Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 Win Mag Deer Bullets??

I gave my dad a Rem 700 KS chambered in 338 Win Mag this year.. I had a Gentry Quiet Brake put on it and the trigger done on it. He loves this rifle.. I loaded 200 gr Ballistic Silvertips..not real hot but mid book loads. The problem I am running into is that he has shot 3 deer this year with it and only one has left a blood trail.. the first one was a behind the shoulder shot at about 130 yds.. 2 drops of blood where he shot it and nothing til I found the deer. Second one he shot was behind the shoulder .. but it caught the left shoulder on exit and destroyed it.. left a great bloodtrail. Saturday evening he shot a 8 pt at about 115 yds and I didn't find a single drop of blood.. looked in the clearcut for a long time..til it got dark, the next morning we found it by buzzards.. this deer did not bleed a drop..he hit it pretty low and by looking at the shot placement it should have bled pretty well. I followed this deers back trail and didn't find a single drop of blood anywhere. Made him sick to lose a deer.. I am thinking that the vital area of a whitetail isn't solid enough to make these BST or Btips open up.. not giving them the shock that btips are famous for. What is another good bullet for whitetail out of a 338?? I am thinking about trying to find some of the discontinued 180 btips.. just want something that I know will open up on the soft side of a deer. What are you guys experiences..cuz it really sucks to find one after the buzzards and coyotes have been on it!! thanks for the help. Rob

225 Nosler Pt's are the ones to use.-Muddy

Try some 225gr. Hornady interlocks.

200gr Hornadys or 225 Hornadys. I also like the 185gr TTSX.

I killed a few with the 200g Hornady Interlocks at about 2800 fps MV in the .338 Win Mag. Plenty of expansion but still a lot of energy going out the other side of the deer.

160 and 185 ttsx will leave bloodtrails, but you probably won't even need them.

What I was thinking, or the 210 Partition.

Oh yes.... That's what I'm talking about..

Get some 200gr Speers and load them to 2800fps and your problems will go away. Plenty of bullet and lots of blood. powdr

Thanks guys.. appreciate the help.

I have had nothing but great results using the 210 gr Partition, this in a piddly 338-06. The bullet just works on large and small.

I had great experience with the 200 gr Hornady going 2850 out of a 338-06Ai, shot several deer through the lungs, they just fell over dead. Don't know if there was a blood trail or not.

Best blood trail I've seen with a 338 winnie, was on a big whitetail buck i shot about 50 yds away. I was shooting 250 gr round nose bullets. I doubt if the bullet expanded on that deer but the entrance and exit holes both spewed blood about 3 or 4 feet out either side for the 30 ft run he made. It was neat to watch.

Pretty much any 338 bullet is an Elk bullet. I would use a 200-210 grain Cup and core bullet that was not bonded , no need for it .

I use the 210 Partition in my 340 Bee at 3175 fps for everything

I've had great results with 200 grn Speers from a .338-06 even loaded down to .338 Fed velocities.

I've not had any problems with the 200gr BT or the 210gr Partition if I put them where they are supposed to go. If you have a good bunch on hand I'd suggest upping the fps a bit and/or just shoot them in the shoulder. They are a pretty tough bullet, but I got good expansion on them even on doe pronghorn. I've yet to shoot anything with them smaller than an elk that required a bloodtrail. All were within feet of where I hit them.
I'm running them at an estimated 2950fps with 65gr R15.

FWIW, and I know my sample size isn't huge but I can tell a lick of difference in the performance of the 200gr BT and the 210gr Partition. Interestingly enough, I've never caught a BT, but have caught 2 Partitions. One in an elk and one in a doe pronghorn...

The 180gr. Ballistic Tip is the only bullet that I have used on deer out of a .338 Win. Mag. It is a lot like perfect. By the way, it will also turn coyotes inside out.

RS

I had nothing but great results on deer and hogs with the 200 Ballistic Silvertip. Awesome blood trails on lung shots, dead-right-there with shoulder shots.

200 SST should open fast. I like the idea of the 210 Partition too, but we're talking deer here, and I can't see flinging big, tough, heavy bullets. Go as light as you can and up the speed. Velocity often helps. It could be that at moderate speed, these deer aren't offering enough resistance to the B-tips to get them to wound widely. If just doesn't seem right, hitting deer with all that metal and them running off!

I've not had one leave my sight. 225 Interlocks, Accubonds, North Forks. 200 Interlocks, BST, or SST. 185 TTSX, 210NPT, or probably a few others I've forgotten. From 35lb does, to 700lb elk, I haven't seen much difference.