In one of the last visits to the Bignami di Ora (BZ) we observed a cartridge that is little known to us even if it was presented in 2006 after a study carried out by the US ammunition house together with the Finnish Sako, part of Beretta Holding. It is a charge born when many began to wonder if the exasperated calibers were always and everywhere necessary or if sometimes a reduction of the values, including that of the recoil, was not preferable. Thus begins this illustration. The .30-06 Sprg. and the .308 Win. have been at the basis of different modifications by some US manufacturers: the reduction of the diameter of the collar preserves a shoulder of excellent proportions, while the widening beyond a certain limit involves a reduction of the same, but always to such an extent as to allow stop on the chamber in order to maintain the expected head space. If we take into consideration the caliber increases we will see how the .30-06 Sprg. has been the object of attention by scholars in search of an adequate charge for game of substantial size, to be used in classic actions with sliding rotating shutter, in pump or lever actions of modern conception and finally in semi-auto for hunting leathery animals , medium heavy and to be undermined at short distances: a very specific choice for North American game. The cartridge based on the .30-06 Sprg. with .35 "ball collar assumes its appearance around the 20s, but is put into regular production by Remington, keeping the name of the writer, hunter and authoritative figure in the arms industry, Col. Townsend Whelen to whom the designer James Howe of Griffin & Howe had dedicated it: so the name was and still is .35 Whelen.
At Winchester they move around 1955 and we look at the .358 Win. which arises as a similar derivation, however from the .308 Win. and is adopted on the bolt action Mod. 70 Lightweigth and on the lever 88, followed by the Browning BLR, the Savage Mod. 99 and the creations of various European manufacturers. Today it turns out to be little used despite its balanced and regular performance. The Federal took the .308 cartridge case by hand again, making a smaller enlargement in the diameter of the collar, up to the measure of .338 ", obtaining an interesting charge for its compactness and for a compendium of functional performances precisely for hunting wild northern animals. America. The balance occurs between muzzle velocity, energy and amount of recoil, a factor which is taken into account for the use of medium weight rifles. An interesting comparative examination sees this charge in contention with others capable of handling bullets around 180 gr, by intuitive analogy in the field, and taking as a sample a rifle weighing 3,6 kg, therefore a right rifle with optics. The summary mirror highlights some data that can be modified in reality such as: for example the yields of .30-06 Sprg. with a 180 gr bullet they underlie a very powerful charge while those of the .300 Win. Mag. With identical ball are very quiet. That said, it is clear that Federal's new position perfectly centers the purpose for which it was born: beautiful flies with little recoil, always combined with interesting species for different specific types of hunting.
From the designer house we take the mirror shown in the box for sale to the public and here we highlight small differences with the data mentioned above: here is the series of numbers to which the expert eye will immediately apply the appropriate scenes that his mind has detected. in hunting grounds:
Cartridge ball weight grs / g V / 0 m / sec E / 0 joules E / Joules recoil
.338 Federal 210/14 800 4373 31,75
.338 Federal 180/12 860 4300 29,61
7 Rem. Mag. 175 / 11,3 870 4309 35,78
.300 Win. Mag. 180/12 900 4748 44,61
.30-06 Sprg. 180/12 840 4097 31,41
.308 Win. 180/12 790 3665 24,32
.358 Win. 200/13 760 3733 27,21
With us this cartridge is not very common although it is a valid alternative to those that are usually chambered in semiautomatics purely intended for wild boar, but it also works very well in ordinary repeating rifles: the 8,5 mm section with a weight of 210 gr ( 14 g) allows an appreciable sectional density and a respectable energy which, entrusted to the bullets that the Federal puts on the market, is completely discharged into the wild even at distances far greater than the usual 50 meters of the post shot. Combined with an appropriate shotgun and optics, the .338 Federal lends itself to exciting hunting in hilly terrain where surprising the same wild boar, fallow deer and mouflon can give exciting moments and prestigious results. The ballistic performance remains functional within the range of 200 m with the appropriate corrections in elevation, guaranteed by the best optics available today. For the quick shot, with the game in motion, let's not forget the advantage of the low recoil thanks to which you can easily stay in aim by doubling the shot with high probability of success. The Federal carefully writes in its packaging that the good hunting result starts from the choice of the bullet so we observe this Uni-Cor® Soft Point of 200 gr while the text by Franck Barnes originally indicated three proposals, only three will have said someone, but there they still look truly masterful today: 180g Nosler AccuBond, 185g Barnes TSX and 210g Nosler Partition.
Someone else will sentence that there was no need for this umpteenth charge in a panorama where the proposals are very dense: no need, certainly since Diogenes had already thrown the bowl, his only possession, in ancient times, discovering that he could welcome the soup in a hollow bread, but it is always nice to observe and try something new especially when the design, as in this case, has not only gone in search of the bang from a serqua of joules, but together has looked for a way to match a management easier on the part of the shooter. In the panorama of .338 this value is reduced compared to the classic winding of the same Win caliber. Mag. Stands as the right means where other parameters, not just the amazing energy, combine to make the cartridge functional. This was achieved by carefully studying the type of powder to be used with which to obtain the prefixed results, where a not high pressure peak is guaranteed together with rapid, but gradual acceleration of the bullet with a medium length barrel.