I have never come home empty handed from a hunt even when i bagged no game animal.
I bring home a lot of memories but they don’t fill the freezer. When I referred to “empty handed” I was referring to game meat.
Once again retained energy at 400 yards has little to do with my hunting. And yes the 338 will kick more when Pushing bullets of similar velocity and weight because it will take more powder to do it.
Many folks do take shots at 400 yards and even further. This is not about your hunting or mine, it was about the capabilities of the rifles.
Yes, the .338 will kick more – about 10% more. Pushing a 250g bullet at Nosler’s max Whelen velocities we’re talking about the difference between 29 foot-pounds for the Whelen and 32 foot-pounds for a .338, depending on the specific powders used. I don’t consider that to be much of a difference, certainly not enough for me to choose one over the other on that basis alone. My .45-70 hunting loads generate around 43 foot pounds and my 7mm Rem Mag and .30-06 generate around 23. I was speaking in general terms but again, yes, there is a difference.
No one I know plinks while hunting big game either and I disagree a 180 grain .338 bullet can do what a 125 grain JHP will safely as a varmint cartridge.
I know folks who have taken coyotes and prairie dogs with their big game loads while big game hunting but no one that used plinker loads to do so. As to safety, the 125g bullets might be better in densely populated areas, but not many areas of Alaska fit that bill. I wouldn’t shoot either a 125 in a Whelen or a 180 from a .338 where I live, but back on the farm would have no problems with either for varmints. But what the heck, I’ll give the advantage to the Whelen with the 125’s. It’s not something that would make me choose the .35 over the .338 Win Mag, though, as I’d probably never use them.
As to "stacking up" in Alaska My experience there was that shooting is almost always at less than 150 yards because even seeing that far was in a really open spot (coastal Alaska, Sitka and Ketchican). You keep quoting energy figures when in reality bullet impact velocity is what expands bullets. I like to have 2000fps at impact, The 338 does not provide this a lot farther than the 35 Whelen.
Given a particular bullet weight, energy and velocity are not independent variables – if you know one you can calculate the other. Given identical weights, the bullet with the higher energy also has the higher velocity. Every time. For the long shots, though, I’d prefer the .338 with a 180g at 3100fps or better. That load will maintain 2000fps out to 490 yards. I’m not aware of any load that will do that past 380 yards in the .35 Whelen (225g Nolser AccuBond load), a 110 yard difference. Comparing the Nosler 250g loads, the .338 Win Mag maintains 2000fps out to 360 yards versus 310 yards for the .35 Whelen.
As for a Barren ground Caribou rifle the 7MM Remington magnum is a better rifle for this than either the 35W or 338. Sure the 338 with a TSX will penetrate deeply so wil the same style bullets in the 35W. I tend to believe that I need no deeper penetration than the 250 grain Speer Hotcor provides and especially not more than the 250 grain Partition. If I were picking one rifle for Alaska which is a pretty broad brush to paint with it would be a 300 Winchester magnum. For a two rifle battery they would be a 7MM Remington magnum and a 35 Whelen.
Using Nosler data, a .338 Win Mag pushes a 180g AccuBond to 3189fps and a 7mm Rem Mag shoots a 160g at 3046fps. The two have virtually identical trajectories out to 500 yards (less than .4” difference per the calculator) and there is only a 133fpe difference. Both retain over 2000fps at 500 yards but the .338 is going faster at that point. For what its worth.
