Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Africa Bullets - accuracy or performance

OK, so I just read on the Barnes site that they recommend thoroughly cleaning jacketed material from the barrel before using their bullets. I ran about 6-8 of the AccuBonds through the rifle before I switched to the Barnes. Do you think that would cause any of the issues i'm having? The barrel has Wipeout soaking in it right now, I'll clean when I get home tonight. I'm thinking of heading to the range and trying this again..

Also, is Wipeout strong enough? Barnes recommends their cleaner or Sweets 7.62 for copper removal. I have Wipeout and Hoppes at the moment..

idahoguy,

You're not getting it. With fliers 2" away in any direction, it is NOT a 2 MOA rifle. It's more like a 5 MOA rifle--which means a 15" group at 300 yards.

Oh... I hadn't considered that. Thanks for explaining it. I missunderstood the premise

Wipout is plenty, Sweets or the Barnes cleaner (sameshit) doesn't hold a candle to it. Try some of the other loads suggested by members here and do the opposite when it comes to seating, in some of my rifles, Barnes prefer deeper seating.

John, what do you think of the 210gr Partition in the 338WM?

In my experience it works very well on game up to elk size. For game over 1000 pounds I prefer the 250 Partition, or something like the 225 TSX.

The heaviest animals I've taken with the .338 were a good Alaskan moose and an equally good eland. On the moose I used the discontinued 230-grain Fail Safe, which worked on game very much like the TSX, but was usually more accurate than the original X, at least in my experience. It was a frontal shot, with the moose a little above me, and the bullet was found against the front of the pelvis. The moose went down pretty quickly!

The first 250 Partition went into the eland sideways, as it hit a tiny thorn branch just before hitting the eland. It still made him sick enough to stop within 100 yards, and a second bullet went on through, dropping the bull right there. I've also shot lengthwise through a big blue wildebeest bull with the 250 Partition, so it works pretty well.

MD did you ever try and reload the 300 AB to see if it would stabilize in a 338 Win Mag?

Nope, but a 300 Berger will, so I assume the AB will.

I used a 338 in Namibia with 225gr Partitions, 5 bang flops (including eland) and a kudu that ran 75yds. One of the other guys in camp was also using a 338 but with 225gr TSXs, all his critters died.

If they shoot for you, either of these bullets are fine choices.



Do you work in Wixom?

405wcf

Thanks, and yes ;-)

You have a PM

I don't have a .338 WM, but a host of other rifles.

Barnes bullets like to jump.

If I was working with your rifle, I'd be trying some pretty hefty jumps and see how it did.

If it just doesn't like the TSX or TTSX (I'd try both), then I'd go with what it liked.

Barnes are good, but it's hard to fault the NPT for most uses.

NAB's will work for a bunch of what you're after. For long range PG, those would be great and accurate at long range. You may be able to have more than one bullet at nearly the same POI. Use NAB's for everything but the toughest stuff.

Just a thought. I've never been to Africa, but am getting my firepower all set just in case...

DF

Accuracy and performance can go together in my experience. I've seen good accuracy from Nosler Partitions & Accubonds, & excellent accuracy from the Ballistic Tips. Am very happy with the results on game from all three of those Nosler bullet types.

Same with the Barnes TSX I used for a while - very good accuracy and typical TSX performance on game, meaning a hole all the way through with a fair bit of damage to anything hit.

Am figuring on using the 260 gr Accubond from my .375 when I go to Africa. Why not? MOA groups, and excellent performance on the only critter I've shot with it, a black bear at a tad over 300 yards. This sample was recovered after slamming it into some water jugs at 20 yards. It fared much better than several other bullets subjected to the same test.

Couldn't recover the Accubond from the bear, it buried itself in the hillside beyond.



The initial 100 yard group that let me know something good was going on with my .375 and the 260 gr Accubond:


Another group, later on, sighting in a 1.5-5x Leupold.


Good hunting bullets can be accurate too, no doubt.

Guy

I totally agree with you, my first group with the Accubond's looked like yours above. My title was a little of off since both are excellent performers. Good shootin'..

'06, 150G's of Luv...

I agree with John...the Barnes load would worry me. Time to take a bash at Federal Premium factory ammo with Partitions and see how they shake out. For me, the Nosler Partition is like running home to Momma. Nice and safe. There's a reason that it's still the benchmark for performance.

Did You Scrub And Give The Barnes Another Hi? My BeT Is That Helps.

OK, took longer than expected but I was able to get out and put a couple more through the gun. It was cleaned with Wipeout, looked perfect. The groups were better, all under 1.5" but still showing two together and one off (except for the first group, which was higher and more spread out than the rest of the groups). I let the barrel cool off between strings, but it wasn't cold like the first group. Maybe that caused the drop in elevation??

I'd say this is good enough to use once I rezero back to about 1.5" high at 100. The last group was a quick 3 rd group with 250gr Partitions and I feel I pulled the one off to the left. I'm gonna clean again and run the same drill.

Group "A" on the first row and group "D" on the second look best. Looks like operator error on group C top row

Try a box of Barnes Vortex 225 grain TTSX. I have a Blaser R93 barrel in ,338 WM that is very finicky with most factory loads, but shoots the Vortex 225's into .5"-.75" with monotonous regularity.

I have hunted and killed eland recently. They are a very large, heavy, big boned animal. I killed mine with a TSX out of a .338 and it performed beautifully. My advice is to avoid anything that is on the frangible side. Remington loads a 225 grain Swift A-Frame in .338. Give that a try as well. The A-Frame is a much tougher bullet than a Partition or an Accubond in terms of retained weight.