7mm-08 Rebarrel to 338 Federal

[brownb56]

Yup. Big dumb feral cows that get killed by the hundreds every year by trains in this county alone because they're too lazy to walk in the snow.

A headshot is THE most ethical kill when performed properly. Instant off switch and you can taste the difference in meat that's been killed tensed up in pain vs. meat that simply got unplugged. Deer have an easy 3" circle broadside between the rear brain and the brainstem/upper vertebrae. Double that for elk, 2.5x for moose.

You are really worried about hitting a 6" plate less than 200yd away? Not too many stock savages that won't do that, if the shooter took hunters ed.

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I just know what I have seen, hit a deer in the face and they are in for a slow agonizing death. I'll risk a little meat loss to make sure they go down on the spot. I did shoot an antelope at the base of the skull with my 7mag this year. But that was the result of a neck shot hitting a little high.http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20161222/2ac17162235448cf4f6018f87eecfd57.jpg

The behavior of elk in 3-4ft of snow after hunting season is over is night and day different from what it is during hunting season.

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[rosewood]

The size of the target of a head and neck isn't the issue from my experience. It is the movement. Most deer species move their head around a lot looking for predators. Their body will stay virtually still while eating and then raising their head to look around. If you fire right as they start to raise or lower or turn the head, you may miss or have a bad shot. A double lung shot is a better, easier target to hit.

Rosewood

[Mountain Man]

The size of the target of a head and neck isn't the issue from my experience. It is the movement. Most deer species move their head around a lot looking for predators. Their body will stay virtually still while eating and then raising their head to look around. If you fire right as they start to raise or lower or turn the head, you may miss or have a bad shot. A double lung shot is a better, easier target to hit.

Rosewood
I suppose. Coming from MD, I got to see a ton of dead deer. You could take 40 a year if you hunted all the seasons. Buddies would get crop destruction permits that allowed us to kill 150 in a weekend. When you go from hunting to extermination on a grand scale, you learn a lot about terminal ballistics and what works. We also donated 80% of the meat to homeless shelters/prisons, so not having to carve out potentially lead contAminated meat was a big time saver.

Anyway, 50% were taken with 223s shooting fmjs (cns shots), 30% were taken with 12/20ga slugs from h&r rifled slug guns (shoulder shots-5" exit hole ruins A TON of meat, but some counties only allowed shotguns), the remaining 20% were ear hole shot with 22lr inside 50yds (they just drop-even subsonic aguilas would do the job) and the occasional bow or glock kill if you got close enough. 17hmr killed a few as well.

I guess a lot of my "hunting" experience came from these setups, so my views on ethical kills are much more based on shot placement than knocking the hell out of them. I only "missed" a head shot once with a 204 ruger AR, but the explosive nature of those bullets still severed both main arteries in the neck after hitting low and blowing the jaw off.

I can appreciate your point of view though, it's just not what I learned growing up in an area with major whitetail over population issues.

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[cowboybart]

If elk will be on you menu soon, I'd look at a WSM.
Barrel and bolt head will get you there. A spare mag will keep you from tweeking the lips back and forth if you are going the switch barrel route. Most elk shots will be 200-500 yards unless you are lucky enough to draw a KY, AR, PA tag. While the 338 Fed will kill at 400 yds, your scope may not have enough travel for a dead on hold.

I have a small shank 300 WSM barrel that I would part with - I'd even discount it if you traded me your 7-08 barrel.

[twchristian]

New to the forum here, I am interested to see how this build turns out, I am planning on building a 338 fed out of my SA 223. Is the 300 WSM a short action cartridge?

[rjhans53]

the 338 fed is an awsome caliber. I've ended up shooting the 160 barnes for deer and caribou. The 200 bullets do a good job as far as that goes but the 160 barnes sitting on re7 (max per barnes) shoots a clover at 100 out of my sako, it is coming out of the tube at around 2900 and recoil isn't as much as a 270 with a 150 grain pill. The savage isn't as good as group it's only a 1 1/8" gun, but it's 1 1/8 rain shine or anything else I've ever took it out in.

[cowboybart]

Is the 300 WSM a short action cartridge?

Yes