Mid-size Magnums are generally those Magnums with a bore over .30 caliber and under .375 caliber. I always considered the .300 Winchester and the .300 Weatherby to be Magnums.

I also wonder why the 7mm Remington Magnum isn’t considered a mid-size Magnum. I guess the line had to be drawn somewhere, so someone — I don’t know who — decided that mid-size Magnums were those whose bullets are .333 inches or more in diameter.

Over the years, a lot of calibers have come and gone that could be considered mid-size Magnums. So many in fact that to keep within my column limits, I have decided to simply discuss the two that really started the mid-Magnum craze and which all the others are trying to compete with. For that reason I won’t discuss the .338 Remington Ultra Magnum, .338 Lapua or the .338-378 Weatherby Magnum. If that disappoints some, I’ll discuss them in another column if there is an interest in doing so.

The .338 Winchester Magnum and .340 Weatherby Magnum are the two that I see more often than all the others and they’re the two the rest of the mid-size Magnums are trying to compete with.

The mid-size Magnums were supposedly designed because the .30-06 and the .30-caliber Magnums were woefully inadequate for the really large game and big bears in North America.

Seems to me the 7mm Remington Magnum .30-06, and the .30-caliber Magnums were doing a great job on the largest game and big bears of North America long before the most of today’s mid-size Magnum calibers showed up. For that reason I don’t think the .338 Winchester Magnum or the .340 Weatherby should be chosen solely because of some writers’ perception that the 7mm Remington Magnum .30-06 and .30-caliber Magnums are inadequate for the largest and most dangerous big game in North America. It just isn’t so.

However, both the .338 Winchester Magnum and the .340 Weatherby Magnum are excellent for taking down big game and have each found a loyal following in North American game fields.

The .338 Winchester Magnum was introduced in 1958 and a couple of years later was offered in the Winchester Safari rifle. Most rifle manufacturers today include the 338 Winchester Magnum in their rifle line.

The .338 Winchester Magnum was designed by using a shortened and blown out .375 H&H case that holds 86 grains of H20, allowing it to be used in a .30-06 length action instead of a long action such as the .340 Weatherby Magnum.

The .338 Winchester Magnum is reportedly the most popular mid-sized Magnum among hunters as well as tied with the .375 H&H, which is considered a large bore, for first choice of Alaskan hunting guides for backing up their clients in large bear country. However, the .338 doesn’t recoil as hard as the .375 H&H.

The .338 Winchester Magnum fires a 200-grain bullet out the muzzle at 3,000 feet per second and 3,866 foot-pounds of energy, and a 250 grain bullet at 2,700 feet per second muzzle velocity with 3914 foot-pounds of energy.

Recoil with the 250 grain load is 33.1 foot-pounds coming back at the shooter at 15.4 feet per second.

The .340 Weatherby Magnum was introduced in 1962 as a response to the .338 Winchester Magnum. It is based on the 300 Weatherby case necked up to accept a .338-caliber bullet. The case holds 98 grains of H20. Roy Weatherby saw the popularity of the .338 and just had to come up with a .338 cartridge that was faster, and hit harder. Reloaders have trouble duplicating the ballistics of the .340 Weatherby because the .340 Weatherby is already loaded to the highest safe pressures possible.

The .340 Weatherby Magnum fires a 225 grain Spire Point bullet out the muzzle at 3,066 feet per second and 4,696 foot-pounds of energy and a 250-grain Spire Point bullet with a muzzle velocity of 2,963 feet per second and 4873 foot-pounds of energy.

Recoil of the .340 Weatherby with the 250 grain bullet is 43.4 foot-pounds of energy coming back at the shooter at 17.6 feet per second.

Because both the .338 Winchester Magnum and the .340 Weatherby shoot .338-caliber bullets of the same weight at close to the same velocities and energy what you get with the .340 Weatherby is a flatter trajectory and a little more power. The .340 Weatherby is also a better balanced cartridge than the other .338 super Magnums as long as one can accept the increased recoil.

The .340 Weatherby Magnum is about the biggest case that makes any sense for a bullet of .338 diameter, and in my opinion that includes the .338-378 Weatherby. If you must have the hardest-hitting .338 super Magnum, the .340 Weatherby is your rifle, but ammo will cost you $84 to $121 per box of 20 cartridges, As mentioned earlier, the recoil is more than either the .338 or the .375 H&H, and the game you hunt won’t know the difference between the .340 Weatherby and the .338 Winchester Magnum when it hits them.

I really like both the .338 Winchester Magnum and the .340 Weatherby Magnum. They both offer the hunter a very reliable large-game cartridge that won’t let you down when your big game trophy of a lifetime stands 400-plus yards away and you are only going to get one chance to make the shot.

Smokey Merkley was raised in Idaho and has been hunting since he was 10 years old. He can be contacted at mokeydo41245@hotmail.com.