olblue,
I don't know about other .338 shooters (many of whom use lighter bullets almost exclusively, such as the 210 Nosler Partition or Barnes TSX), but when I got my first .338, it was only one of three big game rifles in my "collection," the others being a .257 Roberts and a .30-06. So I experimented a lot with the .338, hunting with it almost exclusively for a couple-three years, and then quite a bit for another 10-15 years or so.
In that time I learned a lot of stuff about the cartridge, including that it doesn't kick nearly as fearfully as many people claimed (the reason I eventually reduced my rifle's weight from around 9 pounds to 7.5). In that time I used bullets from 180 to 275 grains in weight, but eventually mostly used two loads: the 200-grain Ballistic Tip at close to 3000 fps, and the 250-grain Nosler Partition at 2700 or so. They shot very close to the same place at 100 yards so could be used interchangeably.
I used the 200-grain Ballistic Tip for game up to about 500-600 pounds in weight. As noted above, this was a very thick-jacketed bullet, and for all practical purposes penetrated as well as the 210 Partition (I only recovered one in all the years I shot it, from a quartering on shot on a gemsbok; the bullet broke the near shoulder and spine, and ended up under the hide of the rump on the oppsite side). But it expanded more violently, thus killing more quickly, on average.
The 250-grain load was used for bigger stuff, up to over 1000 pounds in weight. I also tried Barnes X's and the Winchester Fail Safe (230 grains), but never could get any of the original X's to shoot all that well (except the light 175-grain, which still did not shoot nearly as well as the 200 Ballistic Tip and did not shoot any flatter). I hated the moly coating on the 230 FS, as the residual moly in the bore made other bullets shoot weirdly. The 275 Speer turned out to be a joke.
So I eventually just used the 200 BT and 250 Partition.
If you want to argue that a light-bullet load in the .338 can be bettered by a .300 magnum, I won't argue. In fact, I hardly ever use the .338 anyore because eventually I ended up owning a LOT more rifles, and found that a .300 will neatly kill any of the non-dangerous game a .338 is suggested for, with less recoil and a slightly flatter trajectory. I also found that something of even bigger bore size is even more versatile on truly big game. The old 9.3x62, loaded with modern 250-grain bullets, does the same jobs as the .338 with 250's, but with noticeably less recoil.
But if anybody does only own a .338 (or maybe a .338 and one or two lighter rifles) a light-bullet load is indeed very good for certain purposes. In fact, if I were rational and NOT a gun writer, I probably would own a 7x57, .338 Winchester and .416 of some sort, and spend more of the money I "waste" on firearms in hunting around the world. And one of the loads I'd use in the .338 would definitely be something around 200 grains, pushed to around 3000 fps. Such a load may not be quite as flat as a 180-200 grain load from a .300 Weatherby, but it's close enough. Believe me, with the right bullet it knocks the snot out of game like caribou, elk, gemsbok, blue wildbeest, etc.
JB
