Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 338 250gr Hornady BTHP on elk?

Hard to imagine a 250gr .338 bullet that wouldn't kill an elk.

I can tell you about personal experience using 300 grain .375, thin jacketed, SBT that failed to kill an elk and couldn’t/wouldn’t exit a mule deer or an average sized Black Bear with broadside shots.

Of course there are those that would say that poor shot placement was responsible for the elk kill failure …..I chose to believe that it was a failed bullet choice! A few years later, I made a very similar shot with far different results. This is the reason that I vehemently argue the use of these type bullets on game! I learned my lesson the hard way…..but, I didn’t have the internet and experienced hunters to help me “not” make poor choices!

With today’s information available, a wounded and lost big game animal lwith proper bullet placement and poor bullet selection falls upon the shoulders of the hunter/shooter! Let him/her live with that on their conscience……if they have a conscience! memtb

Isn’t the whole purpose of a hunter, especially a reloader, to choose/match the bullet to game. I don’t believe Hornady makes a HPBT or HP flat base over .308 caliber. I’ve never seen one in .338 going back over 20+ years.

I don’t really care what bullet you use. You are the one who has to live with the results, good or bad. If I ever lose an elk, it won’t be because I used an inferior or inappropriate bullet or rifle for the job at hand. Personally, I don’t use any cup and core bullet for elk; because I don’t have to.

Never used the Hornady bthp on game, but tons of elk and deer with Bergers, and Hornady Amax. Never had an animal go more than 50 yards, most only a make it a few.

Even harder to imagine a 300gr .375 bullet that wouldn't kill an elk.

Lots of elk hit the ground around here thanks to the ultra premium Rem factory 100gr corelokt .243

Elk are bullet proof didn't you know that ?

I mean according to 80% of the internet you need a 30 cal or larger 300 grain titanium coated projectile to kill one.
Meanwhile my wife and have killed 90+ + elk with a 143 eldx from a 6.5,cm at well past 400;yrds along with a 155 terminal accent out of a 280ai. While hunting in 5 different states for elk
guess the elk never got the memo that we didn't shoot them with a magnum so they were not suppose to fall over dead like they did

I was beyond disbelief with the results on 3 head of game that I shot. The bullet came completely apart, was able to only find a few jacket shards, though I did find some of the empty jacket base beneath the hide of the bear! Once seeing the results on small big game animals with broadside shots and some bullet tests e with the bullet……it’s no wonder the bullet didn’t travel far enough into the elk to reach vitals!

While I was experiencing these bullet failures, I had a fairly lengthy conversation with Bob Milek…..he told me to get away from those bullets and go to the 270 grain Hornady SP. My bullet problems went away. memtb

If the 250 BTHP works like their 105 HPBT does in the 6mms on deer then I’d have no problem myself. I’d probably mind what TX35 says and place your shots well and keep hammering till you’ve watched him be still.

Run a few into some sorta media to get an idea of what’s going to happen at 50 yards or 600 yards. Water jugs are cheap. Folks [bleep] on them for test media but if they they’re a better test than us folks who haven’t ever used them.

Ya pretty much.

Must be tougher elk than we’ve seen.

^^^Most definitely. You can usually get a decent sense of things on your own this way. Water jugs, soaked newspaper, etc. Just apply some common sense. And don't run thin-jacketed bullets at warp speed.

Well if you read a book don't you start on page #1 ? Page one for me is in the 8th edn Hornady loading manual on page 109 they classify it for use as a target-match bullet . Seems damned clear to me. In the field you think accuracy wise it will give you a decernable accuracy difference over the 250 gr Sp? The cost of a non resident elk tag is enough to propell me to using the right bullets recommended by the bullet manufacturer. To me the worst case scenario would be having to shoot thru the near shoulder with such a bullet hoping to make it thru to the vitals. Use them for practice and quit fugging around...mb you asked.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ THIS ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

You two might want to search for the Scenar thread. Schedule a bit of time and go through that one...

Pretty much any bullet above 185 grains in a 338 win mag is an Elk bullet.

210-225 gr bullets are about right for elk in a .338 bore. I shot 250’s in my crappy shooting Win M70 years ago because I didn’t know better.

I've wondered the same about the .338 Hornady HPBT match bullets. I watched my buddy kill piles of game with 300 gr Sierra Matchkings so I thought I'd try the 250 gr Matchkings in my 338 Win. I killed one antelope doe with it and was not impressed. Later, I believe I read someplace that the 250gr Matchkings weren't nearly as good as the 300 gr version for hunting. If I did try them I'd seriously consider opening up the meplats and possibly annealing the tips.

I will send you some 200 grain accubonds if you can't see your way to buying some actual hunting bullets.