Originally Posted by
Ridge Runner
frank, I been aound rifles alot of years, and I will say this 3340 is way, way fast for a 338 winny with a 180, my hodgdon #26 which lists loads as max that are way over max these days list the max velocity for a 175 at 3187, not sayin it ain't possible but not likely with a factory barrel.
and all published bc's do is give ya a starting point, they are not etched in stone, in all my years testing BC's only one was spot on, it was a 6.5 139 gr lapua scenar, which btw wasn't worth a darn for hunting.
I have very little experience with the 338 winny, I did set up a guys rifle for a longe range deer hunting load, it was 75 gr of re22 behind a 250 gr at 2775 fps, now I have alot of experience with the 7mm STW, its a full house custom with a 26" lilja 9 twist barrel, and burning 95 gr of wc872 will run a 160 downrange at 3340, so what your saying is a 24" barreled 338 winny runs a 180 at the same speed while having at least 10 grains less capacity?
RR
RR, I know you know what you are talking about but 3340fps is the speed in which the max load is for a 180gr. Accubond. If you have a Barnes manual handy look up there 185gr XLC BT, they are even getting over 3300fps, 3303 to be exact, with a 185gr. bullet with 77.5grs of Win 760 powder and it has a much better B.C. of .437 than the Nosler at .372, I didnt list this bullet because I cant stand Barnes bullets but it should be even flatter and less effected by wind.
Here is how the Barnes 185gr. XLC does on the ballistics calculator with a B.C. of .437 and a listed muzzle velocity of 3303(as listed in the Barnes loading manual).
Muzzle -2.5 Infinity 3303 4481 87.29 0.000 0.0 NaN 1850
100 0.6 -2 3073 3879 81.21 0.094 0.6 2 1490
200 0.0 0 2854 3346 75.43 0.196 2.4 5 1194
300 -4.9 6 2646 2876 69.93 0.305 5.7 7 951
400 -14.7 14 2448 2461 64.69 0.423 10.5 10 753
500 -30.4 23 2259 2096 59.70 0.550 16.9 13 592
Alright Blackelk now giving you that your B.C is .520, I reran your numbers through my ballistics calculator with a B.C. of 520 and a MV of 3180fps, this is what I got.
Muzzle -2.5 Infinity 3180 3705 74.96 0.000 0.0 NaN 1313
100 0.7 -3 2991 3277 70.50 0.097 0.5 2 1093
200 0.0 0 2810 2892 66.23 0.201 2.1 4 906
300 -5.1 7 2636 2545 62.13 0.311 4.9 6 748
400 -15.2 15 2469 2233 58.20 0.429 9.0 9 615
500 -31.1 24 2309 1953 54.42 0.554 14.6 11 503
Not much difference but you will see that the 338 is flatter, the 338 will be .6" high at 100 vs. .7" high on the 300 win mag. 4.9" low at 300 for the 338 vs. 5.1" low at 300 yards with the 300 and 30.4" low at 500yards with the 338 versus 31.1" at 500 yards with the 300 win mag, and the 338 win mag has more down range energy, 2096ftlbs vs.1953ftlbs. Like I said though not enough to make a difference, the only way to notice would be from shooting off a bench with ideal conditions, a animal will deffinitely not know the difference. I am done with the cartridge nit picking, shoot what you like and I will shoot what I like. I am not on here to down grade anyones round but to say that at 500 yards the 300 win mag is supierior to the 338 is just B.S.!!! Its all in what is loaded in it. The 338 Win mag can do what a 300 Win mag can do at 500 yards, with the right load, and a 2" shorter barrel I might add.