Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Premiums Really Necessary in a 338-06?

Higher end anything is never necessary. Considering bullets, I have filled the freezer annually using CoreLokt's or InterLock's in .284 or .308. That is Elk, Axis & Whitetails.

Premium is a matter of choice. It's your money.

Don't you mean >2900 fps for plain janes? Yer arrow is backward!

I've used premiums, and have largely gone back to PJ - as they do the same job under the same circumstances I use them for.

I will say that if I stick with the factory '06 150 gr Superperformance Hornady for caribou beyond 300 yards, I will likely go to the GMX, a less expanding bullet via reputation.. The SST leaves BIG holes! Which is fine, if a bit messy.... I do like their accuracy and flatter trajectory, which the GMX should match tho a bit more expensive.

Last weekend, at 20 degrees and little wind, the SST gave me a 3-shot just under 7" group 20 inches low to center of group at 500, thru the 10X of the Leupold VXIII, across Bog-Pod for rest, with a 300 yard zero. I kinda like that! MOA at 100, so it's on me, not the rifle or ammo.....

I like to know what a rifle/load will do on bench, and what we together are capable of in field conditions... and I've reached MY limit!

"Never" is a long time, especially when you've been exposed to a broader set of conditions which exist in some places. I agree that plain old cup and cores will work, and can be made to work adequately most of the time. I have been exposed to enough situations where I realized later that 'luck' might easily have dealt me a completely different set of cards - and life could have sucked seriously had that happened. Good bullets are expensive...... until lesser ones go bad for you.

(BTW, that picture is a 145 Grand Slam which contacted a caribou after a 150 yard - or so- clear air trip. A smallish caribou's shoulder stripped and stopped it. Muzzle velocity was less than 2700 fps from my 7mm-08.)

By "higher end",and "premium" do we mean bullets that expand when they are supposed to,and penetrate deeper than they might sometimes need to, instead of flying to flinders when they hit something?

I'm trying to recall when uniform expansion and penetration became bad things(?).We've been trying to achieve both since we first wrapped lead cores in alloy envelopes so they'd withstand high velocity trips down a rifled bore. 100+ years later, we're still doing the same things.

Maybe if I were culling does by the hundreds, or 500 donkeys in 10 days in Australia I'd be concerned about the price of bullets;but for most hunting we get to do,worrying about the cost of a bullet fired from a $2000 rifle, under a $1000 scope,on a hunt taking your time and/or money (or both), seems to me to be like Obamanomics.



What skews the conversation is that some animals end up dead even when hit with shiddtt bullets. (See Kliks post above). This leads to false and deceptive conclusions because eventually you will run out of luck. YMMV.

I shoot 200 grain ABs and 210 grain Partitions in my 338-06.

Well we all don't have $2000 rifles and $1000 a scopes. I have said it before but will repeat it. Using a Premium bullets when not needed is like getting a $5 oral sex job from a $500 hooker.You feel the same when done, but just spent $495 for nothing.

Saddlesore,

What's it cost a year to feed your two or three mules? Saddles? Tack? Truck and trailer? Vaccines? Fuel?

Yet the only object that actually does the killing you want go cheap on? The bullet is the only thing that actually touches what we want to kill.

If you wanted to save money I would think there are better ways.

Dink

It is not about saving money, it is about throwing money away. I'm not rich by any means, but if I were, I would still have the same opinion. I have enough elk kills under my belt to know I am not going cheap on the bullets.

As for my mules for an example, I buy the vaccines and give my own shots, for about $18 each whereas a vet charges $30. I shoe my own for about $25 in cost where as a farrier charges $125.

My mules are a necessity for me to keep hunting. Expensive bullets are not. Not to go into it deeply, but if I didn't use them ,I would have to stop hunting or pay an outfitter $3-$4K to do a 5 day hunt whereas I typically hunt elk for two 10 day seasons each year. Plus I get to use them the rest of the year.

BTW. This year I will be using 180 GR Nosler Partitions because I bought then from SPS for $13/50. which is cheaper than Sierra GK's. However, I still have a good supply of Sierra 220gr RN that I will still use when hunting in the thick timber where shots are close

Careful there, or that's going to end up in someone's signature line.

As far as the cost of bullets, a lot depends on how many you shoot over the course of a year.

As far as choosing to use a "premium" more expensive bullet, I would never criticize someone else's choice to do that.

It seems that the reverse doesn't hold though.

Yea.I posted that quite awhile back with more descriptive words. JJHack PM'd me to tell me it was unsuitable for this site

Well, I was just trying to get you to change your current sig. line, I'm a backpacker and I find it offensive and unsuitable for this site.

As far as the other, sometimes more descriptive is better, sometimes not.

Given what's regularly posted on this site though, it hardly rises to the same level, and was an excellent analogy. Or so I thought.

It boils down to "you pays your money and takes your choices". Then you live with the results. I have done this, and I no longer shoot "affordable" cup and core bullets at elk. YMMV.

I have one 338-06 that shoots nothing but 210 Noslers over 53 grains of Reloader 15.
I walked into the smiths shop with a Remington 700 action and a dummy round and asked him to build a rifle for it.
The only recovered bullet went through about four feet of Elk and expanded perfectly. Several others have killed cleanly and exited.

I have two others that I use with different bullets, mostly federal Fusions but the 210 is my go to load. I'm near to having a lifetime supply for my Grandkids to use up.
Bullet expense are the least of my worries and the least expensive part of the hunt.

I scratch my head to figure out why so many think elk have some mystical kevlar body armor. I can see premiums if one is pushing bullets 3000 fps+. However I have killed elk with pure lead maxiball bullets. Copper coated Power Belts, 30-30 170 gr flat points,44 mag semi jacket FP, besides std C&C.

There must be a gazillion studies that prove it is not what you shoot them with, but where. Yet everyone of these threads about this that fact is somehow conviently ignored.

I don't begrudge those that spend the money, but wonder why so many that do look down upon those that don't.

The next post will be that you need a bullet that will do everything if things go wrong as we already had the "The bullet is the cheapest part of the hunt..

I guess things can go wrong, but in 48 years of elk hunting and not missing more than 3-4 seasons, I have lost two elk. The first was when shooting a 7 mag, double lung shot, but the elk was with a herd and doubled back. I couldn't find the tracks. Found that elk the next day ,but it was spoiled.

The other was a few years ago. About 40 yards, Powerbelt out of a muzzle loader. After the shot the elk stood there dying and I could see blood pumping out of both sides of her chest. A bull she was with had run up the mountain, but came back down, passing her about 3 feet away. She took off with the bull thru weeds about 3 ft tall. Blood trail for 100 yards and then nothing. Three of us hunted for 3-4 hours in every direction. I spent another 4 hours the next day. The way she was bleeding. It surprised me she even went 50 yards. The elk was never found.

Neither one of those lost elk could be attributed to poor bullet performance.

I have never shot and elk at an angle and have never shot an elk in the butt.

The obvious was missed, or I missed it.....
I expected someone to ask "For what?" as that may influence some, as to which bullet choice but secondly, the .338 bullets made are largely big game bullets designed for the .338 Winchester. Sending them on their way a little slower only turns them into premium performers anyway.

Generally, I don't worry too much about bullets in this caliber until I get to .340 or .378 cased options where the stress on a C&C's designed for the Winchester velocities may be stressed a little more.

For the '06 case, I'd likely pick Hornady's in 200 or 225grains. at around $33 per 100 bullets, you never hear any complaints about price or performance.

I only buy the Noslers when can get seconds from the pro shop, their prices can compete with the retail for the cheaper bullets.

The four feet of elk I mentioned was a brisket shot, got the heart and liver, broke one rib, turned and scored two more and ended up in the left hindquarter.
I don't do ass shooting.

Was that a "new" or old style GS? I still have a good supply of old version and have been reluctant to try the newer ones.

On topic, my son and I are going moose and B-bear hunting in Newfoundland this fall and we will be packing a .338-06 with 210 PT's and a .356 Win with 220 Speers.

That was an "earlier" one; you can see the remnants of both hard heel core along with the forward soft, smeared core. That bullet really suffered an odd malady, and it was hard to figure out just what happened. AS near as I was able to determine however, the side of the bullet was torn open shortly before it 'skidded' against another bone (in the shoulder/leg area). That is perhaps the biggest fault of C&C designs; edge impacts with hard, heavy bones can compromise them even at lower impact speeds. That is one of the reasons I like to have a second shot ready to launch. Of course a second shot means the price- if that is a concern- has now exceeded that of a premium used in the first place. Of course even premiums have 'anomalies' from time to time as well; they are just a way of minimizing those problems.

FWIW & IMO, your bullet choices in those two rifles would seem to leave you largely with the burden of responsibility for the outcome of your hunt this fall; good choices IOW. Good luck!

Thanks!

Another silly-azzed thread. Go buy a box of 50 210 gr Partition's and dial in said rifle and shoot deer, elk, moose and bear and, assuming one can hit, kill 30 critters with said box. Save a nickel otherwise.