Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 325 WSM or 338 WM?

That's what I thought. I would have bought a 338 WSM as soon as it hit the market,an 8mm not so much. I have been eying the 338RCM if it makes for a couple of years and if others chamber/load for it may pull the trigger on one of those.

And moose and bears and caribou and and and........

I would just do the real deal. My crystal ball says bye bye to the 325 in the next 5 years. Thats purely out my arese though

In my humble opinion, The .338 WM is the ultimate all around rifle cartridge. A bit overkill for small deer, but the perfect round for elk, moose, caribou, bear, etc... Load it up with 250 gr. round nose for close in work, load up 210 gr. Nosler Partitions for a flat shooting, knock em flat at 400 yds. work.

If I had to choose one caliber it would probably be the .338.

I've also felt that 338's don't offer much over a big 300. When I want more I grab my 375 H&H. My best hunting budding claims his 338 with 250 Partitions is the best. When it comes down too it both these cartridges and the 325 plus many others work great. It does make a great campfire discussion. :-)
Doc

I load my 338 with two loads. A 210 gr. Nosler at 3005 FPS, and a 300 gr. Woodleigh at 2500 FPS..I don't see how you can beat that combination with any caliber for elk..It is my favorite caliber for the North American continient..It will do it all..

I would opt for the 338 Win. I believe the new short magnum rounds are a flash in the pan and sales is not good on them and they will not survive the competition IMO...The new Ruger rounds just might make it, they have a lot to offer.

Do a .325 and add your voice to those whining for more bullet options, or do a .338 and have more options than you'll have time to fool with?

Hmmmm.....

Ironically, the "more than you'll have time to fool with" thing is true, and kinda makes it a wash in that regard.

Certainly you have more control over your own time management than you do over what bullets are available for a given caliber.

Maybe 8000 posts in two years has something to do with it?

Self-employment has it's perks <G>.

Anyway add to it that very few guys would want to try to shoot lots of different bullets from magnums for various reasons, and I think what you are talking about in your "whining" post is, well, wrong. Irrelevant at the least.

Afterall, you ARE the expert...

Would you like me to do a search and find all the many times you have expressed your wish for more bullet selection in 8mm here? Should be pretty easy to find them.

Here you go, trying to make this personal and slime another thread in the process. Your disrespectfulness towards the forum is duly noted.

Sure, I wish there were more 8mm bullets. Then again, I shoot much more than anyone I know, including, as we established in PM's, you.

But the reality is just as I described it. 8mm bullet selection is entirely adequate for ANY task at hand, and very few guys are looking at buying a sporter-weight magnum rifle as a bullet testing platform anyway.

Got a challenge for you, C&B. Stay on topic without injecting negativity and personal jousts. From you behavior lately, that seems to be outside your skill set. Prove me wrong.

If I go the 8mm route I would promise not to whine about bullets. But I might be tempted by some of the frightfully expensive German or South African bullets if I did the 8mm. Unless there was a 210-225 grain accubond.

I'm thinking the 325 is better for a lightweight package, but it is hard not to do the classic 338. Doe's anyone use the light weight 160-180 grain bullets in the 338?

Hey Boston, there is a 8mm 200-gn Accubond. That's what I used this year. I killed two elk with two shots with it, very quick kills. The AB exited on one (broadside 150 yards, raghorn bull) and did everything but exit on a tougher angle on a cow that was significantly bigger than the bull. In addition to that, I screwed up a shot on blacktail buck that was quartering sharply away from me and shot it right in the butt, right through the hip joint. Ugh. Anyway after smashing the hip joint the bullet went 39" and ended up under the buck's chin- so a lengthwise shot through a deer AFTER smashing the heaviest joint a deer has.

The 8mm 200-gn Accubond is a heck of a bullet! If for some reason you want potentially more penetration, there's a 200-gn TSX as well as a 180 TSX, which STA has used to great effect in his .325. If you want to go REALLY bonkers there's a 220 Aframe.

Most importantly, there's a 200-gn Partition <g>. It could probably all start and end there- other than cost, which is pretty brutal for those suckers....

GS Custom's makes their very good HV bullets in 180, 200, and 225 g in .338 caliber.

Barnes makes a 185 and 210g TSX bullets in .338. 160g TTSX bullet as well.

Nosler makes a 180 and 200g Accubond bullets and a 210g Partition.

Spin, spin, spin...

OK Jeff_O, I'll concede defeat to you in the biggest A-Hole contest, especially now that I know you are willing to to post PM content publicly. Obviously I won't be opening anymore PM's from you!!!!



You are making my point better than I can. That's not the kind of thing you hear from people who choose the .338 caliber. In the big picture I sure am not going to lose sleep over what somebody else uses. However, you are full of BS when you tell us that magnum shooters don't utilize bullet selection. Before I sold my .338WM I had loads for the 180BT, 200 Speer SP, 200BT, 200AB, 210PT, 225AB, and 250PT. How many bullets do you have loads for in YOUR .338?

If you are really here to debate, why are all your contradictions and inconsistencies off limits? You say you don't have time to try any more bullets, that's nobody's fault but yours. You dream of an 8mm e-tip but you don't have time to try one if they do make it? I'm getting dizzy.....

Grow some skin!!!

There's a big semantic difference between wishing and whining, which you know since you chose the latter simply to be provocative. Typical. Provoke some [bleep], then puff up in self- righteous indignation when you get the responce you were trying for...

Grow some skin, indeed... <grin>

As to PM's, if me mentioning that you and I have already hashed out that I shoot more than you do is some sort of egregious sin, then that's my bad and I apologize. Sure didn't seem like any big thang to me, but whatever.

You must have just sold your 338 in the last few weeks. Good for you. Tough time to sell stuff. I've got a couple things I'm thinking if selling ( for my ski bum money, guilt-free <G>) but I took such a beating on the one high- dollar item I sold this year that I'm holding off.

By the way, I've messed with roughly the same number of bullets in my .325's as you have in your 338... If not more... There's everything we 8mm guys NEED, but having what you need, won't stop a guy from wanting what doesn't exist.

Ya know?

Merry Christmas, C&B.

Mountain rifle. Elk. 325wsm

List 'em, I'm curious!



Same to you Jeff.

I try not to get involved in many pissin' matches on the forums I frequent. That's not to say I have not been involved in any; but, I feel like I just got hit by lightning. How the hell does what appears to be a friendly discussion of a couple of rifle calibers turn into a "f_ck you" type thread? Holy crap! Their may be history between members on the forum about which I have no knowledge; but, does it need to be interjected into a separate thread? I don't consider myself sensitive. If I've gone somewhere I have no business going, then I apologize. Give me a break.

The BigSky- looks to me like they are sorting it out. Merry Christmas to all.