Once I reached out to the MeatEater crew earlier this 12 months to ask about their favourite elk cartridges, I used to be wanting to get a advice from licensed elk killer Jason Phelps. However his response wasn’t what I anticipated.
“I personally shoot what many would contemplate a ‘wildcat,’” he advised me. “I don’t know if we might need to discuss a considerably unconventional spherical, however I can undoubtedly justify why I shoot it.”
Since we take price and availability into consideration after we develop our “better of” lists, I made a decision to not embrace Jason’s advice in that article. Nonetheless, I needed to study extra. I’m an enormous fan of bizarre and out of date cartridges, and I like highlighting good designs which have been relegated to wildcat standing.
Seems, Jason is aware of what he’s speaking about in relation to elk-killing ballistics. He constructed a rifle chambered in 7mm Remington Brief Motion Extremely Magnum (SAUM) as his light-weight rifle, however he’s actually enthusiastic about one other cartridge that hits with much more energy: the .338 Edge.
“It shoots superb,” Jason mentioned. “With handloading, you’ll be able to simply get a 300-grain bullet going 2960 feet-per-second. It’s not a velocity demon, nevertheless it’s a hammer.”
Historical past
Should you’ve by no means heard of the .338 Edge, you’re not alone. The cartridge is a real wildcat—which means, there aren’t any manufacturing unit choices obtainable, and it hasn’t been standardized by SAAMI. Rifles have to be constructed customized and cartridges have to be hand-loaded, however a number of reloading firms make dies, and .300 Remington Extremely Magnum (RUM) brass circumstances will be resized to load .338 Edge rounds.
The .338 Edge was invented by Shawn Carlock in 2001, in line with Carlock’s web site. He developed the cartridge by taking a .300 RUM case and necking it as much as settle for the broader .338-caliber bullet.
“I select this feature for the 338 Edge for a number of causes,” Carlock explains elsewhere. “First, the spherical needed to run via a Remington 700 lengthy motion, use a typical magnum bolt face, and launch very high-BC .338 bullets. I settled on .338 caliber for the Edge early on for its BC and weight.”
He developed the .338 Edge after Remington launched the .300 RUM, however earlier than the ammo big got here out with the anticipated .338 RUM. Once they did, it turned out that the .338 RUM had a barely smaller case capability than the Edge, which is why Jason prefers Carlock’s design.
“Since most individuals constructing customized weapons are handloading, you’ll be able to actually make the most of that additional case capability on the larger spherical,” Jason mentioned.
The Edge’s eight p.c better case capability will increase velocity by 120 to 150 feet-per-second (fps), which, mockingly sufficient, is why some estimate that the wildcat Edge is definitely extra common than the standardized .338 RUM.
Ballistics
Customized rifles and hand-loaded ammunition can get costly, so why would an elk hunter put money into such a bougie cartridge? In a phrase, ballistics.
“The ballistics are unbelievable,” Jason mentioned.
There isn’t an enormous quantity of printed knowledge on the .338 Edge (at the very least as in comparison with different cartridges), however what does exist is spectacular. Jason’s rifle sports activities a 31-inch barrel, which may push a 300-grain bullet almost 3,000 fps on the muzzle and produce a whopping 5,837 (ft.-lbs.) of power.
For comparability, a 180-grain .300 Win. Magazine. produces about 3,500 ft.-lbs. of power on the muzzle, and the Edge has flown over 600 yards earlier than its power has dropped to that degree. To place it one other manner, from a bullet power perspective, taking pictures an elk at 600 yards with the .338 Edge is similar as hitting that animal point-blank with a .300 Win. Magazine.
The Edge provides hunters the flexibility to make use of a high-BC, heavy-for-caliber bullet, which is essential for long-range photographs in windy situations. Jason makes use of a 300-grain Sierra MatchKing bullet with a BC of .768 in his looking hundreds, which he says performs phenomenally with H1000 powder, Remington brass, and CCI 250 Magnum primers.
“I can get a typical deviation of six,” Jason mentioned, referring to the typical distinction between bullet velocities over a string of photographs. “Once you’re dialing a gun for longer vary photographs, you have got a excessive degree of confidence. Lethality, long-range functionality is hard to beat in that .338 caliber.”
A part of that lethality is because of the minimal bullet drop and wind drift the .338 Edge provides. With a 100-yard zero, the Edge solely drops about 10 inches at 300 yards and 41 inches at 500 yards. With a ten mph crosswind, the bullet solely drifts three inches at 300 yards and 10 inches at 500 yards.
“One other factor that’s nice about this cartridge is that wind drift is a matter, nevertheless it’s not as a lot of a problem, so we’re in a position to make a extra assured wind name,” Jason mentioned.
Not everybody agrees that utilizing a MatchKing bullet for looking is a good suggestion, however Jason says the .338 Edge’s ballistics assist the projectile “behave.”
“This 300-grain bullet has such a excessive sectional density that we’re getting an ideal two-inch in, two-inch out gap, nearly such as you would with a swift A-frame or Nosler partition,” he mentioned. “You get that long-range ballistic coefficient, however you additionally get a bullet that’s very well-behaved in relation to enlargement. It doesn’t simply blow up within the animal.”
Some may argue that it’s higher to dump bullet power into the animal reasonably than having the projectile retain its mass and are available out the opposite aspect. Whereas which may be true, the proof is within the pudding. Jason studies that in eight years of looking elk with the rifle, he’s by no means needed to take a follow-up shot.
“The gun does what it does, you hit it the place it’s worthwhile to, and issues have died immediately,” he mentioned.
Downsides?
The right cartridge doesn’t exist, and the .338 Edge isn’t any exception. Moreover the excessive price and energy of entering into the wildcat, the rifles are typically heavy.
“The massive draw back to my gun is that it’s a heavy gun. It’s a ache to pack round,” Jason mentioned.
Jason’s single-shot rifle weighs a hefty 14.25 kilos, so it’s not sensible for lengthy backcountry hunts. Jason says it normally stays within the truck or near camp and will be deployed if the state of affairs is true.
Weapons chambered in .338 Edge will be constructed to be lighter, however in addition they include downsides. One is recoil. Your highschool physics instructor remains to be right–each response produces an equal and reverse response. The Edge has been described as a “medium-bore magnum,” so it’s not the worst Huge Boy cartridge to shoot. However a lighter gun necessitates a muzzle brake to regulate recoil and keep affordable consolation.
Some hunters may also marvel why anybody would undergo the difficulty of looking with a .338 Edge when there are such a lot of cheaper, extra available cartridges that may kill an elk simply as useless. That is largely a private resolution. Some hunters take pleasure in studying about and tinkering with uncommon cartridges that provide distinctive benefits within the discipline. The .338 Edge matches into that class, however you don’t want it to kill a pleasant bull.
Each Benefit
Nonetheless, there’s additionally no denying that this cartridge provides hunters the flexibility to take elk in conditions that the majority different cartridges would wrestle with.
For instance, just a few years in the past, Jason drew an elk tag in jap Washington and noticed a bull with about 45 minutes left of daylight. They needed to drop about 2,000 toes down the mountain to take a shot, and even then, the animal was 630 yards away and throughout a canyon.
“Should you didn’t have the flexibility to shoot that far, you’ll’ve needed to come again the subsequent day, which is an appropriate choice,” Jason mentioned. “However with the aptitude to shoot throughout the canyon, we elected to maneuver ahead and take that shot.”
He didn’t achieve this calmly. He’d practiced along with his rifle extensively, and simply the week prior had posted four-inch teams at 800 yards. He was assured that his holdover and windage changes have been good, and he knew the cartridge had greater than sufficient juice to take the bull from that distance.
Different magnum cartridges might’ve taken the identical shot, however the odds of success wouldn’t have been as excessive. Moral hunters solely take a shot they’re extremely assured they’ll make, and the Edge gave Jason that confidence in that state of affairs. He hit the elk broadside and packed it out that night time.
Final Shot
The argument for the .338 Edge as a superb elk cartridge is similar argument MeatEater’s Janis Putelis made for the .300 Winchester Brief Magnum.
“Within the case of looking bulls, I do not need to have to attend for the proper shot. I need to let the lead fly at nearly any angle, and I need to know that the bullet will penetrate and do the job,” he mentioned.
Should you’re going to hunt one among America’s largest recreation animals, you may as nicely give your self the flexibility to make the most of no matter state of affairs presents itself–and the .338 Edge provides you that in spades.
