Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Good 338 Federal loads

Did some bullet "testing" today. I made a target of 1.25" of particle board, ~12" of damp magazines and then ~6" of dry magazines. The damp magazines were soaked in a bag but I drained them and they just damp. In the end, I think it worked very well and the recovered bullets looked just like the few I've recovered from animals. It was interesting to peel the magazines apart and see the different channels produced by each bullet. The 180 BT produces a noticeably larger channel. One very pleasant surprise was the 200 SST. In previous tests it failed miserably in dry paper. But in this one it did very well. It came out looking just like two 180 .30 Cal SSTs I've seen recovered from a very nice, and dead, 6x6 bull elk. The SST even penetrated a tiny bit more than the 200 Accubond and retained a little more weight, that was a surprise. Roughly grouped in the order of depth of penetration.

Bullet / Vel. / Retained weight
185 TTSX (2735, 2744); (184.2, 184.4) Narrow frontal area
200 Trophy Copper (2550); (199) Average frontal area
210 Partition (2647, 2626); (152.1, 152.1) Narrow frontal area

200 Hot Cor (2631); 132.9) Narrower frontal area
200 Trophy Bonded Tip (2658); (186.1) Average/wide frontal area
210 Scirocco II (2552, 2553); (194.6, 199.1) Very wide frontal
160 TTSX (3064, 3077); (158.8, 159.3) Very wide frontal area
200 SST (2675); (149.7) Wide frontal
200 AB (2621); (139.2) Narrow frontal area
180 BT (2784, 27779); (94.4, 93.5) Not incl. partial core, which was separated, but right there with jacket (~30gn)

180 Soft Point (Federal Factory); (119.9)

All of them penetrated to within a couple inches of one another.Some, like the 210 SC II and SST opened very wide which limits penetration, but can cause a lot of damage. Bottom line, based on this, except for the 180 Soft Point factory load, I would use any of these against elk.