I have made probably 20 of them and owned 3. I have hunted with them a fair amount. I have high praise of the cartridge. Overall I use the 210 grain Nosler Partition most, but also used the 225 as well as a few kills on deer with the 200 grain Speer Hot Core. The lightest bullet used was the Barnes 185 grain and I did shoot some Hornady 250s but never killed anything with one of those. Also I killed 1 big elk with a Speer 275 grain, but that bullet is not made anymore.
I have killed deer antelope elk 1 bear and also a few cattle with my 338-06s. As a guide I have seen a lot more elk (thinking back I'd guess about 9) and 3 moose killed with them as well a a good number of deer. It's always been a solid performer on all game. Both the Hornady and Speer 200 grain cup and core bullets seem a bit too soft for shots under 100 yards, but not horrible. Good to excellent performance was common with most other bullets. For elk and larger game it seems to be at it's very best with Nosler Partitions, Accubonds and Swift A Frames and Sciroccos in weights from 200 to 225. For deer however I don't think it matters much and 200 grain Cup and Core bullet work well enough.
For brass I simply neck up 30-06. Lube the necks inside and one pass makes the shell. No problems at all.
Powders? 4320, RL15, RL19, 4064, 4350 and WW760. Different guns with different barrels seem to prefer different powders just like all other cartridges. If I were going to recommend 1 to start with it would be 4064. But the 338-06 is not a difficult round to load.
Last edited by szihn; 10/18/23.
