Well let me start with giving you the basics of my dad and his application or use of his rifles. He is strictly a game hunter, he does hand load his own ammo, and has since he was 12. He is only concerned with accuracy in the "minute of deer" measurement, but still wants to have a 3 shot group @ 100 yards that can be covered with a quarter.

He shoots Barnes TTSX bullets ( I think he's shooting the 210 grain bullet) for everything. His 338-06 is a Winchester Mod 70 in the original laminate or wood stock, a recoil pad that is from the 60's or 70's, and a long barrel with no muzzle brake. Gun probably weighs 10 lbs. at most, and is topped with a Leupold 4-12x40.

Reloading: get yourself a newer/newest reloading manual and start with low to mid range powder charges (recommended by the manual) and work your way up from there (while checking for pressure signs)until you find an accuracy node (or the group that is the smallest). From there you can tinker with the seating depth to see if you can shrink it down any further. The Barnes bullets generally like a .05 jump or somewhere in that ballpark.

He likes it better than the 338 Mag he used to use, as it kicks less. Not that I have ever pulled the trigger on it myself.... I'm recoil sensitive and won't shoot anything bigger than my 30-06. But my brother has shot it, and said that he wouldn't want to pull the trigger more than 2x in a day.