That 338 will not shoot 225 but boy will it shoot 250’s.
Strange about it not liking 225's. Mine loves them, but it has a custom barrel. It likes everything. Like I've said before, my buddies that used them in Oregon used 210 partitions at smoking hot speeds and excellent accuracy. You've probably tried those? IMR4350. I think one guy was running 71 grains.
I don't really mess with 210's in the 338. Majority of the time I shoot 225's. But this one did not want to shoot them. Its bedded, floated ie the BSA treatment, I used the gold standard far as powders H4350 and did not shoot very well. So I tried 250's and H4831 (I think have to go look at my notes) Rifle shot very well, I'm not to make a claim its a MOA rifle but it will hold 3 together pretty damn close. I don't like really shooting 5 shot groups with my magnums unless its cold outside. 20 degrees believe it or not is really good shooting weather.
J, since redneck is here, you may want to ask him about bedding these model 70's. I believe he generally beds under the chamber. I found with the last pre 64 fwt, I had to do that for it to shoot more consistently. That is not always the case, especially with the sporter 30-06 I sold to you and most of my other model 70's. It wanted the whole barrel to be freefloating. These model 70's in particular take some experimenting. What one may like, the other not so much. They do like a nice stress free neutral bedding and 2 points of contact though. I also hear you about shooting 3 shot groups with your magnums. I do the same thing, except for some that really shoot well, like my semi custom 338wm pre 64. That rifle will put 3 shots into 1/4", so for bragging rights I'll shoot 2 more. It routinely shoots around .6" 5 shot groups. That one is totally freefloated as well. My new xtr fwt 22-250 shoots lights out with the barrel totally freefloated. There was another model 70 that needed some bedding under the chamber, but I can't remember which one now. I'm thinking my classic sporter 7mm rem mag. Yours may be like that. That is one reason I use JB quick under the chamber or in the barrel channel. It is easy and quick to experiment with and since the barrel is basically laying on it and it does not take recoil like in the lug area, it is strong enough for that job. The only downfall to it is you have to be quick (hence the name). I'm not an expert on this, but I do know it is all mechanical and it erks me to no end to have an ill shooting rifle. Most of the time I can wring them out..
