Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Flat shooting 338WM

So, I have a few 200gr E-tip and I see that the nosler manual has a load for 200 grain @ 3000. Now this rifle loves 250 gr. GK's but if it will shoot em, I'm thinking the 200 would be flat shooting along with good long range performance. Although I usually like a heavy for cal bullet, I'm thinking about switching gears. What y'all think?

I think load up some 225 Nosler Accubonds. Pretty flat shooting with that .550 BC. I just loaded some up at 2850 fps, pretty impressive when you run the numbers. Haven't killed anything with them yet, maybe next fall.

I do have some 225AB's as well.

I'd keep using the 250's...

I'm not sure of what you are considering as long range, but I think that if your ranges exceed 600 yards,you may be better served with a heavier bullet with a good high BC. If you run the numbers I think that you'll see that the heavies,even when started slower",show higher velocities,more energy,and less wind drift than do the light bullets at longer ranges. There's a very good reason that bullets used by military snipers use heavy for caliber bullets in their line of work! memtb

Another vote for the 225 NAB; have shot lots of them. Very accurate for a hunting bullet and has a solid BC.

I like 210 TTSX's. Shoots about as flat as my .280 with 140's and even in a lighter rifle the recoil is not bad. With IMR 4350 I'm getting just under 3000fps-the heavier bullets with higher B.C. are better for extreme distance but for work inside of 700yds or so I'm not finding any usable gain in flattening the curve.

The only "light" .338 I would use is the Nosler 210. I prefer 225s in general among the lighter stuff, but end up with the Hornady 250 SP almost always. Good BC, good SD, good terminal performance. The Nosler 250 is a good, premium choice of course.

The 225g AccuBond is what I chose after running the ballistics on several different weights. I sue the Hornady 225g SST bullets for most of my practice as they shoot to about the same POI and are much less expensive.

Made my longest big game shot ever with my 22" barreled .338WM and a 225g AB pushed to 2742fps. Range was 487 yards.

A few years back I took the .338WM/225g AB and a .30-06/150g BT to the range for a last pre-hunt check. Shooting clay pigeons at 600 yards I hit two, one with each rifle, using a total of 5 shots. One rifle took 3 shots, the other 2, don't recall which was which. I still practice out to 600 and have no doubt the the 225g will perform fine if I ever take a shot at game that long.

There is nothing on the planet a 200 E-Tip at 3000k won't kill. If you really want to flatten out the trajectory, shoot a 160 TTSX at warp speed.

FYI, if you look at Bryan Litz's work, he has measured and provided updated BCs for many bullets. IIRC, the 225 AB was not quite as good as advertised, while the 200 E-Tip is slightly better. The 180 AB is quite a bit better than advertised.

http://appliedballisticsllc.com/ballistics/

I'd not be afraid of a 200gr E-tip at 2,900-3,000fps for an all-rounder load in a .338WM. Like prm says, it'll kill whatever you point it at.

.....................Imo before you settle on a bullet weight and brand, play with a ballistics calculator such as the one on the Hornady site to determine which 338 bullet offers the best down range performances; ie velocities, flatter trajectories, ft lbs etc.

3000 fps is all well and good from the muzzle. But what is more important, are the down range retention figures for long range use.

Of course, shoot what your rifle likes best but.... Why not stay with what works for you in the 250? If you want a lighter bullet at higher velocity use a 300 or even a big 7 if you drop to 160s. Use the SD available in your 250s.

A 200 grain ETip driven fast is going to make SD figures irrelevant for hunting in North America.

As mentioned in a previous post, I chose the Nosler 225g bullet for my .338Wm. That decision was made after running the ballistic calculations for various weights.

Nosler’s 200g bullets offered marginally flatter trajectories with greater wind drift but with significantly less energy at longer ranges while the 250g AB dropped marginally more with about the same retained velocity and wind drift and a little more energy. The problem I had with the 250g bullets was the recoil level went up noticeably with no practical gain in performance for my purposes (elk, 600 yard maximum). In the end I settled on an accurate but below max 225g load. I used this load a couple years back to make the longest big game shot I’ve ever taken, dropping a cow at 487 yards.

Below is a ballistic comparison of Nosler’s 200g, 225g and 250g AB and E-Tip bullets using Nosler’s online load data:
200g AB = B.C. .414 @ 3020fps
200g E-Tip = B.C. .425 @ 3020fps
225g AB = B.C. .550 @ 2882fps
250g AB = B.C. .575 @ 2780fps

Since the 200g E-Tip has a higher B.C. at the same velocity as the 200g AB, I didn’t bother running the numbers for the 200g AB. For the others and MPBR (Maximum Point Blank Range) zeroing for a 6” diameter target:

200g E-Tip = 257yd Zero, 303yd MPBR (3020fps, 24” barrel)
225g AB = 239yd Zero, 283yd MPBR (My handload, 2742fps with a 22” barrel)
225g AB = 250yd Zero, 296yd MPBR (2882fps, 24” barrel)
250g AB = 242yd Zero, 287yd MPBR (2780fps, 24” barrel)

At 500 yards with a 10mph crosswind:
200g E-Tip = 30.0” drop, 2226fps, 2201fpe, 14.5” drift
225g AB = 36.8” drop, 2153fps, 2315fpe, 12.5” drift (My handload, 2742fps with a 22” barrel)
225g AB = 31.5” drop, 2274fps, 2584fpe, 11.6” drift
250g AB = 34.8” drop, 2210fps, 2711fpe, 11.6” drift

Calculated recoil for a 8.3 pound rifle and scope combo:
200g = 35.3 ft-lp @ 16.5fps
225g = 33.8 ft-lb @ 16.2fps (My handload, 2742fps with a 22” barrel)
225g = 37.0 ft-lb @ 16.9fps
250g = 40.5 ft-lb @ 17.7fps

Although I have the same reservations about Nosler’s E-Tip that I had with Barnes X and TSX bullets, which I refuse to use on big game after a bad experience with the X bullets, I wouldn’t hesitate to use the 200g AB.

Fwiw, Litz has the G1 numbers at:

180ab- .409
200ab- .461
200etip- .434
225B- .524
250ab- .583

Those numbers make more sense to me, since the 200 and 225 appear to have the same ogive and the 250 seems marginally longer...

Thanks for this BC update. That will definitely change my ballistics with the 225 Accubond.

I prefer the 225 or 250gn bullets as they work on everything and still shoot fairly flat.
Lighter bullets will work and are sometimes fun to play with. That high velocity will be flatter out to about 300 yards, but then the heavier bullets start to excel.

I'd say, if your curious, try them out. They should be fine for killing game.

A method to reduce effective recoil would be to fill a cartridge sock on the buttstock with spares, instead of leaving them in your pack. A 338 with 9 on the butt and 3-4 in the magazine adds around a pound to the effective rifle weight.