With the honest comment here that I am NOT a "long range" hunter-shooter, due entirely to the lack of a suitable range to develop and practice the skills needed for this, I do have extensive experience with the .338WM, my favourite round for decades.
I have shot, loaded for and hunted with this outstanding round for 45 years, owned about a dozen .338 rifles and used several others, it is just an outstanding round for BC hunting, IMHO.
I started with 225 gr. bullets, Hornadys, then used various 200s, the excellent 210 NP and tended to avoid the 250s for some years. But, when I decided to try the 250 NP, I was "done" and I have kept to the 250s. almost exclusively, since 1982-83.
I use NPs for hunting, Hornady SPs are great for deer and broadside hits on larger cervids and I like to load and shoot SGKs for practice, as they are so easy to load and so accurate.
I also do not see any actual benefit to the slightly higher velocity of 225 over 250 gr. bullets and tend to prefer using heavier bullets in this as in most of my hunting cartridges as I hunt where Grizzlies are numerous and encounters are increasing. The penetration issue is also a factor as we are largely restricted to taking only 6 pt. elk and the shots are often in heavy cover, where driving the bullet as "Elmer" used to tell of is the only available shot.
YMMV, and 250s DO "kick" more, but, I prefer them and am content with my trajectory of 2" hihg at 100, on at 200 and 2 feet low at 400...seems to work for me and many guys I know here.
