Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 200 grain .338 Ballistic Silvertip for deer?

Mule Deer,
Would you have any concern using this bullet from a 338-06 on deer.

Is the velocity slow enough for a bullet that was probably designed
with the magnum in mind?

I have often though that was an advantage of the 270.
Bullets could be designed for a specific velocity.

260Remguy,
I tried to send you a PM but the site says you are over your PM limit. I never knew there was such a thing.
I think a matched 338-06 and 256 Newton is just about as perfect a set of rifles for North America as a fella could want. I want to build a 256 Newton on either a commercial FN Mauser or a 1903 Springfield (I have donors for both). I have everything but the barrel and the right 'smith to do the work (already got the brass, dies, and tons of bullets).
So who did yours? can you PM me to talk about it? I can share my email and phone if it's OK with you so I can ask some questions?

Thanks,
Rex

Dillon,
This is essentially exactly the question I asked in my OP and John wrote a very nice reply on his first post to this thread on page one.
Check it out. The short version: "no"

Cheers,
Rex

I didn't see anything about cartridge in his first post, or velocity.

In his second, it seemed like it was all 338mag.

Sorry.

I see what you mean Dillon, but I specified the 338-06 at 2850 FPS in the original question, so to me, John's responses about the historical performance of that bullet were germane. Figure there is only maybe 100 yards difference downrange between 338-06 velocity and the 338 WM top velocity,
But like I said, I see your point now.

Cheers,
Rex

Rex,

There's less than 100 yards difference between the .338-06 and .338 Winchester "downrange," especially if both rifles have the same barrel length. My .338 Win. has a 22" barrel (the same as my two .338-06s had) and 3011 fps is the fastest I've been able to push that bullet, by using RL-17 powder. But the load wasn't very accurate, and I've generally used RL-15 instead, which is VERY accurate, at a muzzle velocity of 2910 fps.

I just ran the numbers through a ballistic program, using muzzle velocities of 2850 and 3000, and at 400 yards the difference in retained velocity is 123 fps. At the "accurate" muzzle velocity of 2910 fps in my .338 Winchester, the difference at 400 yards is just about 50 fps.

Despite the heavy rear portion of jacket of the 200-grain Ballistic Tip, like all Ballistic Tips it expands very easily, due to both the plastic tip and the thin jacket around the tip. In fact it acts very much like a Partition. The second thing I did when receiving my initial batch of .338 200-grain Ballistic Tips in 1993 was compare the penetration with a 210 Partition. (The first was to work up a load with the 200.)

This was because at the time Ballistic Tips still had the reputation of being relatively fragile, even though Nosler had beefed up most of them; some had worked fine as originally designed. I was assured by Chub Eastman, then the writer-contact guy at Nosler, that the new .338 bullet was much stouter than other Ballistic Tips. So I shot both the 200 BT and the 210 Partition into the same stack of dry newspaper at close range--and the Ballistic Tip penetrated 90% as deeply as the Partition. (Plastic-tipped bullets, by the way, tend to expand more easily because of the BIG hollow-point necessary to hold the tip--which is why more than one bullet company had to beef up their softpoint spitzers when adding a plastic tip.)

I then field-tested them on a caribou hunt in Quebec, taking the biggest-bodied bull of the dozen I've taken over the years, about the size of typical 5-point bull elk. The caribou stood almost broadside at 200 yards. The bullet landed just behind the right shoulder, and broke the big joint of the left shoulder before exiting. The bull's legs all folded, and he never even rolled over on his side upon hitting the ground, remaining his belly, ready for the trophy photo.

Shot a bunch of other animals with the load after that, from around 100 pounds on the hoof to other elk-size animals, both in North America and Africa. The bullet always put them down quickly, opening reliably even on the smallest animals, and penetrated deeply--including the lengthwise shot on the gemsbok bull mentioned in one of my earlier posts.

Might also mention that when I first got that .338 around 1990, I experimented a lot with various loads, some deliberately reduced to .338-06 velocity, or even a little lower, and it worked fine. Which is why I eventually sold both the .338-06s I owned after that: There's a .338-06 lurking inside every .338 Winchester Magnum, and even when both are handloaded to their "potential" there's considerable crossover in their performance on game.

Thanks for discussion about .338 loads. I was handed down a Model 70 back in the early '90s at about the same time we moved to Colorado... and this was back in the days where I thought one needed a howitzer to take an elk...

I never yet fired it enough to begin handloading for it; as far as I remember, it shot like a house afire at the range with Nosler 250- and 210-grain Partitions, 225-grain Trophy Bonded, and 230-grain Fail Safes... but then we only found those pesky elk on scouting trips or when we only had mule deer tags... (figures).

So since then its been a nifty safe queen; not really much call for a .338 on the few eastern whitetail hunts we get up to from time to time these days.

Recently I've been "practicing" running bolt rifles (snap caps), with varying degrees of success. Turns out the Model 70 is about the smoothest bolt action I've got, even if it is on the weighty side...

And then the other day I noticed Barnes even has 160- and 180-grain .338s...

So discussion about light-recoiling loads that might be usable for our tiny whitetail is ringing my chimes just now. Probably won't happen for this year's hunt, but then again the idea gives me a target (get it?) for future activity.

-Chris

Chris,

One load I used for whitetail hunting in my .338 Winchester Magnum buck when experimenting way back when was 60 grains of IMR4895 and the 200-grain Speer Hot-Cor, which is a little tender when driven to maximum velocities, whether in the .338 Magnum or .338-06.

My load got around 2675 fps, about like what can be done with the .338 Federal, and worked great on whitetails, expanding nicely but not damaging much meat, and putting them down quickly. And even if they went a little way before falling, there was a very nice blood trail!

Thanks, John, I appreciate the tip!

Cheers, -Chris

Wouldn't any flavor of 338 bullet from any 338 cal chambered rifle terminate deer pretty easy? Even the old and milder one like 33 Win, 338 Federal, and 338 Marlin xpress are no weak sisters. Move on up the ladder into 338-06, 338RCM, 338 win and its pretty serious territory. Really how could anything fired from a 338 not be really effective on little deer?

Good question. I thought the only negative answer might be if the bullet was too tough to open up enough on lung shots to have the desired effects. So that's why I asked the question to begin with, specifically in regards to the 200 grain Ballistic Tip/CT Silvertip.

And Mule Deer, I can't thank you enough for all the time you have put into this thread - answering my and others' questions, and sharing your hunting experiences. So very much appreciated. I just went and ordered another three boxes of these overruns from SPS. That ought to bring me up to a lifetime supply. Took my rifle to the range yesterday morning to get the scope set right where I wanted it (1.3" high at 200 yards - which makes all the lower tic marks on the 2x7 Burris Ballistic Plex line up on the even 100 yard intervals) and it is shooting sub-MOA at that range with these bullets. I'm really stoked to bring home a big buck mulie and a tasty doe whitetail with this rig come late October.

Cheers all,
Rex

Thank you.

I hope to prove the 338RCM at some point. I love the form factor of the rifle and while it's overkill on deer, elk season often coincides with this so its perfectioon.

The .338 RCM is basically a short-action .338-06--which means it works well as an all-around big game round, especially if somebody believes .33-caliber bullets make a difference in killing animals larger than deer.

I used the 200 gr. Ballistic Tip/Silvertip around that 1998-2002 time in a 338 Win. I shot 2 deer with them . 1st one I hit 3 times as near as I could tell , it was brushy where I shot him the first time . I found later on there was a big wad of hair and some light blood on the ground where the first shot was. he ran 1/4ing towards me , I shot again that time he visibly stumbled, There was a lot of blood there when I looked later. the 3rd shot was pretty much straight down at a range of probably 10 yards I saw a big blood spot on his side as he ran by. When I found him he had a huge 3" hole on the entrance side of his chest with no exit. Later on I found a .338ish dia. hole next to his back bone exiting through the bottom of his chest. which was the 3rd shot, the exit appeared to be the same size as the entrance and neither was noticed until I had skinned the deer. Despite much stirring in the guts I never found either of the other bullets. The second deer was about 75 yards away I shot it through the chest . I found a little blood at the shot site and nothing until I found the deer a short distance away. After skinning the entrance and exit appeared to be the same size with very little blood shot. I also shot a crow with it that simply fell over. I'm not sure what I thought it would do but I was hoping it would have been a little more dramatic than that. I did chorno that load at one time but I thought the chrono it might have been off that day because despite it been loaded with a heavy charge I believe it chrono'ed 2750ish. That was around the time I found 2 things you never want to own unless you're prepared to be disappointed , a game scale and a chrono. KHH

No,

They don't.

Take something like the 250gr Sierra GK. One a broadside shot on deer, they just poke a hole straight through. They will expand a little bit, but not much.

Years ago dad and I both killed antelope, his with the .338 250gr game king, mine with a .277 130gr NBT. We skinned them and hung them in the back yard. The neighbor came over looked at the wounds, saying how impresses he was with the huge holes from the .338.

Problem was, those big holes were from my .270 Winchester.

antelope sniper,

Had sorta the same thing happen with the first big game animal I ever took with the .338 Winchester, back in the 1980s. Was primarily hunting elk in some heavily timbered mountains late in the season (might even have been Thanksgiving morning), using 250-grain Partitions handloaded to a little over 2700 fps. In a stand of quaking aspens came across a herd of mule deer, with a few does and fawns and an eating-size buck. It had snowed during the night, and the fallen leaves were covered by about a foot of fresh snow, so it was no problem to follow them slowly through the trees.

Finally got a shot at the buck was he was angling strongly away at about 50 yards, about to walk behind a small but thick patch of aspens. Put the reticle on the rear of the ribcage and squeezed the trigger. I had heard a lot about how the .338 was such a big game killer, so was somewhat surprised when the buck kept walking, withno sign of being hit. Got another round in the chamber and waited for him to come out from behind the aspens. When he did I put the reticle on him again, and was just about to squeeze the trigger when he eased to the ground like he might be bedding down, but instead turned over on his side and didn't move. Turned out the bullet had hit right where I aimed, and exited just in front of the far shoulder.

After field-dressing the buck, I backtracked his trail in the snow, finding where the Partition had blown some hair across the snow. Turned out he went just about 60 yards with no indication he'd been hit! But the big bullet also hadn't shot up more than a couple mouthfuls of eating meat.

This is spot on. 250g Game Kings are way too stout for deer. Indeed, I found insufficient expansion on elk lungs at >300yds out of a 338win. I immediately went back to my preferred 210 partitions which always expanded/penetrated predictably on both deer and elk, from close to 500+yds.

It’s not for the deer, but the carnivores attracted to the kill site.
The trick is getting the bullet to expand in deer or cow elk sized eatin critters.

I agree that a .30’06 200 NP or equivalent mono probably matches a 338 RCM 210-225
But you gotta admit the short action RCM is appealing. Ammo availability leans to the old warhorse

For many years I wanted to convert a Win M70 Classic Stainless in 308 to 358 Win.
Pistol bullets for potting grouse on the trail, and 225 or 200 NPs for Ursus Nasty Fellow 🥴

More Bigger, Mo’Betta. I always say unless you want to get sensational and drag out a 375 or 9.3 😎

Can't believe how many hunters are overgunned with 9.3s these days!