Reeder Custom Guns - Fun little pondering...

I have a nice custom 98 Mauser .30-06 that I have lost interest in. It's too bland, although totally capable. I have pondered converting it to a large caliber for bigger adventure and play. I'll probably not ever pursue it but I enjoy the fantasy, and that has to be worth a little something too. The hope.

The options are .338-06, .35 Whelen, and 9.3x62. All are pretty close in performance and I am not sure if feed rails would need modding for the 9.3. I think the other two would feed slick as is.

I just wanted to see the comments. Honestly a complete rifle is not much more. But I've been there before. And one can push a 220 gr. .308 cal. slug to 2400 fps in the 06'. It sort of takes the wind out of your sails. The old 06' is not too bad, it's just not very inspiring to me. It's the ride not the destination.

The 338 hole. I did the 338-06 conversion and have not looked back well maybe once, I did say a penitence (?) to the -06 deity, Rebarreld a not so good shooting Rem 700 30-06 to the MAGIC 338 last trip to the range finishing the break in at now about 100 rounds give or take, the last 18 rounds in a 1.5 x 4.0 group at 500

Went home wearing a big damn grin, I am sure everyone looking at me on the drive home was wondering what is that guy smoking, If they only knew... gunsmoke !!

My 2 cents go with the 338 a LOT more bullet selection

I agree about the .338-06. That is a slick and fairly easy way to go. I had one for several years and just got too good of an offer for it and let it go. I miss it and no doubt will do it again. I did swap for a Savage 110 wood stock in 30-06 and was planning to sell it or turn it into a 338-06. I made the mistake of shooting it a lot last week and found how good it will group. Think I will leave it as is and convert something else. I guess this is just the ramblings of a hopeless gunwhore.

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Has the nostalgia and Romance you are looking for.

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it's balls to the wall or nothing. A serous round mister! The classic load is a 286 gr. soft or solid at 2400 fps. That's close about 200 fps behind the .375 H&H Magnum. Usually in a gun about 2 lbs. lighter too!

It's not brutal but it thumps notably. It's more business, not for fun off the bench. Doug does have some 250 gr. Nosler Accu-bonds but to make it up they added a couple hundred fps to the mix. They are not light loads!

The exercise makes me consider my original idea of just .416'ing the piss out of anything that truly needs blasting. A 350 gr. at 2400-2500 fps is almost in that same range. My next rifle down from that is a .30-06 or .308. I have a nice 375 gr. RNGC .417" mold, and can powder coat, to let me shoot full power loads quite frugal. Doug and I will try some next practice outing.

Whelen Ackley Imoroved versions. Do they gain enough powder space to get a significant velocity gain?

like less case stretching. But on my 6mm Ackley the gun will feed regular 6mm Remington fine but boy is the Ackley notchy. I don;t think you can have it both ways. I bet if I modded it to feed Ackley the regular 6mm would pop right out. I polished the rails and it got better.

The little Ackley will push a 100 gr. to 3500 fps +, basically the equal of the Weatherby .240 which is a larger belted .30-06 case necked down. The little 6 is more efficient than the .25-06 but no more powerful, shoots a bit flatter on paper. I've wanted to get a 55 gr. to 4,000 but have not really pursued it.

The 6mm Rem., .257 Roberts are all on the parent 7x57 case. Ditto the 8x57 and 9, 9.3x57.

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I have a Weatherby Ultralite in 338-06 and it is by far my favorite hunting rifle. I shoot a Hornady 225gr right at 2650 fps and even though the rifle only weighs 6 lbs its kick is fairly mild.

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.358win.... have thought about the .338 Fed-- .308, .338,.358 sounds good to me-- as did the 30.06, 338, 35 whelen... The .06 can be a horse--- 150 gr@ 3090- hard on deer
my Mossburg is 2890+ close enough with a 150 gr. What I like in the .338 is the high BC -- I use my .358 as an all around rifle-- fields and woods- but the 200 FTX is only .300 bc in the .358 win --- in the .338 it is in the mid .400--to get that in the .358 win it stakes a 250 gr speer at about 2400. Little much for west tn deer

Modern powders give it the full equal of the old .30-06. Personally I think the 7mm-08 is likely the best all round medium round there is. The thinking man's 7x57 (aka Brit-speak .275 Rigby - interesting they are fixated on the tight dimension). As you mentioned the ballistic coefficients, the 7mm easily beats the .30 with some range added. For some reason it is another sweet spot with the .338, ballistic advantages that skip the .35 and .36. I'm not really keen on the science behind that but it's there. Of course it is totally lost in the hunting fields, it's the man not the tool.

Armchair quarterbacking is fun though.

the FTX is supposed to expand from 1800 up --so for me to use the .358 win I have to keep that in mind. that happens at 250 -275 yds- starting at 2600+-
and a bc of .300. the Serria 225 is .386 and can get to2490 but the bullet is a little tuff for deer as the range increases so it needs a bit more velocity at impact to be sure 2000fps impact is better--
the 220 speer is fairly soft but with .289 bc 2500 start which is very hot as was the 225 gr., is close to the 200 gr FTX which for me is best all around. I am starting to move toward cast more in my .358. I had 3 and wish I still had them. Been using the .358 win like this test & hunting since about 1975-- they can be very accurate like 3 shots that touch but mine has some throat wear so not .6" like before. I do use BC--I have never got the .308 to quite catch a 30.06 -- I have learned a lot about the .358 though-- you can take nickeled 30.06 cases and make .358 -I learned the nickel on the 30.06 can vary and some can be stiff to chamber- of course the nicked .308s can work too...

custom shop. It would really crank out bullets. I could get 2780 out of a 250gr partition, pushing 3000 with 225gr partition. I killed a lot of elk and black bears with "stubby". The recoil was fierce and I destroyed a Swarovski scope working up loads. I rebarreled it a couple of years ago. I just couldn't take the recoil any more.

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My brother has had one for years nice gun for elk or mule deer.

its an interesting cartridge too. I have (3) 338-06's and (2) 35 Whelen's. Yeah, and at least (5) 30-06's. The one referenced is a very nice wood stock, not too fancy but nice, nice blue and just the right weight to make for comfortable shooting...around 8.5 lbs scoped. Action is smoother than your skinny ass when you were a baby. Do it, git er done.

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