I set Feesh Rods aside for a bit yesterday afternoon and shot through the new Garmin,to see .616 BC 230 ELD Smooches right at 2700fps,in formed cases. Hint.
Seems like a nice place to be,to me. Hint.............
Brad says: "Can't fault Rick for his pity letting you back on the fire... but pity it was and remains. Nothing more, nothing less. A sad little man in a sad little dream."
4064 is very good, perhaps better for 200s and lighter.
4320 for the win, 225s - 2670 with WW partial sized brass, 23" Hart, 1/2 MOA.
Enjoy.
Don't know if anyone has ever noticed this with the 338/06. But:
50 grains of 4064 with a 200 grain, 225 grain and 250 grain Hornady, each have an MV of 2500 fps?
That is what I commonly load in my Model 70 in 338/06, which was a rebore of a brand new 270 barreled Model 70, that had never been fired.
For the fastest velocity with each of those bullet weights, I use H 380, which is very darn accurate also. Still under SAAMI pressure specs but I load 65 grains with the 200 grain Hornady ( which needs a crimp), 62.5 grains of H 380 with a 225 grain Hornady SP, and 60 grains of H380 with a 250 grain RN ( which I prefer over the SP). Each load is very accurate in my rifle along with the fastest MV out of each bullet weight.
Scope I use on my Model 70 is a Leupold 2 x 7 Shot Gun Scope, with the heavy duplex.
"Minus the killings, Washington has one of the lowest crime rates in the Country" Marion Barry, Mayor of Wash DC
“Owning guns is not a right. If it were a right, it would be in the Constitution.” ~Alexandria Ocasio Cortez
Has anyone tried the 338-06 loaded with Speer 250 Grand slam bullet on game or shot for accuracy?
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
GS's as a whole,in all sizes/weights,are dismal on the average. Hint.
Just sayin'............
Brad says: "Can't fault Rick for his pity letting you back on the fire... but pity it was and remains. Nothing more, nothing less. A sad little man in a sad little dream."
Stick what about Hornady interlocks and Noslers accubonds?
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
I/L's are rather soft and I never was an AccuBomb Guy,because they are zooky and far from reliable. Hint.
Been hung up banging Chrome and haven't even Bear looked yet,but am liking the 230 ELD's thus far. They fly nice,slip conditions well and seem rather robust. Hint.
To be continued. Hint..............
Brad says: "Can't fault Rick for his pity letting you back on the fire... but pity it was and remains. Nothing more, nothing less. A sad little man in a sad little dream."
Does anyone have any load data for the Swift or Speer .338 275gr.Tungston Solid bullet?
Last edited by keekeerun; 04/19/24.
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
Brad says: "Can't fault Rick for his pity letting you back on the fire... but pity it was and remains. Nothing more, nothing less. A sad little man in a sad little dream."
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
I did read where one African hunter forum 338-06 shooter claimed 57gr.IMR4831 got him 2400fps with the 300gr.Woodleigh soft
Last edited by keekeerun; 04/20/24.
Frank Glaser,Alaska Wolfman:"with a lung shot on hoofed game the .220 Swift killed quicker than any other gun I ever owned."That included caribou,moose,wolf,and sheep.
Has anyone tried the 338-06 loaded with Speer 250 Grand slam bullet on game or shot for accuracy?
I used the 225 version in mine the first few years. They shot well and worked on one elk, which was as expected. Pretty much just use a souped up 185TTSX or a slowed down 200 speer these days.
Hi Keekee. I'm a little late to the thread. I have a 338-06 AI. Great cartridge for elk and moose. I've had the gun for about 17 years. What I finally settled on for a recipe is as follows. 210gr Swift Scirocco bullet on top of 62gr of RL17. The brass is Winchester and primers are large rifle magnum of either CCI or Federal. I did try Hornady 225gr Interlock and Nosler 225gr Interbond. In the end the Scirocco shot good and on game bullet performance was better than all the rest. Retention being right at 94%. And if you plug that recipe into a ballistic calculator you're good out to a quarter mile. The non AI version will be very similar. The dies I chose were Redding and have had good luck with them. Good luck.
When I finished my bachelor's degree at boise state in 2000 I want to build a hunting rifle to commemorate it. I wanted a tough reliable big game gunshot fed well, held 5 and would work from Africa to Alaska. I was going to build on a nice steyr build 1940 660 mauser 98 action off a rifle I bought in a pawn shop. It's a really nice action that feed its 8x57 rounds very well.
The gunsmith said the steyr 98 was too nice to drill and tap and when I figure out all the other work I thought it'd need I ended up just buying a ruger 77 mk 2 stainless in 30-06 and rebarreled it to 338-06 with a #3 shilen stainless match.
That 338-06 on the ruger shot well and fed well and was stainless which I liked. I tried lots of different bullets and loads before settling on the Hornady 225g interbond over h4350 at about 2725 fps iirc. Hornady at the time had the bc on that bullet listed too low at about .460 and it actually shot more like a bc of about .550 in my testing. After I talked to them they later raised the listed bc to about .515 iirc. That bullet expanded really broadly yet retained most of its weight. It seemed to hit hard but still penetrate. The bc wasn't high by today's standards but it was better than most back then and kept me at expanding speeds further out than a lot of others.
Later I bought a little 20" stainless 77 mk2 in 338 rcm with open sights. I worked up the 225 interbonds in it to 2675 and then found I never carried the 338-06 anymore and sold it to a fire member who really wanted one.
I later went through a thinning the herd phase and decided I didn't need anything between .308 and .375 and sold my 8x68s my 338s and my 358s, 350rem mag and 35 whelen. I figured my 30 cala with 200g partitions or 200g accubonds at the time seemed to kill as well as the mid bores and was tired of stocking so many different bullets. I did end up missing the 338 rcm mainly because I liked the short lighter stainless rifle with open sights as backup. And I've since added another 358 bar.
In retrospect the 338-06 was an easy to work with and smooth functioning round that seemed to like most loads and bullets. I usually just necked down 35 whelen brass and it was an easy 1 pass thing. I had some properly headstamped Weatherby brass in case I wanted to go out of country but I never really used it.
I remember one bullet that shot amazingly well in the 338-06 was the plain old speer 200g hotcor flat base. It was always under 1/2 moa with I believe h4895 at over 2800 fps. I never hunted with it though other than some varmints because the 225 interbonds held their speed significantly better and I had a bunch of them. I shot a lot of game with the 308 cal 165 interbond back then and really liked how that bullet killed stuff so I was confident in that style bullet.
I also loaded some 250g scenars in the 338-06 because I often used those in my 338 lapua back then. They shot pretty well at long ranges just playing around despite the modest mv of about 2550 iirc. I never used them on big game but took a few rock chucks way out there one windy day because the wind was all over and impossible to get a good read on. The 250s left a nice big mark on the rocks so we could see where we needed to adjust. My ar30 in 338 lapua later became a favorite windy day rock chuck gun after seeing what even the 338-06 did to leave a mark on the lava rock.
Yah I don't care what the fk any of you may read on here:
338 cal rifles are the versatility king. Where the 30 cals end, the 338's are just getting warmed up.
In a 338 RCM carbine, I run 225 grain interbonds sighted to the scope. 2650 fps. They actually expand at 500 yds, as do the 225 grain fusions. The 225 grain interbonds out penetrated the 30 cal 220 partitions. Expanded EXACTLY twice it's diameter and retained almost all its weight. Unlike those potato shaped 220 partition bitc h bullets. This is the load for open country on winter caribou where shots are long or in the mountains for sheep.
The open sights are sighted to a 275 grain swift a-frame handload. 55 grains of RL 16, 2280 fps from.a 20" barrel RL 17 would give a little more velocity. This is my bear protection load. Also what I run if anticipating a massive, rut-raged bull moose called up close where the shots are always head-on or quartering towards.
That 275 grain swift nips right at the heels of my 9.3x62 300 grain swift a-frame handload.
All this versatility from a rifle that weighs less than the 30-30 I carried as a kid.
