.338 Win Mag Recoil?

The one thing I noticed right off the bat was how loud the 338 was. I had ear muffs on and my right side was crooked, on, but not sealed good. I was behind my friend who fired the rifle and my ear rang the rest of the day and into the night. I could not imagine one with a brake. I try to stay relaxed when I shoot and just let the rifle do whatever it wants, the times I got the love tap from the scope I was tense. It was the first time I fired it, second time and after a break. The other times it was ok. Like nmleon said it pushes more than punches. I would rather shoot his 338 than his 350 Rem Mag, it is a puncher, it punches, counter punches, bobs.....weaves...and punches again and that is all done in one round. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

I am not an elk hunter and I don't think the 338 would be needed but it would be a good cartridge for elk. In the right rifle and a good recoil pad one could learn to shoot this caliber without dreading sending a few out the tube.
 
Not much if any recoil from this 300-Rem Mag necked up to .338 super Mag, We did some Looooong range shooting last weekend.
I had some Pretty bad shooting at 1600 yards 18" groups.

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.300 REM MAG. Necked to .338 Super Mag

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Vaportrail
 
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I used to have a light weight .50 cal muzzleloader and it didn't seem to be bad with recoil, but I got rid of it because I never took it anywhere. I've shot plenty of shotguns with skeet, bird and buckshot loads and thought those were no big deal. I plan on putting a nice brown laminate stock on that .338 since it has a real light weight synthetic stock, but it does have a limbsaver on it. By the way it comes with the muzzlebrake, but I will try it without.
 
i have one in a savage 110. it is extremely accurate. i bought mine cause it was cheap and i was planning on an elk hunt. that never played out, but i have taken several deer, hogs, and one ram with it. depending on the load, it can go from mild to wild in a hurry.
 
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you can't go by caliber alone when evaluating FELT recoil.



Very true.

I've fired a .308 that hurt (hard plastic butt plate that I think was cut at the wrong angle), and a .375mag that was (much) easier on the shoulder than my 12ga slug gun (which I used to fire a lot).

Felt recoil is affected not only by the design and weight of the gun...



I agree completly. I shot a 7mm mag for years and harvested a ton of game with it, but the hardest I ever got hit was with a light weight 30-30 with a metal butt plate. That little beast spanked my shoulder something awful. I hated that little gun and never shot it again.

While we are on the subject of recoil:
My favorite joke to play on my oldest son is to go out shooting skeet (we use 12 gauage for this). I like to get him warmed up shooting low base #10, and then slip a super high base #4 into the mix. This is always good for a laugh or two...

Calcoyote
 
I shoot the 338 for coyotes to mule deer. I have not had a chance to go for larger game yet. Its a great performer, and it does kick, when you are testing loads on the bench. So brake it, your accuracy will improve, and yes wear hearing protection. I wear Walker Quads when hunting. I think this gun has it all over the 300, IMHA.
Jim
 
Some people think a 333 win mag is over kill for a deer. Well where I go hunt them it is very heavy cattail cover and lots of it. When I put a round from my 338 into a deer it lays there and I've always recoverd my animals. I want a hard hitting round so I don't have to trail a wounded animal through miles of cattail swamp. For a deer sized animal a 175-200 grain bullet does the job just fine. It's all what you want your rifle to do for you. I also will agree that there is less damaged meat with the 338 than smaller calibers. Don't know why.
 
Anyone who even remotely thinks that the .338 WM is easy on the shoulder is dreaming..it kick's and it kick's like H-ll.. I've installed the Simm's slip-on recoil pad and it did help, but it caused the gun to jump around alot more on the bench almost like it's bouncing off your shoulder. This cartridge is capable of outstanding accuracy..mine is in a Browning Stailess Stalker with a Leupold 3.5X10..we were doing some long range testing and there's a big big difference in hitting power compared to others we've tested.. Shooting at metal gongs this week you can see the difference in the impact compared to 7mm RM's, .300 SAUM's, .300 WM's and a few other light weights..when the 200 grain X-bullet hit the plate you knew it...the one that surprised me was the 6.5 X 284..at 500 yards it barely moved the gong..it's actually a man-hole cover..heavy and thick..the 142 6.5 was like a toy compared to the 200 grain X-bullet.. For deer sized game however, the jacket's on these big bullets is thick and with thin skinned game like deer they may not even open-up very much almost acting like steel jacket..for deer slow it down and maybe shoot a softer bullet and not a premium which should still be hard enough for deer and coyotes...
 
Haven't had a chance at the 338 yet, but if ever purchase one, Id like one of the older Rem all black VS heavy barrels. If you wanna talk about kick, I had an extra $400 laying around a few years back and purchased a NIB Remington discontinued the BDLs in 375 RUM. I switched it over to a LSS stock from my 300 Ultra. It turns my arm purple with 260g NBTs I loaded to 3000 plus fps. I had a break installed and still notice no difference in recoil at all! No coyotes with it yet but blew a rabbit in half and a couple of 12" holes in deer with it.
 
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