Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 338 WSM

300wsm flinging 200s is what I went with.

BSA I did a ton of load development for my 338 wsm. I started off with RL 15 from article Craig boddington wrote when he had one built that’s what they used. So I used it worked my way up using 225gr bullets I started with hornady they were cheap and come in boxes of a 100. Anyhow with chronograph I got to near max with rl 15 and the velocities were just not there. Might as well have a 338 win mag. So I read more of guys were using rl 22 so back to the range (this was in Colorado public shooting range) talk about a pain in the ass getting chrono set up. Anyhow rl 22 and 225gr the accuracy was phenomenal but I barely got over 2700 fps at one point during this load development max load I had actually lost velocity from what I read this is somewhat common with rl 22. I even messed around with h4831 a guy over on the another forum talked about how he was getting these phenomenal velocities, well I never got them. Then I went with h414 same thing. So I finally tried rl 17 with a 225gr bullet my first test was with hornady sst and wow these things shot great velocity was great over 2800 fps. Then my buddy said might want to rethink using sst they come apart. So I started loading 225 AB with RL 17 I think I was using 65-66 gr of it. These shot great, but nosler had a bunch of 200gr ab 2nds on sale so I bought some and tried them out and they shoot very well out of my rifle. I do need to chronograph that load. To answer your question if you have 338 win mag no point in getting a 338 wsm made.

Besides ths 358 WSM, I've also run the 35 Whelen...similar to the 338 WSM/338-06 comparison.

The Whelen can get 2700fps with 225's...that gets it into the 338WM realm.

So, If I was to do it over, I'd run the 338-06 or the Whelen and never look back.

I am very happy with my .325 WSM., Its a Kimber Montana. I really don't think there is enough difference between it and any other WSM cartridge to make much of a difference in killing power. good bullets and good placement are still the key.