reloadin’ joe

Joe Evans

The amount of over the campfire battles regarding the relative merits of the 270 Winchester verses the 30-06 Springfield is beyond belief. To a much lesser extent, the 308 vs. the 30-06 debate is also hotly debated. After seeing or using all these cartridges for many years, I can only say that all of them work very well. In a good rifle, all of them are very accurate and any animal hit will go down quite expeditiously. No clear cut winner is found in these battles. To this fray I would like to add another two to battle it out: the 338 Winchester and the 340 Weatherby. I’ve used both these cartridges on a variety of game for a lot of years and have a good idea of their relative pluses and minuses. I have a favorite and will let you know which I prefer at the end of this opus.

The 338 is a standard length belted magnum while the 340 is a full length magnum introduced several years after the 338. Sort of a, “take that- I am king” measure by Weatherby. Both can be used on medium-sized game up to as big as they come animals. The 338 and 340 both have their roots with Elmer Keith in his 333 belted OKH and 334 OKH belted rounds. Elmer basically said that bigger is better and eventually settled on the 338/378 as the ultimate. This is the 378 case necked to 338 and shortened a quarter of an inch. Velocity of this cannon is 3000 fps with a 250 grain bullet. The war surplus 4831 was the propellant. So what velocity can we expect from the 338 and 340? I’ve never chronographed any factory load in the 338 but I believe the 200 grain factory load was rated at about 2950 fps. This can be duplicated with 73 grains of IMR 4350. The 225 factory load was rated at about a little over 2800 fps. I settled on a charge of 72 grains of RL19 with a 225 grain Barnes Original X. Velocity is 2865. The 250 grain bullet in the 338 is a great heavy grain bullet. The factory loads are listed at about 2660 fps. This can easily be bested by loading 76 grains of RL22 to obtain 2816 fps. All this being said, my favorite load in the 338 is 75 grains IMR 4350, 210 Nosler partition, WW case, CCI 250 primer. The velocity is 3035 fps and accuracy is ¾ to 1 inch at 100 yards. This load has proven itself to me both locally and in Alaska. Before we leave the 338, I should mention the great 275 grain semi-spitzer, Speer. Supremely accurate, I used this bullet over 72 grains of war surplus 4831 at 2500 fps to take my first six point bull elk. The range was less than 50 yards and the bullet basically went stern to stern. Penetration was at least 40 inches. Too bad Speer discontinued this bullet as it really is in a class by itself for heavy game. Good to over 300 yards or so, I don’t think it sold to a velocity-crazed public. The 338 I have used is an early model Ruger M77 with tang safety and was Magna Ported. Factory barrel is 24 inches long. Now for the 340. Bigger is better! Well, this can be debated. Ballistics for the Weatherby factory ammo are usually quite close. No inflation here.

In a 26” barreled Accumark Mark 5, the 200 grain factory load went 3204 fps. The Weatherby factory load with 225 Hornady went 3112! 250 grain Weatherby with 250 Hornady went only 2845. Hand loads have to be loaded to the max to equal these results. I have not tried to equal the 225 factory load but were able to beat the 250 grain factory load by a considerable margin.

92 grains of RL25 with a 250 Sierra averaged 3026 fps and this was not a maximum load. I’ll give more handloading results in a future article. It is my belief the pressure data found in the reloading manuals is accurate, but a lot of the propellant choices leave a lot to be desired. So which one of these howitzers is better? Actually, both have their respective strong and weak points. The 338 is available in more rifles and can be used in standard 30-06 length long actions. The 340 requires a true magnum length action. So what, you say. The 340 with its longer bolt throw can nick your nose with the bolt of you do a fast reload with the rifle properly shouldered. The 338 doesn’t do this to me. Accuracy is basically equal and depends on the individual gun. Ammo availability is definitely an advantage for the 338. With the 340 you’d better stock up when you can find it. The recoil? I find both to be pretty nasty. I Magna Ported the 338 and had Williams put their guide brake on the 340. These actions tamed both these weapons to tolerable levels. The advent of laser rangefinders largely negated the trajectory advantage enjoyed by the 340. Back in the day we tried to get as much velocity as possible to minimize our personal range estimation errors. Now you know exactly how much you need to hold over. Power advantage? The 340 gives you about the same advantage over the 338 that one of the short 30 mags give you over the 30-06. All of the above properly loaded, of course. So which one do I prefer? The 340. Everything hit with the 340 has gone down right now but I have had to chase a few critters hit with the 338. I think this might be due to luck of the draw, but I like to use what has worked for me. Still, I will not stay home if forced to use the 338 and will be quite confident it will do any job asked of it!