anyone have any thoughts or insights? All the best...
Gil

Hey Gil, I am just finishing one up. Got the A&B barrel with corlight stock combo from midway. Put it together on a VZ-24. Built it as a truck/ horse gun so I went cheap this time. This caliber just plain makes alot of sense to me. It is only about 100-150 fps slower than the Win mag with supposedly less recoil, well we"ll see. I am going to start loads with 210 Barnes TXS with H-380.
GUNMAN

Gil,

You will be very pleased. I too used an A&B barrel the accuracy is very good less than one inch at 100 yards with 200 grain bullets and 2670 ft/sec. You should be pleasently suprised with the recoil, as least I was.

I have used it on three deer this past season. The first one was a mercy shot, someone had gut shot a doe and it came my way. A head on shot to the neck, broke three vertibrae. My son said the deer actually went backwards when it was hit. The other two were broad side shots very clean kills, and almost no meat damage.

My experience seems always to be max loads shoot the best. So it is with the 338-06. The starting load with 200 grain bullets was 58 grains of IMR4350. The recoil is like a push. Once up to maximum ( 62 grains ) however you know it went off. It is not uncomfortable but a prolonged session at the range due to loose scope mount screws will make you wish you had something more than a tee shirt on.


You will like the round and the capabilities it gives you, I am just as confident with it as I am with my 25-06. The 338 bullets allow more flexibility to hunt larger game.


longwalker

Thanks for the input. I spoke to my gunsmith today and he agrees that the .338-06 is a superb cartridge. I have used Adams & Bennett barrels in 7x57mm on a '98 Mauser and a .280 Rem. on a 1903A3 Springfield. Both shoot very, very well. I like the .280 so much that I bought the last barrel that Midway had in stock. All the best...
Gil

One I wish I had kept , a 760 pump .. Ever hook up with another 760/7600 , will have another one ..
Jack

GroovyJack wrote:

One I wish I had kept , a 760 pump .. Ever hook up with another 760/7600 , will have another one .. Jack

That just ain't right! The 760 in 35 W or 338-06 would be the near ideal woods/close quarters gun for anyone using a pump shotgun.

Was the whole idea grimel
I think I did it , just wish I had kept it ..
Nothing fancy , had the factory '06 barrel bored out ..
Knock the BeJesus outta you when it lit off tho ..
Jack

I am surprised to hear about the recoil from the 760 pump. All I can figure is the weight of the rifle and the distribution of that weight must have been effected after altering the internal diameter to accomodate the .338-06. Do you recall the barrel length?

longwalker

Was 18" or 19" as I recall . The 760 is a very light rifle and I think that was it .. Not untolerable , but you knew it ..
Jack

Groovyjack,

That will do it, but as you said close cover rapid fire. yipes it is scary. What a nice bear or big hog gun. I bet you could build a load with 250 grain bullets at about 2300 ft/sec that would be easy on the shoulder and fast back to target. Talk about hammer of thor.

longwalker

As a professional hunter operating in the uk i have had a number of clients using the .338/06, and i must say all have been used with very lethal results! We have found it to be a very good cartridge in terms of carcass damage and on even the largest of deer species we have (red deer) shots always pass cleanly thru, with the annimal deposited a few yards away.
With regards to knock down power, if you hit an annimal solidly thru the ribs and dont hit shoulder, or spine the annimal will still run. I have seen muntjac deer and chineese water deer hit with .338's and .375's do some serious air time when hit and hit the ground running and cover at least 100yds before running outta steam! the bullets werent dumping enough energy into the carcass. So that is another point to remember, with regards to bullet choice dont go to too hard or you may find all that extra powder you are buring is giving you no discernable differance apart from a bigger bang and more recoil!!

Didn't have a 338-06 but had a 338-08, very similar in ballistics with 165 - 210gr bullets. It was a good little rifle and anchored whitetails and hogs with some authority. I wish I had not sold it. I found the 180 BTs worked very very well as did the 165gr Barnes X. Very good wound chanels and always had a complete pass through with golf ball sized exit. Never hit anything past @ 100 - 125 yards as I used it in the brush and swampy areas. Never lost an animal with it. I tried some 250s but they were hard to get past 2300fps so left them alone and used the 210 Partitions for hogs or the Barnes 165.

I'll bet the 338-06 is a great cartridge as you can now get factory loads for it. They are a bit pricy but loaded by A-Square.

Hey Gil...A new guy here..but I have been on this site on and off looking around for some time..

I just put a 338-06Ackley together using a VZ24 action and an ER Shaw barrel. A friend in Mercer, Pa did my bolt handle for me and I added a D/T low safety, and a timney trigger. One of my shooting buddies is building one too..so we split the price on the reamer and gauges... I have a 35 Whelen that I built on another VZ24...and I have become facinated with these larger calibers with substatial bullets moving at moderate velocities....

My fireforming has been going smoothly... as you can see from the pic below..



I had it to the range yesterday trying out a few new loads and fireforming more brass...haven't found a tack driver load for it yet...but what I did find is that reaching velocities in excess of the max velocities listed for the standard 338-06 is not going to be a problem...

So..now I will try some h380, some wc852, and some more imr4895...the imr4064 that I tried yesterday didnt work all that well....so I will just have to spend more time at the reloading bench..and more time at the range..

Zeeriverrrat1

Zeeriverratt1,
Glad to see you here. I have not yet put the .338-06 barrel on either the 1903-A3 sporter or the Belgian .30-06 '98 sporters. The only problem with using a VZ-24 or standard '98 action is the overall magazine box length. The Springfield and the Belgian .30-06 are already the correct length. I was looking at IMR4895 or IMR 4350 and will get to it one of these days. Take care. All the best...
Gil

Gil..I did work the mag box on my VZ24 over some to increase the length..it just takes a file and some elbow grease. As it turns out, the throat on my 338-06AI is very short...requiring me to seat the bullets of some designs quite deep in the case... Velocity is not a problem..and if the heavier/longer bullets cause a big enough problem..I expect I can rent a throating reamer pretty cheap and fix my problem with a few turns...

I hope to have all the bugs worked out of this rifle and be able to take it to TX for my annual hog hunt in Dec....field testing is always so much fun....last year I used the 35 Whelen I built...the hogs were duly impressed...

Z