I have owned at least a couple rifles so chambered for many years now. When I tire of one and get rid of it for something, at the time anyway, that’s more spectacular, I end up down the road always picking up another.
I currently have two, a heavy varminter from Savage that has had a few custom touches added to it (another stock for one thing) and a Mark VII medium weight varminter from E.R. Shaw. Both are superbly accurate.
I don’t do a lot of varmint shooting here in southeastern Arizona, but when I do go out, one or the other of these two rifles goes with me.
Chapter 12
338 Winchester Magnum, the Original Alaskan
The .338 Winchester Magnum (top) compared to the .375 H&H (bottom).
This cartridge is a very good medium-bore cartridge that was introduced by Winchester, along with the .264 Magnum and the .458 Magnum, in about 1958.
They named the Model 70 rifle chambered for the .338 “The Alaskan, a pretty good indication of the type of game the Winchester developers figured it would be most useful on. It was pretty much and immediate success among Alaskan guides and residents alike.
The cartridge most likely had its origins in the efforts of three men in the late 1940s, experimenting with a couple similar cartridges. The men were Charles O’Neil, Elmer Keith, and Don Hopkins, and the cartridges were the .333 OKH and the .334 OKH.
The .333 OKH was based upon a .30–06 case necked up to a .33 caliber bullet, and the .334 OKH used a shortened .375 H&H case necked down for the same bullet. The .338 Winchester Magnum also used a shortened and blown-out .375 H&H case, necked down to accept a .338 caliber bullet.
Elmer used his .333 OKH as his second rifle on his first African Safari, and as I now recall it was a custom Mauser built by Montana rifle smith Iver Hendriksen. I vividly recall reading his descriptions of some of the difficulties he encountered using the cartridge.
He was using English made bullets and their performance on game was pretty dismal. The failures were in no way the fault of the cartridge, but rather the construction of the bullets. We are very fortunate these days to have plenty of really excellent bullets. Members of the Keith era were not so fortuitous.
I also recall reading in Keith’s writings that the .333 OKH became the .338 Win magnum, and the .334 OKH, became the .340 Weatherby. I suspect that there is a lot of truth in those comments.
The .338 is an excellent cartridge for larger big game. It is a great elk rifle when hunting wapiti in heavy timber. It is as good as any cartridge on big moose (and eland in Africa), and it really shines on the big bears.
One well-respected outfitter in Alaska used to require his bear guides to carry a .338 chambered rifle when chasing the bruins. Whether that is till the case or not, I can say.
When a motivated bruin is bound and determined for a up-close meet and greet, it’s nice to have the insurance the .338 Winchester Magnum allots.
When a motivated bruin is bound and determined for a up-close meet and greet, it’s nice to have the insurance the .338 Winchester Magnum allots.
Ammunition is available loaded with an assortment of good bullets, weighing from 200 grains to 300 grains. For normal use in the field doing anything other than backing clients on big bears, bullets in the 225–250 grain range are perhaps the most useful.
There isn’t much that a 225 grain quality bullet cruising along at about 2,800 fps won’t handily take care of. It is a relatively high pressure cartridge with the SAAMI recommended average pressure at 64,000 psi, and the CIP a bit less at 62,000 psi.
In my hunting career, I have had but one occurrence where an animal decided to test my mettle by taking me on. It was an Alaskan brown bear, and I was armed with a custom pre-64 Model 70 chambered for the .338 Win. Mag. loaded with handloaded ammo using 210 grain Nosler partition bullets.
I won’t get into the details, but since I’m writing these lines, needless to say, it worked.
Chapter 13
416 Rigby, of Harry Selby Fame
African Professional Hunter Harry Selby was one of the driving forces in popularizing the .416 Rigby.
We often hear the story that the .270 Winchester was a cartridge made successful by one man, Jack O’Connor. Well, I think that is a bit of an exaggeration.
There is no question that O’Connor’s writing about his experiences with the cartridge helped it along immensely, he didn’t “make” it. The cartridge was good enough to make it on its own, O’Connor just speeded up the process.
Another cartridge that has been very successful in the game fields of the world whose success has largely been attributed to one man is the .416 Rigby cartridge and African Professional Hunter, Harry Selby. How that came to be is an interesting story.
Like all self-respecting Professional Hunters in Africa, Harry Selby used a heavy caliber English double rifle for his work. On one safari, his trusty double managed to get run over by the Land Cruiser, causing enough damage that it had to be returned to England for repairs which would take several months to complete.
In the interim, Selby visited a gunshop in Nairobi and purchased a John Rigby made Mauser rifle chambered for the .416 Rigby cartridge. It worked so well for him that even after his double was repaired, he never went back to it and remained with his .416 magazine rifle.
Here’s what John “Pondoro” Taylor had to say about it in his iconic book African Rifles and Cartridges, “John Rigby clinched his reputation as African gunsmith when he placed his .416 Mauser on the market for heavy and dangerous game. If for any reason you prefer a magazine rifle to a double, there is no finer or more satisfactory weapon for all-around use against dangerous animals than this .416.”
He also wrote, “This was Blunt’s favorite rifle, and the weapon with which Daly shot most of his elephant.”
The cartridge was designed by John Rigby & Company in 1911 as a magazine rifle suitable for use in India and Africa. At about the same time, Jeffery came out with its .404 cartridge and Westley Richards with its .425, all designed for magazine rifles. These three cartridges were made possible largely due to the development of Cordite smokeless powder and mauser’s great 98 Mauser action. Both the .404 and .416 became very popular in Africa — the .425 less so.
The .415 Rigby was the choice of professional hunters who were looking for a magazine-fed rifle.
The original loading of the .416 Rigby used a 410 grain bullet at 2300 fps. This was later standardized with a 400 grain bullet at 2400 fps. Even at the higher velocity, the big cartridge is really loafing with about 47,000 psi chamber pressure. Compared to some of the newer .416 loadings, they reach the same general ballistics as the Rigby, but at much higher pressures, well over 60,000 psi.
The downside to the large case is that, in general, a large magnum action is needed to house it. It was designed around the Mauser No. 5 Magnum action. Most Rigby-made rifles used this action. However, a few were made on standard length 98 Mauser action by milling away a lot of metal. The one used by Harry Selby was one of these rifles.
In its heyday, the only viable source of ammunition for the big .416, along with most of the other large bore cartridges of British origin, was from Kynoch. After the end of WWII, for numerous geo-politial reasons, the demand for large bore rifles and ammunition decreased substantially.
Ultimately, Kynoch ceased production of all ammunition, including the big Rigby .416. As a result, most of the English express rifles withered on the vine. It remained that way, with African hunters switching to cartridges that were still being manufactured.