Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Favorite 338 Win Mag loads

I can't begin to add up the amount of powder, bullets, and range time I spent on that thing...even had it bedded twice. The stock was a good one, too. I had it in a Brown Precision...

Wasn't the stock or bedding...Probably a combintaion of barrel (in its entirety), bore, crown, chamber, throat, rifling, induced stress, rate of twist, etc....etc....Most all 338's I've ever loaded for have been tack drivers and not very finicky at all....You just had a bad one....

Mine sure is proving to be a pain in the butt. It's a Savage with a very long throat and a short(<3.5") magazine. The only load I have found that does under 2" consistently is a 225 accubond at 3.475" and about 2950 fps. The tips deform in the magazine at that length and it's way too hot, though, so I have moved on.

210 TSX's seem like they might stand a chance, and obviously won't have tip deformation, but I still need to dial in the powder/charge.

I'm also hoping that 200 grain ballistic silvertips will show some promise. It seemed to do better with federal's 180 accubonds than their 225 grain accubonds.

If I can't get either the tsx's or bst's consistently 1.5" or less, I might try 250 partitions or a different 225...

That's smoking for a 225gr :P . tsx and e-tips seem to like a longer jump on the lands, might worth a shot with a long throat.

Yeah, that's why I thought I'd try the TSX. I tried TTSX's too, but they have a more aerodynamic tip and the regular TSX is much closer to the lands.

Those 225 loads showed some shiny spots on the brass in higher temperatures. Like I said, too hot for comfort. I would have loved for them to be accurate at about 2800-2850 and a length that would not deform tips in the magazine...

RL19 has been my go to powder for the 338. It works well with the 200 AB's, 225 AB and 250 PT's and AB's. Runs the 200's a little under 3000 and the 250's at 2725 or so. I tried IMR4350 and H4831, just never got the speed and accuracy out of my Model 70 that RL19 gave me.

200 AB's









250 AB's





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Nice groups, I wish RL19 was not so temp sensitive.

Nice shooting there bud...You better hang on to that rifle..

I haven't found RL19 to be terribly bad, I shoot year round when I am home, usually in the high 90's or better in Va and the 30's in the Winter. Haven't found it affected my drop much at all, although, I only shoot them out to 600. I imagine it could be much worse if I was really trying to shoot long. Chronoing the loads from Winter to Summer doesn't have much more than 25-50FPS difference and much of that could be chrono set up and lighting being different from time to time as well.

BSA, that rifle is actually getting made over into a 338/375 this Fall. I am dropping it off to the smith on my way to Idaho. It has the BOSS on it and I would like just a little more out of it. Great shooting rifle and I like the 338WM alot. Can't ask for much more, but I am!! HA!