338 Win Mag in 21' barrel

micksis86

New member
Hi all,

I've been looking at the Sako Brown Bear to upgrade my current 338 win mag and i think they're a great rifle. The only thing is i'm not to sure how it would be shooting a 338 in a 21" barrel such as in the brown bear.

Has anyone fired one of these or another 338 with a similar barrel.

At 7 15/16 Lbs naked i would say that it's too light for the calibre but i'm wondering if the muzzle blast would just be too much in the rifle.

Any experiences would be appreciated.

Mick
 
No experience, but in general I'd avoid any magnum in a short rifle. Loud, for starters, and magnum ballistics suffer more than other cartridges from short barrels as to velocity.

Sayeth the man with a 19" .243. :D
 
Back in the 80's after hunting season I was in Taylor's in Grand Junction, Co and they had this Sako 338mag with 22" barrel and it was marked down 50%. All they tell me about it that it was a speical run to test the market.

I think I paid around $400 with include the rings for that rifle and they did giving me a warning about recoil with that barrel. Recoil bother me more than muzzle blast.

I worked up pretty good load using 210gr partition and used it next hunting season took pretty nice buck and got my bull with another rifle. I kept the rifle for couple more years and used it as back up then sold it.

I would of never bought that rifle had it not been marked down. I figured if I couldn't handle the recoil I'd rebarrel to something else as it turned out I made little money on that rifle.
 
Well a 338 Mag actually will burn 99% of its powder in only 20 inches, so 21 is fine. A longer barrel give a bit more velocity but only because it’s keeping the pressure behind the bullet a bit longer. As a gunsmith I have cut and crowned more barrels than I can count, and I have choreographed the velocity in an awful lot of them. A 338 with a 24 or 25 inch barrel only gives up about 100 FPS when it’s cut back to 20” as a rule.
So I would not worry about a loss of velocity very much

Recoil on the other hand can be a consideration if the SAKO is simply too light for your liking. Recoil is the mathematical energy of the bullet weight and its velocity overcoming the weight of the rifle itself. “Kick” can be something different. Recoil is the energy of the backwards thrust of the gun/round. Kick is how it feels.
Kick feels different to different people. Stock fit and weight of the rifle affect kick A LOT!
In 1988 my wife started shooting rifles. She was only 5 foot 3 inches tall and weighed 116 pounds. She grew up in Pheasant country hunting with her dad and carried a 12 gauge for years but never owned a rifle, and neither did her dad or brothers. When she started shooting rifles I laid out several for her. Her favorite was a custom Mauser in 375H&H and she shot it VERY well. From sitting she could hold a group at 100 years of 3” and often a bit less, so she was obviously not flinching. But she also shot a light 30-06 I had at the time that she hated and said it kicked way too hard. The 375 weighs 10 ¼ pounds and the 30-06 weighed 6.5 pounds. Recoil from the 375 was a lot more but the 30-06 kicked her harder. The 375 fit her well and was slower in its impulse but that little 06 didn’t fit her well and had fast sharp recoil.

The reason for the preceding “article” is to point out a simple fact. No one on this forum is going to be able to answer your question Micksis, because none of us know anything about you. Only you will be able to answer it, and only after you shoot the rifle. We can all make guesses, and some may be well educated guesses, but they are still guesses. You alone must find out how that rifle will fit you and how it will feel. None of us know how tall you are, how big, what your build is, how much experience you have or how recoil effects you. Some people (like my wife back in 88) are small and yet a 375H&H is fun for them. Other men are large and still the sharp kick of even a 30-06 is distracting to them to a point that good marksmanship is difficult. It’s just how different people are wired I guess, and it has nothing to do what “how tough a man is”
So Micksis, you are going to have to make this decision yourself.
 
The 338 is one of those rounds that won't be hurt much by shorter barrels. Depending on the use 21" would be a good compromise. Pretty good for going into brush to retreive wounded bear, but long enough to give enough velocity for longer shots. On a 300, or 7mm mag where the intent is for long range use then 24" or longer barrels make sense. On rounds like this and the 375 where bullet weight is more important than speed 20-22" barrels make more sense to me anyway.
 
I've got one

My relatively uncommon LH Win model 70 classic stainless has a 21" tube in .338 Win mag. I think it is a great Bear, Elk rifle for North America. I shot two elk with it one at 20' and one at 25 yards; I didn't feel the recoil then.
 
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