Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 338 win mag with 225 nosler partion

I've used the .338 quite a bit, using various bullets from 200 to 275 grains. My experience is that the 225 Partition doesn't significantly deeper than the 210 Partition--and the 200 Ballistic Tip penetrates almost as much as the 210.

Have said this before, but the longer I've used the .338 (since the late 80's) the more I've come to the conclusion that 200-210 grain bullets are most effective for most game. They shoot flatter, kick less and kill quicker than heavier bullets.

The bigger bullets might be better choices for really big game that weighs well over 1000 pounds. Then again, maybe not. I've taken both Alaskan moose and African eland with the .338 with heavier bullets, and could have killed either with a 210 Partition just as easily.

...now you have gone and opened a can of worms. We all know ballistic tips don't kill elk, they blow up on the hide. I know, I have killed a dozen or so with ballistic tips, but don't tell anyone. ;D

Jon, sectional density is a stupid number to base anything off of. You can have a long bullet with great sectional density, but it blows apart on impact. Yup, good thing it had good sectional density.

The reason your heavy partitions don't kill so well, is because they don't disrupt tissue like the lighter bullets. ie; they don't expand well due to low velocity. They simply plow through. But, I am sure in all your infinite experience, you know this ;o) Flinch

....................Whew! Glad I`m in the 1% minority!

Anybody ever blast a big bodied animal with a 225 Accubond out of a 338 Rum, at under 200 yards? Seems like it's got a ton of energy. I'm don't think I should be concerned about zooking the 'bond?

BTW, I'm a 1%'r too.

Haven't from an Ultra but I've shot quite a few 300+lb pigs within 10 yards without so called bullet failure. MV was around 2885. Recovered one bullet after a Texas Heart Shot. Bullet was resting next to the pig's jawbone that showed textbook expansion.

After looking at a lot of different forums I believe the 338 win mag with 225 nosler partion is the best Elk round. True or false?

Your RUM only gets 2885 FPS with the 225 AB?

Never have killed any elk myself with 250's. Have killed a handful with 200, 210 and 225-grain bullets.

But one thing I learned long ago that it's much easier to gain considerable experience with bullets by giving them out to other hunters, and to go along any chance I get with other hunters. I distributed some 200 Ballistic Tips among local friends when they first came out, but only after I'd done some penetration tests and used them myself on enough game to know that they'd penetrate sufficiently. And I only gave them to people I knew would make precise evaluations of performance, not just say, "Yeah, it worked good."

I've also used the .338 on other large North American game considerably, including musk ox and Alaskan moose, and in Africa even more, where I also observed other people using it a lot. My experience is that African game of about the same size as elk (especially gemsbok, blue wildebeest and zebra) is a very similar bullet "test." The data gathered was considerable, encompassing dozens of animals and a wide variety of bullets from 200 to 275 grains, though probably the most-used bullet weight was 225 grains.

My overall observation is that on both elk and other elk-sized animals, in general 200-210 grain bullets kill at least as well or better than heavier bullets from the .338, and are easier to hit with because they recoil less.

They also penetrate plenty, except possibly on rear-end shots. I've only shot one animal up the rear with a .338, a blue wildebeest that was already wounded. It worked, but took a while, despite the 250 Nosler Partition ending up in the front of the chest.

The 200 Ballistic Tip has always penetrated plenty. Some people object when any bullet is found in an animal, but my experience is that the 200 BT either exits or ends up under the skin on the far side of the animal, after doing a lot of damage. The most penetration I've seen was on a bull gemsbok of around 450 pounds, shot quartering toward me at about 150-175 yards. The bullet broke the shoulder and the spine (the spine drops down between the shoulders on a gemsbok) and ended up under the hide on the rump on the far side, at least 3-1/2 feet of penetration, some of it through heavy bone. That is one of the few I've recovered, and I've seen the 225-grain Nosler Partition and AccuBond recovered just as often on the same size animals.

Oh, and all the friends I gave 200 Ballistic Tips to 20 years ago reported fine results on elk. My most trusted friend shot a big cow at 300 yards. The bullet got part of one shoulder and the bottom of the spine, and exited.

I should also point out, however, that I've shot more elk with .30 calibers than any other bore size, the cartridges ranging from the .30-06 up to the .300 Weatherby, including my three biggest bulls. None have gone more than 25 yards, and my biggest bull went only 20 feet after being shot with a 180-grain bullet at 250 yards--from a .30-06. So I'm also a natural skeptic when people start proclaiming something "the best" on any kind of game, partly from having seen so much game shot with various cartridges and bullets.

With the .338 and elk part of my skepticism comes from a survey on the Campfire several years ago--after yet another post proclaiming the greatness of the .338. Turned out he had shot one elk with the .338.

So I asked everybody else to post their experience with the .338. It turned out that very few had taken more than a dozen animals with the cartridge, and the average was between 4 and 5. In my experience, a dozen animals is a start on learning what a cartridge will do, but several dozen is a much better number. Four or five doesn't tell us much at all.