Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 338 win mag with 225 nosler partion

If I recall correctly, four, all with 200-225's.

This might be the dumbest question I've ever seen posted on the fire. A true or false question about an excellent bullet in a well known elk killer? Did you not have anything more stimulating to do when you wrote this little snippet of genius? What's next - "the best fruit chewy candy is starburst, not skittles, true or false...."

The best elk cartridge is whatever you like to use that kills an elk - I could give a rats ass whether you use anything from .243 up to .500 nitro express. Dead is dead, there is no "better dead".

FWIW, I prefer skittles.

I will take both.

One thing I have noticed about a 338 win is the elk usually die closer to the truck. Now if I could find a caliber/bullet which would drop them in the back of my truck it would be great.

The way I see it there is some great information here about the 338 win and a few other calibers as well.

Nah, your not "old school". Most of the guys here in my area still use the 250 gr. sierra gamekings becasue we know they work . They are accurate as hell, hit with authority, enter and exit (although last years bull the core exited and the jacket was found on the off side up against the hide). Use what works and don't worry about what others say . I also like them because I can keep in cheap practice with them too at around $20.00/50 that's not too bad. Also they make my Ruger M77 shoot groups like this:

None in the 210 grain Partition, because no matter what I just couldn't get them to group like the 250 (which grouped the best), followed by the 225 grain partition. I never had problems with the partitions, as far as failing to expand. Now I had the front shear off, but the rear was intact. On heavy game animals, I just don't like the idea of fragmenting, lighter bullets. The Balistic tip definitely is more aerodynamic than the Partition, but what if you hit bone with the Ballistic tip. That's what would bother me. I'm sure the Ballistic tip makes spectacular kills if no heavy bone is hit. I just like the idea of full penetration, if you have to track your game. At least you have a good blood trail.

Off the subject a bit, but a friend of mine has been to Africa several times and shot 3 cape buffalo. He was using a 416 Rigby, with solids. He also has taken an elephant. These light fragmenting bullets hold no water in there argument when it comes to thick hided dangerous game like cape buffalo. The 243 lovers will never get that point, but it is pointless to try and convince them otherwise. I personally have never been to Africa, but I will take the word of my friend and his hunting partners who have.

Does anybody here use the Ruger 338 RCM in their compact 20 inch barreled rifle? How is the performance compared to a 338 win with a 24 inch barrel?

Well, that first group isn't too bad but you clearly missed the bullseye. Typical Ruger...

The second group is even worse.

I would like to help my friend load up his newly inherited 338-06. Any advice on this? I would think the 200-210's would be ideal. My buddy just sent me a picture of a 12" 3 shot group w/ a 338 RUM. It was also about 4" left of center. I would still put him in the 1% though as it was shot a a range of 1760 yards. We all shoot 300 grain SMK's or VLD's in our 338's.

There is a nice piece of information on the .338-06 using a 210 Nosler Partition bullet at the time in Nosler's newest reloading book #6 on page 468 by Steve Timm.

Also a good piece in an older manual back in the early 1970's that Nosler printed up too! The .338-06 can do anything that the .338 Win mag can do out to 250 yards or so and do it with authority. I'll be using this caliber in a lightweight model 70 come next fall.

Why would the 338-06 be limited to 250 yards?

Well the hardest part of shooting and elk or a moose, is finding one to shoot. After that you pretty much can turn them in to steaks, Roast, chops and stew with just about any reasonable bullet and launcher. The other hard part in this Equation is being able to shoot in the first place. I you can't put a bullet in the right spot under field conditions, when you are either cold, wet, hot or just plain tired, it don't matter a wit. Sure the 225 gr Nosler Partition is a great one out of a 338 Winchester or 340 Weatherby or 330 Dakota, but then again so is a 180 gr Nosler out of a 30-06, so what is the point to this?

Tonk -

With a 225g AccuBond, (BC .550), I wouldn't have any heartburn stretching that out to 450 or even 500, at which range is has about the same velocity and considerably more energy than my .30-30 has with 170's at 100 yards.

Good luck this fall.

I've used the 210 NP with great success on elk and black bears. I've used a 225 Hornady Interbond most recently. Very accurate in my rifle and held together well a couple of Springs ago on a very large and close (75 yards) Vancouver Island blackbear. Broke the off shoulder and kept going leaving a softball sized hole in the off side hide. My experience tells me that a Nosler Accubond would perform similarly.

That 210 NPT is one of those bullets that kind of defies logic. I prefer the the 225 Accubond for it's far superior flight ballistics but I'm always pleasantly surprised by the consistant love for that 210 Noz. It gets a good writeup in the Noz manual, too.

Flight ballistics mean d!ck at the ranges most critters are shot. For example I used the 210 PT on 3 pronghorn over 2 days that totaled less than 300 yds for all.

Yeah, true enough. In fact, most if not ALL of the stuff we fret about means dick at the ranges most game is shot!

With that being said, the 225 NAB is one of those bullets that stands out, to me, as being pretty clearly "best"- for my purposes. Not much to fault.

I think there's many excellent cartridges & bullets; not a lot of separation between "best" and the other top 5 or 10.... though around here, it doesn't take much separation to fire up a pizzin' match!

after 8 pages here, can anyone really think of a 338 Bore bullet that IS NOT GOOD for elk hunting??

I can't...