Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Loading the .338 Win Mag

Having a rifle built and now I need to think about loads. Never loaded for the .338, but I have some IMR4831, IMR4350, and RE 17/19/22.

I am wanting to work around a 225 grain bullet. I am thinking possibly a TSX, Partition, or A Frame. I want a tougher bullet as I built this rifle for a plains game hunt and it will be used for animals up to Eland.

Any loads, feedback, advice appreciated. Because we will be in Africa, I plan to back loads off at least 100 FPS to ensure heat/humidity doesn't put me in any overpressure situations. I think I would be just fine with a good 225 grain load in the 27-2800 FPS range (24" barrel)

With bullets up to 210, I really like RL-19; with bullets of 250 gr, I like RL-22 or Norma MRP.

225's can use either powder depending on your gun's preference.

I have not tried any of the new RL-26 as I simply can't find it & have lots of both '19 & '22, but it could be better than the two older powders.

IME, both '19, '22 & MPR outperform both 4350 or 4831.

Also, you'd be hard pressed to find a bullet that performs better than a 250 Partition, & they are normally easy to get to shoot well.

JME, YMMV

MM

The easiest load for accuracy with 225's for me was always RL22. It's an easy cartridge to load for. I've used H4350 for temperature stability and have had great luck for accuracy with N160 also which is pretty temp stable. For starters I'd work up loads with RL22. Bet you'll find a winner right away! Good luck!

R19 for the win!!

Concur with others, RL-19/22 are the powders, easy to throw, burns clean..

Magnum primers reduced velocity spread, tested standard primers once, briefly, increased velocity.. ??????

Easy to back off. BIL has a Remington that just tags the crap out of him, and he's NOT recoil sensitive... I load him 250grn at around 2450fps, very accurate, easy on the shoulder, and deadly on FL white tail... how could it not be.

Hiaring,

I'm going to disagree with several of the posters, because I have run into significant changes in point of impact in Africa due to powders that had wide swings in velocity due to temperatures ranging from under 50 in cool mornings to over 90 in the afternoon.

While RL-19 and 22 do usually result in very good accuracy in the .338, you're not going to be shooting prairie dogs. Instead you're hunting big game, and a load that puts bullets into the same place every time with decent accuracy is more important than smaller groups that may move around in different temperatures.

H4350 with 225 gr. TTSX's is the best combination in mine & very little variation with temp. changes.

Ron

H100V for me. 225g bullets, 22" barrel.

Hiaring8, I have no doubt that any of the three bullets you listed would work well. I used a 338 Win mag in Namibia with 225 gr Partitions pushed to 2800 fps with Ramshot Hunter and Fed 215 primers. This load is consistently .6 or better at 100 yds in my rifle. Hartmann zebra, gemsbok, and eland were bang flops. Kudu covered about 100 yards before piling up.

PH asked me what I was using for ammunition because when the guys dressed the gemsbok, the internals were absolutely destroyed with the bullet lodged under the skin of the off side shoulder.

Good hunting,
405wcf