So the gun I rebored was just a Ruger American in .308 that I had bought for my daughter. She killed a 9point with it when she was 15 but had bigger and better things to do in life as she got older. Before she headed off to college, I asked her if I could change some things on it. I had heard about JES reboring a bunch of guns for guys on 24hour campfire. I called out there and talked to him. Nice guy. Very simple process. Had it back in about 2 weeks. I then took it to Precision Tactical in Hoover and had those guys cerakote it a very cool gunmetal olive drab finish. Then did some work on the trigger.
The barrel on that gun is only 16” so it is tiny!! Feels great carrying through the woods and sits nicely in my lap in the treestand. I have mostly shot 200gr fusions out of it. I have not loaded for it yet but have bullets, powder and dies to do so. Fusions work great for this caliber. I have shot several large whitetails in Texas with it and the .338 slammed them real hard.
As far as the .358 goes, one of my best friends hunts with one in a M77 compact rifle. He loves it! I think it is very cool as well. I think he would agree that a .358 is a 200 yard and less gun where the .338 is a 300 yard and less gun. I really like both rounds. The benefits of having that much power in a short action is very impressive. I honestly don’t think you could go wrong with either calibers. I do not know why the .358 has so much drag in an equal weight bullet. I also don’t necessarily think there is any disadvantage in either cartridge. There are good loads for both calibers and if you hand load, you can get pretty creative on what type of load you want to shoot. I will say that the 338 is very much like a 308 in the since that it is inherently very accurate.
I am blessed to have a bunch of great rifles in a multitude of calibers. I must admit that one thing I really like about the 338 federal is that not a lot of people shoot that caliber. Just something a little different. Let me know if you have any other questions about that round.
-Big Bore
