Hi All, Good thread! My .338 Fed is a Ruger Hawkeye with 22" barrel. It shot factory 180gr A/B & 210 gr Ptn pretty well- 1.2" & 2.5" at 2839 & 2627'/sec respectively. My handloads initially were 200 NAB in Fed cases with ADI 2206H (which is Hodgdon 4895H), 47gr ahead of Rem 9 1/2 M primers for 2730 f/sec ES 25 f/s. It was so compressed the case walls expanded and made them hard to chamber! Switched to same bullet with Benchmark 2, @ 44gr ( Hodgdon Benchmark), Rem 9 1/2 LR for 2693 f/s. This powder works well, and just nicely fills the case. This combo proved a real 'bone-crusher' on deer, and I have taken several Fallow Deer & a Sambar stag with it. I am currently using 200 gr Woodleigh instead of the AB's which can be hard to find lately. 210 gr Scirrocos with 43 grains of BM2 are the most accurate and shoot the flattest out beyond 300 yds, but I haven't shot any animals with them yet. They should be 'dynamite' on Sambar/Elk sized game though! Cheers, John
