Sourdough-
what bullets were you using for your carabou in that 300 win mag. I'm pretty surprised that it didn't bust both of those shoulders. I have used the nosler partition and barnes X, both 180gr and would definately trust them to double shoulder any carabou that walks. One thing that I have noticed is that with the faster cartridges better bullets are a must.
I would probalby like the 338 win mag more but of the 2 that I have had, a ruger and a tikka, I was pretty dissapointed. The ruger had great promise but I could never get the darn thing to shoot good. 3" groups were the order of the day, and it was pretty heavy. The tikka was pretty accurate but kicked itself out of the the stock, splitting it, and berretta USA wouldn't warrantee the damage due to the fact that I had altered it, with a muzzle break! How a muzzle break could cause a stock to split is beyond me. I think it had much more to do with the joke of a recoil lug in the T3. Not to mention the tikka was one of the slowest rifles i have ever owned, 225s were really hard to get up to 2700fps, most loads where in the 2600-2650.
They pretty much swore me off the 338 win. After looking at the kimber montana in 338 win, I might make an exception.
The 338 Rum on the other hand has been very impressive! Easy to load for, LOTS of power, and impressive performance on game. I fully intend on owning another 338 RUM one of these days, just hard to find a rifle.