The 338 Edge Turns 20 Years Old This month

In July of 2000, I started work on my first wildcat round aimed at long range hunting. I took the just newly introduced 300 Ultra Mag case (introduced in 1999) and simply necked it out to .338”. I knew I wanted to shoot a bullet with a huge ballistic advantage so I zeroed in on the 300 gr. Sierra Matchking. In 2001 the choices of long range projectiles were very few, nothing like what is available today. I took a heavier profile Hart barrel with a straight taper, 30 inches in length and chambered it using a 300 RUM reamer and a separate neck reamer to create the first 338 Edge chamber. I mated the barrel to a squared and trued Remington 700 action, then bedded that into an HS Precision tactical stock and the first Canyon Rifle was born. I had the rifle film dipped in a Mossy Oak pattern and topped it off with an early Horus Vision scope. I sent the rifle to Jacob Gottfredson to write an article for Precision Shooter magazine. The article appeared in the October 2002 edition of PS and was later reprinted on the Sniper’s Hide website. Due to the glowing review in the article the 338 Edge gained a ton of traction right off the bat and before I knew it I had more 338 Edge Canyon Rifle orders to fill than I knew what to do with.

Fast forward 20 years, time flys when you long range addict. The 338 Edge is as popular as ever, 2 different companies (ADG & Bertram) make high quality brass stamped correctly in 338 Edge. Reamers are available from almost every reamer grinder and are even listed as a standard item in the Grizzly Industrial catalog.  There are Facebook page and groups, websites and books dedicated solely to the 338 Edge. It has been responsible for an amount of long range game animals taken that I can’t even begin to estimate. It has had a pretty good stretch in the early days of ELR competition until surpassed my cartridges almost twice its size. It still has a large following in ELR event where the classes usually break at 338, in the 338 and smaller class it still has a huge following. Reloading techniques have advanced, dies and other tools have become available and at a much higher precision. However the original load of H 1000, the 300 gr. SMK and CCI 250 primers is still a solid stand by load the same as it was almost 20 years ago. So here is to you 338 Edge, happy anniversary!