Every time i watch larger caliber videos... "Psh, that round drops off at 800 yards" - Me, who only has access to 200 yard ranges within reasonable driving distance

I absolutely love these lead balloon talks. Thanks for including them.

Nice shout out to the poor .338-06; that always seemed like a fantastic round

10-Minute Talk... 40 minutes later. Good episode, gents.

I am so glad you finally did .338 Federal. I have a TIkka T3 in .338 Federal. I shoot a 185 grain Hornady GMX , and it is my primary hunting rifle. It anchors every animal it hits as long as I do my part. I love this cartridge.

I was looking at the 338 Federal in 2020.. and noticed that Ruger made a special run of the 358 Winchesters in their American Predator rifles.. so I jumped on that instead 😊 The 358 Winchester is more than " THE BRUSH BUSTING 358 "! If you hunt deer and black bear from zero to 300 yards.. there's a lot of great cartridges to choose from! Basically anything from the 243 Winchester on up! That being said.. I love the entire 308 Winchester family of cartridges! But my favorite caliber is the 35! I've used the 350 Remington Magnum the 350 Legend and the 358 Winchester with similar results.. inside of 100 yards! The deer didn't know the difference between the three.. ALL the blood trails were similar! They looked like you walked with a bucket pouring blood out along the way! All shots were broadside heart and lung shots.. and the deer didn't get to far either 😊 Love my 358 Winchester ❤

I absolutely love the 338 federal. I loved it so much that I actually bought a second one. Both after it was a dead cartridge. Both are Tikka T3X. Ryan: take a long look at the Barnes 160 grain ttsx and the performance you get from it. I believe you’ll love your new rifle.

One of the Best and Most Sensible Cartridges Ever Made! 🥳

These lead balloons are my favorite. Every time I walk away learning something new. I have a lead balloon for you guys, the .308 Marlin.

I’ve had a 338 Fed since it was standardized and love it. It’s killed more White Tails than I can count and I think 9 Elk with Federal Premium 210 gr. Nosler Partions, all one shot kills and no tracking.

The real question is .338 Federal vs .358 Winchester

Great Podcast! I would love to see a podcast on the 358 Win.

I have a Ruger M77 in 338 federal and it's an absolute hammer on all game may very well be the best practical North America hunting round no one knows about 😅

I appreciate the shout out for 35 Whelen! Solid performer for me.

It is an absolutely excellent round. Very mild. Great bullet selection.

I'm glad you guys mentioned the 8.6 Blackout. For those just looking for suppressed 338s, take a look at the 338 Razorback, 10mm brass and fits in the AR15 platform! 🎉

I'm more of a fan of Ryan today. Very much appreciated that he validated and added to my views on the 338 Federal. 😊

.338 Marlin Express was another lead balloon that deserved t better than it got. You should explore that cartridge, too.

I always thought, a Remington 7600/760 Carbine in .338 Federal, would be a perfect central/northern Wisconsin deer and bear rifle. I have carried a 760 in 30-06 carbine for 40 years. I have thought of getting a 7600 and having it re-chambered or re-barreled in .338. federal.

I have a 338 federal and it is a great round that died because of the ammo shortage.

I picked up a Browning A Bolt in 280 Remington for a song in the late 80'. That was my only bolt gun until COVID. The largest game taken was a huge Red Stag. Everything I shot died. During COVID, hand loading supplies were gone. The only factory ammo on the shelf in my area was 30-06. So I bought a Savage in 30-06. Everything still died. Since reloading supplies are back, I'm back to my 280 Remington.

40min worth of 10min talk haha. Boy, I love this show. would love to see an ep on 284win. cheers guys.

I love the 338 Federal. I can see a good 3 rifle combo of 6.5 Creedmoor, 280 Ackley Improved , and 338 Federal…..if I were smart. That said I own 223, 28 Sherman Magnum, 300 Sherman and 350 Legend…mostly in guns heavier than ideal. I think the issue is we all want something new, unique and sexy! 338 Federal is none of that, but I’d rather carry a 7.5lb 338 Federal than an 8lb 338 win mag. Also, we see ourselves as 800 yd deer slayers, but 338 Fed is a quite veristas 300yd rifle…..which most of my hunting shots are 300yds and under.

327 Federal Magnum. Good on paper, but just odd enough that it never really took off.

I adore the .338fed. Was a fairly early adopter & bought into the .480 Ruger around the same time. Both are criminally underrated cartridges that exemplify just how important marketing really is. It doesn't matter how good a cartridge is if the marketing team doesn't flood the shooting world with outlandish claims of it being the best cartridge for every application, ever. At least I still see .480 factory ammo every blue moon for about $90 a box (that I don't buy; now that Ruger owns Marlin they NEED to chamber the 1894 in .480 so that it has a shot of coming back) But I haven't seen a box of factory .338fed in 5+ years. Even Buffalo Bore gives it no support, and you can generally find really niche cartridges from them (though that's usually handgun, but still...) and it should be a round that's in their wheelhouse. I keep hoping 8.6blackout is going to take-off, but it still has zero support from major players from what I can tell. Sucks having to handload if you want a .338 rifle bullet (unless you want to pay $4+ a round for a magnum)

Great series, made me want a .338 fed

I feel like we need to see this in one of your cartridge wars videos. 308 vs 338 vs 30-06 vs 35 Whelen. I can't believe the 35 Whelen isn't in this conversation of necked-up awesomeness.

Pulling data from the internet doesn't speak for each and every person. Reloading keeps me in quality accurate ammunition. The 338 Federal and 338-06 A-Square cartridges are excellent. People that use these cartridges along with myself are in the know. Just because factory rifles and ammunition aren't being made doesn't mean the cartridges are dead. I reload, so expensive or hard to find proper headstamp brass isn't a concern. I easily use 308 Winchester and 30-06 Springfield brass with bullets from 180, 200, 210 and 225 grains. My Savage 16FCSS Weather Warrior in 338 Federal cartridge and Weatherby Mark V Ultra Lightweight in 338-06 A-Square cartridge are both outstanding performers. I also have an original stamped Rochester, New Hampshire Thompson Center Encore 15 inch pistol barrel in 338 Federal. Thor's Hammer Handgun! True big game hunters do not need to shoot 500 yards which in itself isn't hunting. Yeah, I also own a Savage 110 Hunter in 280 Ackley Improved. Once again easily reloaded with 280 Remington or 270 Winchester brass. Fireforming or hydroforming processes. Never will I own a 6.5 Creedmoor firearm. If I did get into a 6.5mm cartridge it would be the 260 Remington.

I was gonna say that the 30-06 is a cartridge where it makes sense to neck up. The 338-06 and 35 Whelen are fabulous power house cartridges l. The 338-06 is very effecient and nips at the heels of the 338 Win Mag. As far as why someone needs a more terminally effective cartridge than a 308 or 30-06. It depends on what you primarily hunt. The 308 and 30-06 are good choices for people who primarily hunt deer with an occasional Elk or Moose thrown in. If you live in an area where you are constantly hunting Elk, Moose, or big bears a 33, 35, or 37 caliber makes a lot of sense

I bought 2 Sako rifles in .338 Federal for my 2 young sons. I did so mainly because I love Sako rifles, and these 2 sat in the gun store for years without being sold. Got a good deal to take them off their hands, and we have been very pleased with how they shoot and perform! Manageable recoil for a young hunter with plenty of knockdown power. I'm glad to hear people trying to keep it alive.

Howbout .357 MAXimum for a lead balloon. One of my favorite sleeper cartridges when loaded single shot. Thanks for making such a great podcast!

Love my 338-06. Great cartridge out to 300 yds

As a levergun fan the 338 Marlin Express and 308 Marlin Express always intrigued me but they never took off either.

I've had a 338 Federal Sako 85 since about 2009 and it's my go to hunting rifle for anything inside 300 yards. It bests the 7mm Rem Mag for short to medium range but in a shorter action and barrel. As Ryan said in the video, you just simply take 308 brass and run it through the die and that's it, it's now 338 Federal. If you don't reload it's not easy to find ammo but there are some companies that still manufacture it. I can't speak for any 338 rifles other than my Sako, but with handloads I'm easily getting under 1/2 inch groups with 210 gr TTSX and IMR 8208 XBR powder loaded to the specs in the reloading manual. I can't say enough good things about the cartridge for reasonable hunting distances. I think the trend of everyone wanting to take shots on game past 600 yards is unethical and irresponsible for all but the best and most practiced shooters.

I really enjoy my 338 Federal custom build I done many years ago! It’s my go to for big bears on bait and spot and stock in Southeast Alaska!!

I have always wanted a .338 Federal, from the beginning of that cartridge. I just completely geeked out on the interwebs over the past couple of days reading about it, and asking questions in the webs. The 200 grain Speer hot cor might be the bullet that makes this cartridge what it was meant to be. There is a reason the 200 grain Federal Fusion is the only load for this that survived the test of time. Pretty much any 200 grain .338 spitzer is going make more power and keep that energy and velocity better than almost anything else out to 400 yards, that you could build off a .308 winchester cartridge. Plus you still get about a .250 sectional density. You could argue sectional density is not that important with this much mass and power, and an expanding bullet. But how many times have you heard, you want at least .250 sectional density for hunting big game? The 35’s can make more power but you are still dealing with the .308 cartridge case and powder capacity, and now you are also dealing with about a .2 ballistic coefficient. That makes the 358 Winchester about a 200 yard rifle before you really lose everything you gained with the bigger bore. The .338 Federal with the 200 grain slug could be a legit 300-400 yard gun. For sure inside 300 you can have good bullet performance and work with a 200 yard zero on big game. What got me interested in the .338 Federal again was comparing ballistics of 16-18” carbines. In a 16.5” barrel, the 338 Federal might could hang within 100-150 fps of a true magnum .338 cartridge at the same barrel length, with far less recoil and muzzle blast. Also the .338 Federal is very efficient. Look at Speer load data. reloadingdata.speer.com/downloads/speer/reloading-pdfs/rifle/338_Federal_200.pdf reloadingdata.speer.com/downloads/speer/reloading-pdfs/rifle/338_Ruger_Compact_Magnum_200.pdf With a 200 grain bullet in each, max loads with the .338 Federal are faster than starting loads with the .338 RCM using about 2 grains less powder. If they timed it right, they could have necked up the 6.5 Creedmore and AI it and called it the .338 creedmore. Or just stick to the .308 Win parent case, because it is the .338 bullet/bore that makes it so efficient. Or maybe they could have started with the .284 Win case. They would have sold the crap out of it. It is a truly efficient cartridge. But now we have the 8.6 blackout instead, based on a necked up and strangled down, over-spun 6.5 creedmore. Which is still awesome in the way the centrifugal force improves terminal ballistics of subsonic .338 slugs. The way I see it, for a hunting rifle the best way to go is either a 7mm or a .338. The 30 splits the difference for an all around gun. But i like the .338 better. I have to give credit to most of what I learned about this to the guys on the THF. They will steer you straight, and put you on the right path.

It's recent but 224 Valkyrie is a definite Lead Balloon contender. More Lead Balloons!

My led balloon is the 7 wsm. It is a good cartridge that just didn’t win the popularity contest but post good numbers on paper and works great on whitetail. The 35 wheelen in my reloading book shows to produce more energy than the 300 win mag or the 338 win mag at the muzzle and that’s impressive. As a short range large game cartridge it should be a more popular choice. IMHO

More lead balloons!!! Seriously, I’ve been interested in the .338 Federal for a while, loved you guys covering this

Yes keep the lead balloon podcasts coming

Great one. Bring on .35 Rem talk!

Federal did a great job, did what everyone was asking for then , few came out and bought it..??? I know a lot of everyday hunters, it is their only rifle, the 358 Win. is a good mention as well. 35 Whelen and 30-06 same issue, a great way to have a larger heavier bullet, in the same action and barrel length, with less powder than a mag. and still get great performance. Great Show.

An enjoyable conversation. A conundrum regarding the 338 Federal was that hunters, shooters, and writers alike have spent decades debating the merits of the 30-06 Springfield vs. the 308 Winchester, then comes along a cartridge that effectively resolves the debate (producing 30-06 velocity and trajectory to 300-yards out of a short action with all other variables equal) and yet the response was crickets. I suppose we all enjoy discussing such attributes as much, if not more, than using such well-engineered tools. Given that it performs well out of a shorter barrel length, the ~9% larger frontal diameter compared to 0.308" projectiles, and the moderate recoil I've homed in the 338 Federal as my preferred all-around eastern US cartridge. At least, that's my position on the debate : )

Woodleigh made specific projectiles for .338 Federal Sadly a fire destroyed the facility In Australia. But they are coming back. I have a Kimber Montana in .338 Fed and a Sako Grizzly also love them.

I had KS Arms build a .338 Federal for me, and it's fabulous. Shooting a 200 gr Trophy Bonded Tip, I took an elk this fall. One and done at 100 yards (timber hunting). 95% weight retention, expanded to .652, penetrated from in front of shoulder, laterally through chest, broke last rib on offside and stopped on hide. 30"? penetration? Elk didn't go 50 yards. Excellent cartridge.

Great show guys! Its been mentioned before, but I shoot and handload a .350 rem mag, and i would love to see a 6.5 rem mag/.350 rem mag show!

The ultimate resurrected lead balloon, the 284 Win!!! (And all of its variants used by F class shooter)

I feel like the majority of us shooters/hunters, myself included, get lost in the woods of what different cartridges CAN do, rather than focusing on what we really need from a cartridge in our personal applications.

338 Fed in a Sako grey wolf I mean it’s basically the hammer of Thor 😂😂 but honestly I do love the cartridge and the rifle. Re loading to shoots amazingly well with the hornady leverevolution powder!!!

Great segment. Please float more lead balloons. My son has/had an 85 Kimber Montana in 338Fed where he was young (age 10 or so). If memory serves, it had an 18" bbl, but it might have been 16". Great light rifle, recoil was not bad. He used 185gr Trophy Copper ammo and took elk, black bear, whitetail, mule deer, pronghorn, and a host of African plains game as well as stag, tahr, and chamois in New Zealand. Longest shot was an aoudad at 535. I can't remember anything requiring two shots, except a gemsbok in Namibia. Great cartridge. Really punched above its weight.

Love the content… I picked a 358win, an older leaden balloon, over the 338fed about when the 338 came out. With hand loads (of course) I get 100fps greater velocity with a 200gr pill in the 358 than with a 180gr in 308!! 358 has devastating performance on moose and large black bears (so does the 308 / 180 combo). But I just love the unloved cartridge.

350 Remington Magnum 8mm Remington Magnum And all of the Remington Ultra Magnums. Great show and keep the lead balloon episodes coming.

.338 fed is actually my current build. Interesting to see this while im in the midst of it.

The .338 federal is my favorite, I'm saving to put a custom barrel on mine, with a 1 in 8 twist, because I love the 210gr Barnes, and want some extra rotational energy. Worth noting, the 160gr .338 bullets are usually barnes too, so being copper, that speed will work with them to penetrate well.

I have a .356 Winchester in a Marlin lever gun. I love the chambering and the rifle.

Would love to see a 10 Min/Cartridge Talk on the 8.6 BLK! Really enjoying all of the info you guys disseminate ever since I stumbled across these podcasts a couple weeks ago.

I have a Kimber in .338 Federal and I absolutely love it. Shoots a factory Fusion Ammo 200 grain bullet to POA all day long. To me, it’s a gun for the person that wants one rifle to hunt all big game in the USA. I lived outside a Fairbanks, Alaska for 3 1/2 years and shot everything up there including moose’s,caribou, sheep, goats ,bear and even a wolf with a Remington 700 BDL in .308 Winchester. I call the .338 federal the .308 on steroids, it’s fantastic. YMMV.

35 Whelen is kinda a led balloon bounce back, certainly has it's following, but with new hunting regs it has a good comeback story

.338Fed is a ballistically, wonderful round. There’s a plethora of wildcat cartridges that I love digging into: 375 SOCOM, 358 SOCOM, 375 Raptor, 7SS or SST, and on and on. Of all the types videos you guys do, these in depth cartridge talks are my favorite. Diving into ballistics/performance and talking load data; doesn’t get better than that. 8.6BLK is a great looking cartridge and applicability. With most hunting shots for general usage coming in 200 yds and in, I’m obsessed with big, hard hitting rounds, even if they’re oddballs like a wildcatted Socom round.

I was really interested in building a 338 Federal upper for my AR but I didn't for one important reason you forgot to mention: terminal performance of .338 caliber bullets. Most. 338 caliber bullets are created for much higher velocity cartridges, and have much higher fps requirements for terminal performance than the 338 Federal can maintain for long. Once I realized that the realistic range of the round is about 400 yards to get desired terminal performance, I decided it wasn't worth it. Hopefully someday the round can be resurrected and someone will make 338 Federal specific bullets.

Been thinkin' about a building a .338 Federal in an AR-10, courtesy of a .338 suppressor "Good Buddy Deal". The suppressor is really excellent, but a bit of overkill for the 300 Black AR it's currently fronting. Hence the .338 Fed. So this "Lead Balloon" podcast was extremely timely. In addition, I love it when you open up the Muckepedia and discuss cartridges. You simply cannot get the amount of information and insights so quickly anywhere else outside of Jeff Cooper's library. The Lead Balloons are also strangely fascinating - it seems the reasons for their failures are also very informative. So, this is a vote for more Cartridge Talks and more Lead Balloons. Quickly!

Remember having read that .348 Winchester’s early offerings included a 150 grain bullet at 2890 feet per second. That loading was not a success; it died young, and there are no newly made 150 grain .348 bullets available. There is another very easy medium-bore handloading option that might equal the .338 Federal or the .338-’06 160 grain loads: .358 Win or .35 Whelen using 110 grain, 125 grain, 140 grain, or 158 grain bullets. They wouldn’t have to be slow ‘plinking’ loads. They really could be medium-bore fast varmint loads with jacketed bullets, or even something more with mono-metal copper-alloy bullets.

Best 10 minute talk ever.

I shot a Tikka .338 Federal for years as my primary deer gun, always great performance on game. Regret selling it. I still don't know why i did.

Great job guys! Keep them up.

I jumped on 338 Federal when it appeared out of nowhere. I had a BLR 308 converted with a Shihen barrel. I wanted to convert a Valmet Hunter, but was talked out of it. Loved the cartridge. Not so fond of bullet cost to reload it. Finally, since most of my hunting is in the (former) tight woods and swampland of Eastern NC, it just didn't make sense when a 7.62x39 is very typically 'enough gun.' Changed the BLR back to a 308 that my dad now owns and loves. I really did like the 338 Federal. Nothing big enough in my region to justify it. On the other hand, I literally got into 6.5CM this week when I found Winchester 140 OTM for half what I have been paying for 6.5G Hornady Black. Got in 5 cases of the Winchester 140 and 1 case of Federal 120 OTM this evening. Scope sighting and range play all weekend. I'll see how it goes. Oh! With an Aero M5E1 complete build.

If we don’t talk about the .284 Winchester as the ultimate led balloon I’ll be devastated! Also 25 wssm might be cool when considering the new high bc bullets

Great episode guys, enjoyed this one! Another lead balloon to look at 307 winchester...

I'd like to hear Ryan's opinion on the 375 Winchester and the 307 Winchester for the lead balloon talks

Love the .338 Federal especially out of the AR10 platform

Love these talks gents. Keep it up

I love when a #10MinuteTalk turns into 40 minute talk. 😂

I was excited to see the notification for the video, then really excited to see it was like 4 videos in one!

I use a .338 fed. most of the time while hunting deer and moose. In my area deer and moose seasons overlap, so you can take ether during the deer season. The .338 gives me enough for moose and plenty for deer. I use 200 gr. Nosler Accubonds. It’s not a long range caliber. In northern Ontario your lucky to be able to see 200 yards. Recoil is easy. It has less than my .30-06 using 180gr. Muzzle energy is in the 7mm mag range. I think it’s a very underrated cartridge.

I love the 338 Federal but when Federal discontiuned the 180 grain Accubond, I lost my favorite factory loaded offering. My gun shoots the power shok 200 grain fairly well, but I have also bought some 160 grain ttsx from doubletap. All rounds are fantastic deer and hog killers. I have even dropped big hogs in their tracks at 350 yards. Seems like all the lead ballon cartridges are just the ones that I love. 350 Remington Magnum, 338 RCM, 338 Federal, 325 WSM, all fantastic cartridges.

Welcome back ten minute talks we've missed you.

Great content. Keep it up.

Just a note on the 6.5 swede, here in Scandinavia, we load them to modern pressures, putting it right between creed and prc in performance

The main problem with the 338 federal is that is does nothing that the 8x57 mauser hasn’t done for 100 years

Great Podcast guys, I genuinely believe that that short action .338's have place in light Carbine type on foot hunting applications. It would have been great to draw more of a comparison with the .338 RCM and also the .338 Marlin Express and why they went the direction they did. I have to agree that a Lever gun chambered in .356 Win is as cool as it gets, I know that Marlin and Winchester offered one for only a few years and then stopped production due to i think, "lack of popularity" really sad. Hey maybe with Ruger's acquisition of Marlin they may offer something interesting.

I know I’m late to this game. But I love my AR-10 I built with a Shilen 18” barrel. Yes, factory ammo is near impossible to find, but I like to roll my own so that doesn’t stop me from hunting with it. Lead balloon suggestion is the 219 zipper. Factory ammo is harder to find than 338 fed, but the round is a screamer. Nothing like unliving yotes from a lever gun at 200yards.

One of my favorites 6mm rem Lead balloon

Love the cartridge review podcasts. I can’t believe you have meetings to find cartridges to talk about and STILL haven’t covered the 300WM🤯

Love my 338 Federal, very accurate and deadly, no complaints

Keep the lead balloon pod casts coming!

Great video! Love to hear one on the new 8.6 blackout

In Scandinavia, 9.3x62 is popular. Seen as a good caliber for larger deer animals. In Norway 6.5x55, 308 win, 30-06 the most used calibers for hunting. 9.3x62 is one of the most widely used calibers. Many have system rifles where they combine 6.5x55 and 9.3x62 barrels.

Great work gents. I'll have to try this one out.

Please do a podcast on the 376 steyr. Especially great in the Steyr scout rifle.

I gotta say I went bananas over the 8.6 BLK until more range data came out. My son-in-law started his AR-10 build based on my enthusiasm! As more data came out I slammed on the brakes hard. The 8.6 in subsonic form has the same abysmal trajectory as the 300 blk. But the rotational speed pulls the cartridge at distances as short as 200 yards. In supersonic form the 338 Federal crushes the 8.6 and within the normal hunting ranges of 300 and under the cartridge is an absolute beast! So my son-in-law built a 338 Federal with an 18” Wilson Combat barrel. I load his ammo which is not any different than loading 308. Still waiting to take some game , I would imagine this is THE hog cartridge of all time!

We all love a Vortex Lead Balloon, Vortex Lead Balloon, Vortex Lead Balloon (sung to the tune of "Yellow Submarine". Good stuff here, men. LOTS of info in the podcast...thx.

I love this lead balloons series, because I absolutely love niche cartridges.

I love my 338federal it hammers elk out to 500 yards for me it's a sweetheart of a round.

375 Winchester, 280 Remington, & as someone mentioned, 358 Winchester. My candidates.

I would love to have a compact 338 federal with open sights. A lot of my hunting is inside 100 yards and occasionally dealing with angry critters.

Please do an episode on the Ruger no.1 action! Amazing content as always!

Do more lead balloons. 6.8 western May make that list. I enjoy the 338 Federal and may also go custom.

Love 338 federal! Load it with Barnes ttsx 185gr. Great accuracy! No need for a tracking dog, that’s for sure! Would love to see it return to popularity!

More Lead Ballon, more Cartridge Talks, more Spaghetti Shootout, Thanks!

The 30 TC is an excellent cartridge that is a lead balloon. It bombed but is the parent case for the 6.5 Creedmoor. In many respects, the 30 TC is an updated and improved 308. It allows longer and higher BC bullets than the 308 in a true short action and comes from the factory with a "match style" chamber ( long section of tight freebore) just like the 6.5 Creedmoor, and the PRC's. The sales pitch of the 30 TC was: 30-06 velocities out of a short action and less recoil. The 30 TC was one of Hornady's first Superformance loads and pushes a 150 grain bullet at 3000 fps which is, indeed faster than most 150gr 30-06 factory loads. The Hornady site still shows data for their 30 TC load and the original 2010 commercial is still on KZfaq. The 30 TC came out immediately after Hornady announced its Superformance line of ammo and uses a custom blended propellant. This makes it difficult, if not impossible for a handloader to match the velocity without going overpressure. There is not a single load on the Hodgdon/IMR/Winchester/Accurate reloading website that can match velocity of the factory ammo, for example. On the other hand, for someone who handloads, the larger case capacity of the 30-06 allows it to be loaded to a higher velocity.