Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game What's Your Favorite 338 Winnie Bullet?

Another winter time question. What is your favorite bullet out of the 338 Win mag? And Why? What have you killed with it?

Thanks in advance for the responses.

225g AccuBond launched at 2750fps from my 22" .338WM.

Makes a big hole and exits, even at 487 yards, my longest kill ever.

Accurate, high B.C., better long range ballistics than other bullet weights I've run calculations for.

What powder are you using?

250 Gr. Nosler Partition.
But I've always thought 225 gr was the perfect weight for the .338 wm

Only tried one and never killed anything with it... but 225 TTSX at 2900 fps flew great from a plywood 77MKii with relatively mild recoil. IIRC, Ty at Barnes has stated that min velocity for expansion is 1600 fps for that bullet.

Sold that rifle, but wouldn't mind another. I'd like to try the 250 Scenar and 250 Horny next.

Works great, very accurate in my rifle and never felt the need to experiment.

Cleanly killed a dozen or so African plains game, a couple of Black Bear and an old tough Aoudad.

250 grain Swift A Frame. I was using 275's as well but have settled back to just 250's.

They fly well and in my rifle are quite accurate. I've killed: grizzly, black bear, wolf, coyote, elk, moose, and deer with this combination and have had uniformly good results.

225 TTSX. Good for three elk.

bigswede358, We're running 225 Barnes TTSX's in my wife's rifle. Pushed to 2950+ by a "healthy" dose of RL22 and Fed. 215 primer. It shoots flat, hits hard, and is very accurate (at least in her rifle). We sight in approx. 4" high at 100 yrds., so out to 400 you hold on hair. Beyond that, you go to the range finder. Most of the game list was taken with the "older" 225 Barnes X, I'm predicting that the TTSX's should work as well or better. Game: 8 or 10 elk(longest 400yrds.), one moose at approx. 200yrds.,a black bear at a measured 378 yrds., and a few deer/antelope. So far,(I hope that I don't jinx her), all but one have been one shot kills. She's a "very patient" shooter!!! memtb

Great responses. Don't currently own a 338, but last time I owned one I loaded up 250 gr Hornady Round Nose. Killed one big whitetail with it. Poked a great big hole through both ribs, deer ran about 50 feet spraying blood about 3 feet out each hole.

If I get another one, I think a 225 would be a good balance of speed and weight.

^^
This.

For 47 yesrs, after a dozen .338WM rifles, several bullets tried and thousands of handloads made and shot, my choice is the plain, old ultra-dependable 250 NP, usually with RE-22.

I get 2725-2800 with my loads, excellent groups and have cleanly killed every deer and elk I have aimed at with it.

Don 't plan to change, neither!

210 Gr. Partition. Mainly because I got a great deal on a case of Federal Premium loaded with them. Everything I've shot with them so far (2 elk & 2 deer) died post haste and never stopped the bullet.

210 grain Barnes TSX has worked well for me.

donsm70

Anybody ever used the 225 Speer on critters?

This

Do you 338 owners like 22" or 24" barrels better?

swede, my .338 had a 26" barrel.. I shot mostly 210 noslers and 250's.. Now have its big brother the 340.. Personally, I like it much more.. Am using Accubonds now in 225 and some 200..Killed three elk and one whitetail with it.. Haven't used it in probably 6-8 years.. In my country the .300 is more useful, but the .340 and .338 are fine rounds..

I don't think that the velocity loses are that significant from 24" to 22", the 22" is a little handier. memtb

210 TTSX's in mine, IMR 4350 for powder. I've not shot a lot of game with it-two bucks in South Dakota, a doe in TN and a bull in Wyoming this fall at 476yds. I don't think there's enough difference to matter between the 210's and the 225's, the 210's happen to shoot good in my rifle.

21" McWhorter, heavy contour. Can drive nails with it.

225 grain Hornady Interlock.

The 225 gr Trophy Bonded Bear Claw. Good penetration, wide wound channel,
and little if any bloodshot meat. Also, few if any bits of copper in the wound channel.

I only have 50 left and then i will start using NPT's or buy some new factory loads.

Elk, Mule deer, whitetail deer.

My stainless synthetic Mod 70 wears a 22 inch Kreiger #4.
I wouldn't go back to the original 26 inch.

69.0g Hodgdon Hybrid 100V

2742fps from a 22" barrel.

For handy I prefer 22" to 24", regardless of cartridge, but you lose a bit of velocity.

I'm running 225g bullets at 2742fps through mine and could probably push them a little faster but don't see the need.

L-to-R, .338WM, .300WM, .30-06:

210 Partitions and 22" barrels. Had 3 different 338's cut at that length.

The 210 Partition is a lot like a 130 gr 270 Win bullet... it works out of proportion to what it's "numbers" indicate.

At least in my experience.

All I ever killed with the 338 were elk, but haven't used a 338 for 15 years now.

Never found its extra recoil necessary for me or its extra punch necessary for elk...

I have had bbls. from 26" down to 22.5", my definite favourite is the Dakota 76 contour at .340" muzzle diameter at 23".

Shorter tubes do lose velocity and are also pretty loud, but, a 23" will run 250s at 2725 fps-mv, with 76-77 RE-22, a top load and an accurate one in all my rifles.

YMMV, but, if I wanted to shoot 200-210 bullets, I would run a .300 mag. and actually do this with my two .300s, however, I much prefer a .338WM to any .300 mag.

I bought a Ruger 77 .338 Win. Mag., 24" bbl., in 1974. I have killed four elk and one Mule deer with it. I used Norma MRP powder and the Hornady 225 grains Interlok on two elk and Norma MRP with the Nosler Partition 210 grains on two elk and one Mule deer.

They worked perfectly, except with a Nosler Partition 210 grains on one elk where I shot badly requiring a five hour tracking job to finally find and finish the job due to my poor shooting.

With those two loads I cooked up the Ruger would shoot 3/4" off the bench when I did my part. BTW, I had it Magna Ported not long after I bought it. Tamed the recoil a bit, seemed to me.

L.W.

Good stuff.

Anybody else, besides Coyote Hunter have pics of your rifles??

You've got the bug bad

Rem AWR





Add an antelope to the list that I'd forgotten

The great 250 gr Swift-A-Frame loaded to 2750 fps with H-4350, elk, deer and even a 30 lb football pig have handily died from it.

BTW, no bullet recoveries either.

For the 250 NPT fans...

Brian Pearce has published a load with RL22 that gets 2852 fps with 24".

Yup, the 77-RE-22 does this and with no issues in MY rifles, but, I load a tad lighter at 76 which does 2800 and change from 25" P-64 tubes.

This load is the lightest "kicking" powerful load from a medium bore magnum that I have ever tried and I see no point in underloading a rifle as why carry a heavier gun if you are not going to use everything it is capable of giving?

Yup, I was bitten. Got a Rem 700 barreled action headed my way.

I reload for a buddy with 210gr TSX FB and watched him punch three of them lengthwise through the biggest Kodiak bear I have ever been around. The first shot was broadside and it hit plenty of bone and left like the three end-on bullets.

He also shoots a big bull moose every year and usually a caribou, too with the same bullet. He likes it a lot.

I have yet to see any Accubond go through a brown bear. Every one has been caught, 338, 358, and 375 calibers... Not a lot of them, but enough to know it would not come close to making my list.

Not in my .338.
I find internet loads consistently not the same as my Oehler 35P readings, with H 4831sc being the most overrated of the overrated, in this chambering.

Only Rel 17 has exceeded 2800fps using this bullet in my own, and a range of other .338's I have tested.

Hence the comment you commonly see here, "YMMV".

For those that like the heavy bullets, I tried a couple recently that shot well in the .338 case:

265gn Barnes TTSX over 67gn of Rel 17 and Fed 215's generated 2689fps.

265gn Barnes LRX with the same load generated 2659fps.

Moving up to the 285gn Barnes TSX, 65gn of Rel 17 got "me" 2605fps.

Rifle is a Weatherby Mark V with 24" barrel.

John

AussieGunwriter,

This isn't an "internet load"

Reference Handloader 236, August-September 2005, pg 101 by Brian Pearce.

To summarize, 76.7gr RL22, Fed215, W-W cases gets 2852 fps from his 24" 77RS. Brian states, "This load contains a bit more powder than most manuals list, but pressures are within SAAMI limits, and it has worked perfectly in several rifles."

I have no experience with this load or Brian's rifles. I was just posting interesting info as another data point for others. I've got no interest in this bullet whatsoever.

But, I've gotten a lot of good info from Pearce, and Handloader magazine.

YMMV

Jason

I had two .338 s that both liked 225 gr horn. interlock and Reloder 19. Killed a handful of white tails and three antelope doe with them and all were plenty dead. Never shot anything bigger with them but am sure it would have been just fine for elk as well. The model 70 I had would shot .75" and was doing 2900 fps. the Ruger 77 I had would stay near an inch and was slower at around 2800 or so.

4th P,
Didn't mean anything derogatory, just that another persons loads cannot be relied upon in another rifle. Brian is a very experienced handloader so I don't doubt his quotes.

I have loaded up to 76 grains but fell short of that velocity which is a common experience and a reason why I build my own loads caring very little for published data.

Incidently, the only published data I ever experienced that was common to my own chrono readings came from the long obsolete Hornady Vol 2 which used factory rifles to accrue.

John

Understood John.

Jason

225gr Swift

I have found published loads by Brian Pearce and Phil Shoemaker, to be exactly what they said they were and in many different rifles.

I had been loading the RE-22 load since 1990 and it does exactly what Brian published and these have been checked by four chronographs, an Oehler among them.

I worked out 45-70 loads for both the Marlin "pre-safety" 1895 and Miroku 1886 SRC I had for some years and, later, read Phil's articles giving the same loads.

As it happens, I could NEVER get anywhere near the velocities with H-4831 that Nosler No. 2 gives and quit using it in the '90s.

No offence intended to any poster here, just what I found in 47 years of far too many rifles and time spent loading and shooting.

My 338's (5 of them) had, from the factory, 24 and 26" barrels. I cut 3 or 4 of them to 22".

Only my 24" rifles could get to 2,750 (2,735 actually) with ANY powder and a 250, including RL22. The 26" one's would tickle 2,800. And all of them got 250's run in them.

None of the 22" barrels would comfortably get past 2,700 with a 250 (they typically went 2,680) and any powder I used (H4350, H4831, RL19, RL22).

But maybe I didn't push hard enough past pressure tested velocities

2,850 with a 250 from a 24" barrel is pure hot-rodding fantasy and well outside the limits of RL22 and the 338 WM's SAAMI pressures.

You want more juice than the 338 WM, a 340 Wby or bigger is in order.

A 338 WM is just a 30-06 on steroids, and performs about the same velocity-wise with bullets of equal BC/SD.

What brass and primers Brad?

Pearce has stated that 2852 fps with the 250gr Partition is under SAAMI limits.

I can kill anything I want with a 250 at 2700.
I save the 210s for my 338-06s which are pretty fair Elk rifles, been trying 200 gr Federal fusions in my 338-08AI. They look to have some promise.

I dunno, I have never seen Pearce publish anything that struck me as excessive or just BS, he is among the VERY few gun writers who does impress me as being both highly experienced and very honest.

I know that a considerable difference in burn rate in different lots of RE-22 happens, my lot was 30 lbs. in six 5 lb. canisters I bought in 1990 from Kesselring Gun Shop, of Alger, WA. We Lower Mainland guys would often drive down there and buy components we could not get here and in large lots....they were closed by BATF, sad to hear.

Now, the tubes on my four P-64 Alaskan .338s are factory 25" and 76-RE-22, my load since 1990, chromos, at sea level, at a hair over 2800 and is NOT "max" as I have loaded the 77 grains and had no "pressure" signs.

I am well aware of all of the divers issues surrounding "max" loads and am cautious and weigh EVERY load. I also note that Ken Waters published a 250 load that went 2840 with a 250 and he hs always seemed quite conservative to me.

I would not expect even close to this with shorter barrels and have never had a .338WM under 22.5", even that one was done by Greydog here for a friend, as a stainless truck gun in his bush business in BC and Canada's Yukon. I would not go under 23", but, each to his own.

I may well re-chrono my 7 different .338s with Brian's load later this year when this never-ending, pounding deluge of cold rain ceases. I will post my results as I love the .338 and enjoy working with it.

The .340 "Bee", well, after shooting two rifles in this, it is not for me. I find my .375 H&H rifles nicer to shoot and the sharp kick is nasty, again, ETHO.

250 gr Nosler Partition and killed nothing yet with it. Do know that it'll work though.

Snap,

I agree that Pearce's loads seem reasonable in general. I've saved many of his handgun articles and he always seems conservative with different pressure categories, depending on exact model of revolver. I haven't used his rifle data, but have used his data for the 45 Colt, 44 Spl, and 44 Mag.

He hasn't gone into detail with the pressure testing but I was just reading his article on primers and their affect on pressure and velocity. So he apparently has access to pressure testing equipment. I know he's a big fan of the 338 Win too, so I'd assume he's done more than a little work with it.

Jason

Wonder how he arrived at that? I assume he's pressure tested his loads?

I doubt it...

SAAMI lists Max Pressure with the 338 WM as 64,000 PSI. While there is no direct way to translate that to CUP, it's roughly 53000 CUP.

Here's some actual pressure tested data to chew on...

FROM HODGDON NO.26 1992 (24" BARREL"):







THE "NOTORIOUS" BARNES N0.1 1992 (notorious as it's some of the hottest data ever put in print) 26" BARREL:



SPEER NO.11 1987 (24" BARREL):



SPEER NO.12 1994 (24" BARREL):



NOSLER NO.5 2002 (24" BARREL):

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/brad300wsm/Nosler-no5-24in_zpsmhcglylp.jpg[/img]

CURRENT ONLINE ALLIANT DATA (24" BARREL):
*Alliant RL17 Data gives a 250 2,664 fps w/ 66 grs MAX load*

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/brad300wsm/current%20alliant_zpsrkqvd4hh.jpg[/img]

CURRENT ONLINE HODGDON DATA (24" BARREL):

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v312/brad300wsm/currnet%20hodgdon_zpsecwvcw77.jpg[/img]

As you can see, nothing comes close to 2,850 with a 250 grain bullet from a 24" or 26" barrel.

Again, these are pressure tested loads. You can go to Western Powders (Ramshot) website and look at their data... you'll find the same.

I especially like the Hodgdon data because they list actual pressure.

My experience with the 338 WM is it's one of those rounds that gets routinely hotrodded. Guys think it should be faster, and therefore run it to meet their expectations, not its reality.

I struggle to fathom how a 250 grainer at 2,650 to 2,750 is a bad thing, but I'm conservative by nature.

Again, I've loaded for 5 338 WM's... my findings pretty well are mirrored by the published data shown here. I started loading for the 338 WM around 1990, which correlates with the same time I got a chronograph.

Brad,

Pearce clearly states that his charge is over published data, but is under SAAMI limits, and has worked in several rifles. What more can be said?

Unless I missed it, none of your RL22 data in your post includes pressures. Who's to say that the loads were run up to 64k psi?

What I don't understand is how he gets that much powder in the case with RL22. That is why I asked what cases you were using. And primers.

Jason

Pierce has no way of knowing his loads are under SAAMI... like I said, BS.

So his articles with pressure data in Handloader and the Hodgdon magazine are bogus?

Brad, you can shoot the messenger but claiming that Brian Pearce is a liar is little extreme don't you think? Unless you know something about him that we don't.

I tried to get load data for a Taurus Ti in 44 Spl from Brian but he wouldn't comment since he wasn't confident in the revolver or metallurgy. I don't think he's reckless or careless in his info.

Jason

I started handloading in January, 1968, with the .338WM, I still have this rifle and it is the slowest of the five P-64 Alaskans I have owned, still have four of these.

RE-22 at 76 grains averages 2800+ (about 10-12 fps) from these 25" tubes, all factory. With, 77 grs. I did get more and chose to back off a grain as I am also very conservative.

H-4350, gave me about 20 fps less and, oddly IME, the Sierra GK was slower over my former club's Oehler, than the 250NP I prefer. This, is in direct contradiction to the results in many other rifles/cartridges I own and have owned over 50 years.+

A former shooting/hunting buddy of mine, now retired in his mid-70s, was a professor at UBC, very well off and with rifles/guns that most can only fantasize about, George Caswell's personal Champlin sheeo rifle in .270 was only one such piece.

This chap, a most meticulous and highly experienced guy, also told me he got 2840 with RE-22, 250 NP and in his 24" tubed .338WM....and I never knew him to BS.

So, again, while I do no longer have my old notes and these results come from the 1990s, I tend to accept Pearce's claims, although, he very probably has a relatively "fast" bbl. and some are faster than others.

I am not seeking argument here, I just am interested in this above all other cartridges and find the thread very absorbing.

I'd like to see proof his loads are pressure tested. Saying it's so doesn't make it so.

Good grief dude, you're a little emotional. Not calling him a liar, but if you think all the reloading data in Handloader or Rifle Magazine is pressure tested, I've got a bridge in Brooklyn you can buy.

Brian is a gunwriter. What he writes is not on tablets brought down the mountain from the hand of God, good man he undoubtedly is.

Everyone, gunwriters included, have subjective little prejudices that influence what they do, think, and write. The mind is a slippery slope. Lying doesn't enter into it so just leave that accusation at the door. Life is a bit more complex than that.

Sounds to me like his article, which I haven't read (going on what you say), was leaning heavily on "traditional pressure indications" most of which don't add up to reality (ie, flattened primers, expansion ring measurement, easy extraction,. blah, blah, blah).

It's been pretty well established those sort of indicators don't add up to actual pressures, a gunwirter or anyone's wishes aside.

A chronograph comparing your loads with pressure tested factory data is what equals reality.

The manuals are pressure tested data, even if they don't give you the pressure data.

Granted, there are rounds that are held to low pressures in deference to older actions, but the 338 WM ain't one of them. 64000 PSI is an indication of that!

Not sure why the hell you want to know what cases and primers I used? What does that have to do with anything. Velocity is Velocity and Velocity always = pressure and vice-versa.

"Fast Barrels, Slow Barrels", that's all meaningless .

There are so many variables from the bore to chamber, brass to primers... but the constant is pressure. You can't hit a certain velocity without an identical pressure, no matter how that pressure is achieved.

If a load in a manual shows 2,750 velocity at 64000 psi, you're not going to get 2,850 with 64,000 psi.

So while using the term BS may be a bit abrupt, and wishful thinking may be a more politically correct term, it's the same thing at the end of the day.

Thanks for the pic Brad. That load is 3000 CUP lower than the SAAMI limit you mentioned. And don't we need to know case brand (due to variances in capacity) and primer?

I'm not looking to argue. I just found Pearce's load interesting since I might play with the 250gr Scenar and 250gr Horny in the future. But I don't even own a 338 anymore.

I've tried contacting Brian in the past and he's hard to get a hold of, and I can't blame him. Otherwise it'd be interesting to get his comments on his load.

Jason

Jason, thanks for taking my post in the spirit its offered.

Thing is, you can search pressure tested data far and wide and not find 2,850 with a 250 from a 24" barrel.

You have to use the entire "tapestry" of data as a backdrop in order to appraise your own loads.

If you're the lone-eagle out there with a velocity far beyond the data, it's generally because you're pushing things.

I remember when I got my first 338, and was a bit disappointed how hard it was to reach into the mid 2700's with a 250. When I cut the barrel of my first 338 to 22" it became absolutely impossible. But by then I'd grown to accept the cartridge was NOT the same as my best friends 340 Wby. 2,850 and a 250 is really 340 Wby country.

Frankly I see no need to run the 338 with 250's for lower 48 game, though there's nothing against it either. I did hunt AK in 1995 in Brown Bear country with a 338, but it was loaded with 225's.

Here's the last head of game I ever took with the 338, going back 15 years... Started out the morning at -12*F when I left the truck and the high was right at 5*F when I killed this bull in the afternoon. One of the hardest, yet finest days hunting I've ever had.

A 210 Partition is a game crumpler... it's extra velocity combined with the frangible front core makes a bit of a difference I'm convinced.

I don't have a 338 now as it became a 340 and that one finally went down the road too. But if using either one I'd jump right to the 210-gr TSX/TTSX and try make it work. These bullets work very well as fast as you can push them and as has often been said, you don't need the weight of the heterogenous bullets. And they are almost invariably accurate.

I probably took 8 or 9 bulls with the 210-gr TSX out of the 340 and out to 500 yards.

Great pic Brad!

The last two years I've used 250gr winchester silvertips on moose with excellent results. I don't think they make this bullet anymore although I have a couple hundred and they shoot accurately under a moderate charge of H4831.

Thanks George... would love to see more of yours!

Slugo, the Silvertip (the old one) is a cool bullet!

Here's mine laying on a pronghorn...

Brad, tells us that ...fast barrels, slow barrels, that's all meaningless... and, sorry, I have to disagree on this.

I had my original P-64-.338 in the early 1990s, then, a serious collector and genuine expert on British SS rifles, contacted me from my hometown, offering me another one. I bought it and began loading and chronoing using IMR-4350, my first choice in powders at that time.

My original rifle, bought unfired in January, 1968, gave a consistent 2700+ with my final load of 70 grs, 250 NP, WW brass, CCI-250.

The second rifle was always 35-40 fps faster with exactly the same load, same can of powder, lot of brass, box of bullets and tray of primers. I replicated this several times and the results were consistent.

I soon found another, near mint Alaskan and needed to move to another home, so, sold the second one and never did chrono it with my eventual load of RE-22-76 grs. However, given the average of 2800 fps-mv from the four of these I now have and the increase in Pearce's charge, I am inclined to accept his claim

As I posted, when the weather improves here in the Fraser Valley, I will take all seven .338WM rifles I now have to the Mission, BC, range and test this using my chrony and report back here. This should happen next month, March, 2015, just to see what happens.

I will buy two cans of fresh RE-22 and fresh primers and will even try to get a witness to my tests. I have never even blown a primer in 47 years, thousands of rounds with about a dozen .338s I have owned and I expect that my rifles should be a reasonable example of what can be expected, no offence or anything other than simple interest intended.

I DO agree with Brad on the "hot rodding" issue with this superb round, I have spoken with guys who load 78-RE-22-250Npt......and shot lots of BC game with this load, but, too dicey for this old geezer!

Anyway, lots of fun to debate and discuss here!

Very nice, thanks for posting it up. What was the shot distance on that speed goat?

225 grain accubond.

Why: Very high BC yet light enough the .338 case will get it moving ok. Bonded core.

Killed? So far only some digger squirrels and my right shoulder.

Tom

TOM,
Did you get good penetration on the squirrels? Did they travel far after being hit?

A couple of older fellers I used to work with had a couple of dedicated squirrel rifles themselves.
One of them shot a Whitworth 375 H&H
the other a Ruger No. 1 in 458 Win mag.

Thanks! Around 250yds.

225 Barnes TSX Tikka T-3 Lite SS

TJAY,

Very nice. That moose cape looks a little soggy, was it a water retrieval?

Hmmm ...

1) Well, I guess you could say I had a pretty high percentage that had both entrance and exit holes.

2) Yeah, some went quite a ways ... airborne.

I shot a few with .375 H&H over the years. I shot two with a friend's .458, one with a powder puff cast bullet load, the other with a 510 grain factory load. That was pretty much like using enough gun.

Who needs a 340 when you can get 2850 from the much smaller 338 case with 250 grainers? (Hodgdon shows 2784 fps as their top velocity with a 26" barrel in the 340. And Alliant gets 2781 with RL 22 in a 24" barrel; 85 grains.) The most optimistic data I've seen published was a 90.0 grain load of IMR 7828 with a 250 Speer SP in one of Speer's earlier manuals. It would get 3000.)

Running any rifle 'hot' or tight when you're hunting stuff that matters never seems like a winning method. Getting the brown eye wink is never a desirable ending while dealing with chambering/extraction issues.

Is that the departing wink or the one Ed Zern wrote many moons ago about the bug in the grass?

Seems the bug was crawling around in the grass when a cow ate him. It was nice and warm inside the cow so the bug fell asleep.

When the bug woke up the cow had gone...

I have used 250 grain nosler partition on about 40 African animals and many deer and elk. On my new .338 I use 225 accubond and have killed a couple of deer and one bear.

225-grain TSX for moose or anything else in Alaska, but have only killed moose with it. However, since I can now use the blue-tipped TSX, that will be my favorite from now on.

About reloads: I still have a few Federal 250-grain NOS HE (factory) that were loaded at 2,800 fps, and a few Federal 225-grain TB HE that were loaded at 2,900 fps.

OK I'll bite, on limited experience with the 338. About a dozen moose and two caribou.

Any damned thing in 225 to 275. Won't use the 210NP ever again after one moose experience. He might have et me...... or at least damaged me (posted many times before).

Yeah, I know, but it SHOULD have worked, but didn't. The second one from about 10 feet did. I might have developed a slight bias......

I don't need the excitement....

Great thread,I've enjoyed the different perspectives. I've had my M70 XTR since 1981.Shot a few 250's in it but the recoil was pretty rough, so I started shooting some loads with 200 gr Horn SP's and 200 Speers. Loaded to 2900+ they are hard on the deer I've shot with them so now I only load them to 2700-2800fps. Still kill the deer just fine. I've stashed some 250's and some old 275 gr Speer's in case I need to use the heavy bullets. You guys from the north country atleast get to use your 338's for what they were designed for, can't imagine using one for pronghorns. Magnum Man

Magnum Man, It works real well on Prong Horn, and gives the Hunter an excellent tune-up for the soon to come elk season! Nothing like real, live-fire practice!!!!! memtb

There has been some discussion about barrel lengths, bullet weights, velocities and loads since I posted this. My rifle is a 23" Winchester Model 70, cut down from 26".

Factory loads;
210 Nosler Partitions 2830+-.
225 TBBC 2640+-.
225 TBBC HE 2780+-.

Hand loads-These have given me the best consistency and accuracy.;
225 TBBC, I/L, NPT 2740+-. 76 gr RE-22.
About 20 fps variation depending on bullet.
210 NPT 2850+-. 74 gr RE-19.
I've also used 180 NBT's, 200gr Speer and 200 gr NBT's. I wouldn't use them on elk though.

I was a little disappointed with the velocities at first. I used to read Bob Hagel's stuff on the .338 so I hope that is easy to understand. As Brad says,a .338 is a lot like an '06 in terms of velocities with bullets of comparable SD's.

Well, you could very well use a .338WM for pronghorn hunting at extended range. Just load some of the numerous 180-grain bullets. Federal used to load some 180 grainers that shot out of the .338 with similar ballistics as the ones for the .300WM with 180-grain NOS Partition, or something like minus 1-1/2" under the .30 bullet at 500 yards. I don't know if Federal still loads it, but it was there about a year ago. I just don't have any use for any .338 loads with any bullet weight under 225 grains.

Ray, I think that if you look at the BC difference between the "lightweight" .338's and the heavier(excluding roundnose) bullets,you'll find that the heavier offer much higher BC's. At ranges beyond 400 yards, they offer flatter trajectories,less wind drift,higher velocities, and higher energy. So,they should be a better performer on all game at extended(400+ yards)ranges. A 225 grain TTSX(with a BC of .514),from my wife's rifle at 2950+,gives some pretty good down range performance!!! memtb

340 wby 210 NP at 3175 fps with H4350 just under MOA.

My late '70's MK V deluxe with original WBY premier scope. Bought the package last year!

I used that combo (210 gr NP's and H-4350) in my .340 Wby,but was "only" getting 3075 fps in it. The cow elk I killed with didn't notice the lack of 100 fps.

Then you did not kill her enough! LOL

225 Interbond. Taken bear and elk. Never recovered one, but animals shot were DRT.

Barnes 225 TTSX

That bear looks pretty darn dead to me.

There is always a balance point with every cartridge case and the 225gn or thereabouts is close to ideal for the .338 in relation to the animals most likely to be hunted using that cartridge.

What you select will likely have more to do with you next down the list general hunting cartridge.
John

memtb and Ray I take your point.I have to many cf's in 22-6.5 cals that need use on antelope so I'm good with using them for that. Probably should try some of those lwt plastic tipped bullets in my 338 for the fun of it though. Magnum Man

Federal Premium 225 gr Nosler Accubonds, I've take multiple elk, moose, black bears, coyotes, wolves, mule deer, white tailed deer and a few targets. They shoot quite well out as far as 430 yds through my Ruger M77 with the shortened barrel.

I bought a box of Sierra 215 Gamekings that i'm going to give a go in the future. Mostly going to be used on deer and elk, maybe a black bear. Seems to be a good balance of weight and speed for what I want out if this cartridge.
Seems not to many fans of the Gameking around here but I've had nothing but stellar performance with them out of 300 WSM, 300 WBY, and 350 Rem mag. I think they will fit the bill quite nicely.