I have been reading a lot of the threads on here and I am new and I see a lot of hype about the ultra mags I have the 300 and it is great but everyone is saying the 7 is so fast well if you look at remingtons balistics it will show you that some of the 7mm rem mag is just as fast and has identical loads to the 7 ultra mag and if you look at the 338 win mag and the 338 ultra they are within 200 fps not really a notion to go out and buy a new ulra mag for the price they want the only ultra mag that I see that makes sence is the 300 ultra it is faster than all of them and most of the weatherbys.
So I guess what I am getting at is there some loads for 7 and 338 ultra that are screaming out there or is everyone buying those 2 caliburs because it says ultra mag on it.

Yep.... that's called "Marketing"!!!

Some people just gotta have the biggest and loudest, for whatever reason.

At least we have a choice.

The huge cartridges need long barrels to do anything signifigant over and above most of the existing cartridges. A 338-378 Weatherby only beats the .340 by about 150fps, but relies on a 28" barrel to do it. I would make an educated guess and say that if they where both fired from a 28" barrel, the difference would be closer to 50fps, which is completely insignifigant. Weatherby's data says 26" barrel in their ballistic chart, but they only sell the rifle with a 28" barrel.

Using the example above, if the 338-378 can only muster 150 fps advantage with two extra inches of barrel, which should be good for 100fps at this velocity level, what chance do the small bore rounds have of greatly outperforming the "standard" magnums by a great margin when they are sold with short barrels? The 338's are FAR more efficient than the 7mm rounds, and even they show only a minimal gain.

Another selling point. There was a member at my gun club who had a Accumark in 30-378. The rifle was a tack driver, minimal recoil with the muzzle brake (LOUD!!!), and shot flat like a laer beam. The owner was somewhat dismayed, especially since he took precaution against overheating the barrel, when he discoved that the throat of the rifle was severly eroded after working up a deer load and a elk/moose load. A little shy of 300 rounds and the accuracy was gone. I imagine the results are only better when you use a catridge that is more overbore yet, like the 7mm Ultra.

But it would be fun to have one with a 30" barrel to shoot at 1000 yards. The best thing about the big boomers will be the cases they are based on being available for wildcat usage.

Not to be offensive, but the Ultra Mags and the like are a waste of barrel steel - literally - in my opinion. I would never tell anyone they shouldn't own one, but I'll never spend my dough on one, either. Like MikeG said, it is nice to have a choice, and if it helps sell rifles, I guess it's a good thing.

I guess my question would be if you have to replace the barrel after 300 rounds that cartridge aint any good anyway! Shoot my '06 barrel is rated for 10000 rounds! So i'll be older and alot grayer before it will need to be replaced.

There's nothing wrong with the new short, fat cartridges - in fact, they've got a lot going for them. The fly in the ointment though, is that they really don't add up to all that much more advantage over the standard cartridges to warrant trading in your older big bore magnum blaster for one of the new Ultra or Short "magnums".

If you don't already own one or more of the standard chambered cartridges, then it might well be desired to take a look at the new ones. What most people are saying is, they aren't dumping their present firearms just to acquire one of the new trendy models. Not only do you have to replace the rifle, but nearly everyone reloads so that means changing out all the expensive reloading stuff, too.

I've got nothing against the new Ultra's or WSM's or WSSM's or RSUM's. I don't see any major improvement though. I just wish that instead of reinventing the wheel, those manufacturers would have invested that money into finding ways of assuring quality.

I don't know if its because the web gives us instant access to people's gripes now, but it does seem that more and more are getting less and less in quality firearms. Remington, Winchester, Ruger are all having quality problems. The various 1950's Winchester and Remington Magnum cartridges are not. They still perform as good or better than they ever have. Put the money where it is needed most, into quality.

Sorry for the rant.

In my opinion, the last cartridge introduced that actually filled a need was the .222 Remington, in 1950. Everything since has been to try to create a need - or market. Keeps them in business, which is good.

DC

KCIH just does not like my Weatherby. ;)

The .338/.378 Weatherby smokes smaller cartridges and the rifle is so light it weighs less then most all of the 30/06 or 7mags I have had in my hand. Extra couple of inches for a well engineerd muzzle break and you have the ultimate, shoulder fired, long range "reach out and touch" rifle.

Loud? OH YEAH :eek:

I'm not really recoil sensitive, Zippy - but!

There's two chamberings that just knock the snot out of me - the .338 Win Mag and the .338-378 Whby Mag. Don't know what it is about the .338 caliber, but it treats me very badly.

Looks like I have to agree with Zeppelin here, I have a 300 rum. I am learning quite a lot with it.
With the barrels at 26-28" there will not be much of a velocity difference, hang a 34-36" barrel on the receiver and watch a tremendous difference in the velocity between a 36" 7mm rem and a 36" 7mm rum.
throw in a good load of very slow powders, that can use the longer barrel length, now you have a whole new ball game.
How about 3000fps with a 220gn Smk, from the rum,
talk about reaching out and touching something.
I obviously have alot to learn, but I am on my way.

John

KDUB their aint no kick! Weatherby put a break on the front that is engineered so well it kicks less then a 30/06

Trust the zeppy, go to the light side of the force :p

Hey, Zip -

I've got a bridge over at Yuma I want to discuss selling you!

I see some of the points about the ultra mags with the longer barrels and all that but why not put a longer barrel on the guns that are not ultra mags and I get you neck down the fps to the same as when you had 26/28 inch barrels on them what is the point.
I have the 300 rum and from what I can see that is the only cartridge that they made better than any of the others when factory ammo is going 3600 fps and drops 26 inch at 500 yards show me another gun that will do that out of the box with a 26 inch barrel I think that all the other ultra mags are nothing more than a selling point ie ultra mag 200 fps more than the traditional say 7mm is not going to sell me but that is my opinion this has been a good topic thanks.

"when factory ammo is going 3600 fps and drops 26 inch at 500 yards"

The fastest I see is 3450 with a 150g bullet for that 300 (.308) RUM. I am not sure what factory load will pump out 3600fps unless your shooting a 110g bullet.

The Weatherby will shoot a 160g 338 caliber at 3600fps.

Its really ment for a 500-600 yard elk shot.

Now the truth is you can kill any bear or elk with a standard .308. Actually you could kill one with a .223 with proper shot placement (and maybe some running until the bear bleeds to death) but the purpose of the higher mags is more energy deliverd to the target for a single shot long range death blow. If you cant hit it at 500 yards then the ultra mags are a waste.

Many of the military snipers are now moving to the .338 calibers for that extra punch on the target (plus you can shoot more tonnage)

the load that I am refering to is the 125g nolser blstp it is the nosler book and it is also avalible through remington but it is not on their web site it pushes 3900 fps but I can load it up a little hotter and get 4016 out of it as for ft lbs of energy the 300 will beat the weatherby by a long shot.
I don't know but have you loaded and 300 with 110 bullet before I want to see what the 110g hornady v-max will do but have no load data for it I think that load will push into 4100 without max loads the 125 is perfect for deer I want something for the coyotes and something to fool around with.
All in all the ultra mags are a great gun doing away with the belted cartridge was a big plus, if you have any load data for a 110 that would be great.

A .308 beating a .338 for Energy? LOL!
Now thats funny!


If you go to the next size of 150g rum you get 3546fps max accrding to NOSLERS website. I am shooting 160g at 3600fps. A bigger heavier bullet going faster?

Well lets compare some closer apples here. Nosler claims 2987 fps with a 220g RUM using Hogdon 870 (hodgdon said 2956) Now a .338/.378 weatherby runs a 225g nosler at 3112. If they made a 125g .338 one can deduce that it would also run faster.

Weatherby's are designed to run faster.
P.S.
According to BEARTOOTH's most excellent Energy calculater: your 125g 4223lbs and the 160g .338 4631lbs.

SMOKED~~~~~~~~~

I did not say anything about the 338/378 never seen or heard of one till I got into this web site don't even know what the casing was originally before they made it to what it is now but I just got off the remington site and if you compare the 300 rum to any other of the rum and the 300 wby it has more ftlbs of energy at 500 yards than any of them.
Plus out of the barrel it is faster and I am comparing the 300 rum with a 200gr to bullets of heavier weights obviously because that is all they have and as for ftlbs of energy they all are abouve the 300 rum until you get past 200 yards then the 300 rum has more some of them it surpasses by quite a bit. but I don't know about this gun you are talking about tell me a little about it maybe I might have a place for one in my gun cabinet.

Cheeze and Crackers! You boys are starting to remind me of Enforcer - numbers, numbers, numbers!

You can say what you want, but I've hand loaded the 338 RUM to 3000fps with a 250gr. bullet. buddy that's power...........

Yeah bodog,
that's a whopping 50fps faster than a .340 Weatherby will go with factory ammo. Good to see Remington got their name on a cartridge.

Now you get into the 338's and your talking the "Real" ultra mags here. I dont load to the max any of my rifles ( I admit I do pump it up on the revolver)

Hodgdon lists the 250g 338 at 2923fps max. The Weatherby lists out the 250g 338 at 2989fps and the 338 Lapua at 2853fps. All three I consider true ultra mags. I think you will find that the Weatherby's always have the edge in speed but once you get past 2800fps on a 338 its really a mute point.

The Weatherby costs much more and its not worth the 2x price but when I wanted a real "super" mag I had to have one. (that and my dealer let me have it for $1,000 since I buy so much from him) My other choice was the Lapua in 338 but I would have been a happy camper with a 338 RUM.

Naw... that's not an "ultra" mag - did you see my post about the bowling ball mortar?

Yes but thats not an ultra mag, thats a "SUPER JUMBO PINNACLE ULTIMATE MEGA BALL CASTER"

Wonder if you moly coat the ballz? :D

Cheeze and Crackers! You boys are starting to remind me of Enforcer - numbers, numbers, numbers!


Grumpy, thats what this forum is all about! Real numbers. Other then that you get in to the more Liberal "How do you feel about it" mode.

Some peoples guns are just bigger then others :D

Yes but thats not an ultra mag, thats a "SUPER JUMBO PINNACLE ULTIMATE MEGA BALL CASTER"

Wonder if you moly coat the ballz? :D

Nah, just patch it with an old pair of Fruit of the Looms, soaked with WD-40......

Nah, just patch it with an old pair of Fruit of the Looms, soaked with WD-40......

I would think the finger holes would put a bit of english on the ballz. Perhaps fill them with Tri-Nitro-Toluene for a bit more phun!

The article mentions that the ball 'howls' or 'whistles' going down range... probably a result of air disturbed by the finger holes... might bear some experimenting to drill a bunch more holes in one to see what happens....

Hmmm, they put dimples in a golf ball to make it fly farther, how about dimpling golf balls or bullets? hmmmm

Hmmm, they put dimples in a golf ball to make it fly farther, how about dimpling golf balls or bullets? hmmmm

When it comes to velocity numbers out of reloading manuals, especially NOSLER'S I would, if I were you Zepp take those numbers with a grain of salt. I have a 300 Ultra mag myself, along with a wildcat in a 338/300Ultra. Numbers are nice to view! However, they are not really what makes the hunting world go round and round.

Sure their is big business in selling the Ultra this or that, the mega what ever, but most of us realize by the time our hair turns grey or falls out, that super velocity is not what kills big game animals in the first place. I care more about accuracy than flight numbers down range! If your looking for a new rifle perhaps, by all means check out the offerings. If your gun cabinet is full, keep what you got because chances are you already have what you need to to the job in the hunting fields or dark timber.

Hmmm, they put dimples in a golf ball to make it fly farther, how about dimpling golf balls or bullets? hmmmm


Theoretically, that should work, as it breaks up the boundary layer of air around the projectile. Less drag, basically.

Might be tough to do evenly and keep the bullet balanced. There is some speculation that the impact-plating process for moly might have some effect of this nature.

Head to the hardware store, get a little tiny ball-peen hammer, and let us know how it works out... :)

Theoretically, that should work, as it breaks up the boundary layer of air around the projectile. Less drag, basically.

Might be tough to do evenly and keep the bullet balanced. There is some speculation that the impact-plating process for moly might have some effect of this nature.

Head to the hardware store, get a little tiny ball-peen hammer, and let us know how it works out... :)

I like it the way it is, that way I don't slice my bullets off into the rough.
-9r

Well lets see I shoot an old 8mm Rem mag. With a 220 Seirra spitzer boattail at 3080 on my chrono sighted in dead on at 300 it's 3 1.4 inch high at a hundred and about 24 inches low at 500 according to my old Lee balistic program.

By the way the BC on that big ol Seirra is .572. I Just don't see the burning need to change to another super ultra with that kind of performance.
Now if I was just able to see that far.

I have been thinking of getting it magna-ported. Seems the older I get the more it kicks.

I bought it back in the 70's when it came out I was in Alaska and Remington said it delivered more power than the 300's with no more recoil. I kinda liked the idea of 4500 poot pounds with a flat shooting 220 gr. bullet. Now they wouldn't lie would they.

Well it did a nice job on a couple of big browns in Alaska and when I got back to Idaho I just liked it to well go get rid of it.

I know it's a little overkill for down here, but he deer and elk don't seem to mind. Now I think that coyote I shot with it last elk season did send a letter to his congress man.

I have been reading a lot of the threads on here and I am new and I see a lot of hype about the ultra mags I have the 300 and it is great but everyone is saying the 7 is so fast well if you look at remingtons balistics it will show you that some of the 7mm rem mag is just as fast and has identical loads to the 7 ultra mag and if you look at the 338 win mag and the 338 ultra they are within 200 fps not really a notion to go out and buy a new ulra mag for the price they want the only ultra mag that I see that makes sence is the 300 ultra it is faster than all of them and most of the weatherbys.
So I guess what I am getting at is there some loads for 7 and 338 ultra that are screaming out there or is everyone buying those 2 caliburs because it says ultra mag on it.

Hey BIG STICK!!!........Where is your information coming from as I see the .338 mag with a 225 grain bullet going 2800fps and my .338 RUM did a solid 3200fps with RL-25 powder weighing 98 grains. Now as my math serves me correctly, that is a 400 foot per second gain!!!......Dah :eek: :rolleyes:

I also have a .338/300 RUM that gets over 3280fps with a 225 grain bullet. I have NOT MAXED it out as of yet! Just so you know it is more than barely 200fps OK. In any event you will get a substantial gain in velocity over the original .338 magnum caliber and that is positivelly something to write home about velocity wise with such a weight bullet. The 300 Ultra mag and 338 Ultra mag are here to stay!

Geez guys, I bought a 300 wby for shooting moose and i got flack from my buddies for buying such a big gun. Now you're making it sound tiny :) . I can't see myself ever getting anything bigger than that, it will do 400 yds, if im ever up to the task.

Geez guys, I bought a 300 wby for shooting moose and i got flack from my buddies for buying such a big gun. Now you're making it sound tiny :) . I can't see myself ever getting anything bigger than that, it will do 400 yds, if im ever up to the task.

Yes, I will indeed Nathan and perhaps a tad more if your practicing with the rifle. My 300 win mag and 338 Win mag are solid 400 yard guns bare none!

However, they are not 500 of 600 yard rifles for what I call a long range shot at elk across the canyon. I have been put into that situation twice in the last 2 hunting trips and I plan on having the tool I need for the next showdown.

Now both the 300 Ultra mag and .338 Ultra mag have 2000 pounds of kenetic energy at 600 yards. This is plenty for taking of any bull elk and both calibers are very accurate if you can muster up the ability to handle the recoil they both hand down.

I thought I had the wildcat I built sold to a younger person who said he wanted it........however his bank said different, as his funds were just a might low according to the bank and his written check. I am now practicing every other day (time for the body to rest in between hitting sessions) with both calibers and my 25-06, along with my wife and her 270 & 7mm mag for the big hunt this fall.

We will be hunting the last two weeks of the season, looking to ambush a big bull coming down from the mountain tops. I'll cover the canyon and my wife the flats in front of her. Where we are going to be set up is a long ways out, with a canyon on one side over 400 yards across. It takes half a day to ride a hours to get to that same spot.