To answer your question long range for me is 500 yards or alittle more. Thanks for all the opinions. It's greatly appreciated. If I were to do a 338 would you do a 338 win mag or 338 lapua mag in a savage 111 long range hunter? I dont really mind ammo costs because my friend and I reload.

.338 Win. Mag.

I am not a big fan of Savage rifles, but some guys just love them.

Another vote for the 338 Win mag. in a Savage Long Range Hunter. At 500 yards the difference in trajectory isnt squat, but the difference in ammo and the prices of cases is a big difference, not to mention availabilty of brass and powder burn. Personally I would stay away from the Lapua, if you got to have more the the Win mag go with the 338 RUM.

Ridge is right the 300 wm and 7 rem mag will do the job just fine. Don't count your 270 win out in the 500 yard range either. For a standard hunting caliber it's one of my favorites.

What's the terrain look like where you intend to hunt?

Where I hunt elk, you're going to be presented a shot at under 200 yards, or you're going to be presented a shot beyond 700 on the next ridge. Valleys are full of thick spruce, fir, and pine that you're not going to see anything through, let alone shoot through. Meadows seldom more than 200 yards wide. 200 yards is nothing for a .30-06, or the .270 for that matter.

If you hunt the sage country, you'll see 500-yard shots. A little long for the standards on elk, but certainly within the capability of the .300s. You don't need ANY .338 for that kind of distance.

Be ready though. Unless an elk goes down on the spot, he's likely to travel hundreds of yards or more before he even realizes his heart and lungs aren't working any longer. If you aren't precisely aware of where he was standing when you shot him, you may not pick up the blood trail at all - particularly when you're shooting from longer distances. "Was he next to this tree? Or, was it that one?"

I find a lot of dead elk in the woods come hunting season. I'm often left to wonder what the shot was and where, and why someone didn't find them afterward. It's sobering.

Not wanting to argue but isnt the 7mm Rem. mag and the 300 Win mag built on the same case as the 338 Win mag? If you use heavy bullets in either the 7mm or the 300, you will have less case capacity than the 338, both have longer bullets meaning they have to be seated deeper therefor losing more case capacity. I have never tried them but look at the loading data and ballistics of the 338 with a 180gr. Accubond, it pushes the 180 at over 3200fps (same as the the 300RUM with a 180). With a 180 Accubond the the 338 is as flat shooting as the 300 Weatherby and with a 250Gr. bullet it hits as hard as a 375H&H. In my opinion the 338 Win mag is the best all arround belted ever mag made, but like I said it is just my opinion.


Even though the 180 Accubond doesnt have a high B.C. it has enough speed that at 500 yards it is as flat if not flatter than even a 270. Check the ballistics on that bullet, you will be surprised. With that bullet it is flatter than the 300 and possibly the 7mm mag. At 500 yards, if the 7 has anything over it it will only be a bout a 1" and it wont have the energy the 338 has. It has maybe 2" or less drop than a 300RUM shooting a 180 Accubond at 500 yards. The 300 and 7mm are both good elk rounds but the 338 is a better elk round and is concidered by many people who hunt elk to be THE elk round.

Okay at 10,000 ft using the ballistics calculator. I put my two speer bullet hand loads up against the standard .338 win mag using 180 accubonds. Here's the results.

338 win mag 180 gr accubond. .372 BC
Muzzle- 3120fps 3890ft lbs
500 yds 2221fps 1971ft lbs -34.6" of drop sighted in at 200 yards

300 win mag 165 gr spbt .520 BC
Muzzle- 3180fps 3705ft lbs
500 yds 2508fps 2305ft lbs -28.3" of drop sighted in at 200 yards

270 win 130 gr spbt .480 BC
Muzzle- 3200fps 2956ft lbs
500 yds 2474fps 1766ft lbs -30.2" of drop sighted in at 200 yards.

Knowing that you can push it over 3200 fps in a 338 don't mean it's accurate at 500 yards. These two loads I listed are dead nuts accurate. Some guns handle speed well some don't. I've never been a fan of a .338 caliber until the 338 RUM came out. That's what I call finally getting a boat up to speed. 180 gr bullets are not that great of a long range bullet in a 338 win mag. They will suffer the wind. Time in flight is one thing but so is BC.

I crunched the numbers on my balistics calculator, here is what I got.

You are dogging the 338. And you jacked up the B.C of the Speer 165gr SPBT.
Here is the real B.C. for that bullet.
30 Spitzer SPBT-Soft Point Boat Tail
Diameter: .308"
Weight: 165gr
Ballistic Coefficient: 0.477

All rifles are different but I can tell you my 338 does shoot better the hotter you load it. The actual max load for the 338 is 3340fps. with a 180 Accubond. Now like I said before I have never shot a 180 in my rifle so it might not shoot worth a crap. But I will be tryng it, I havnt found a bullet yet that doesnt shoot extremely well in it.

300 win mag. with corrected B.C. of .477
Muzzle -2.5 Infinity 3120 3566 73.54 0.000 0.0 NaN 1240
100 0.8 -3 2917 3117 68.76 0.099 0.6 2 1014
200 0.0 0 2723 2717 64.19 0.206 2.4 5 825
300 -5.5 7 2538 2359 59.82 0.320 5.6 7 667
400 -16.4 16 2360 2041 55.64 0.443 10.2 10 537
500 -33.6 26 2191 1759 51.64 0.575 16.5 13 429

338 with actual speed. for the 180 Accubond with a B.C. of .372
Muzzle -2.5 Infinity 3340 4458 85.89 0.000 0.0 NaN 1811
100 0.6 -2 3069 3763 78.91 0.094 0.0 0 1404
200 0.0 0 2813 3163 72.33 0.196 0.0 0 1082
300 -5.0 6 2572 2643 66.13 0.308 0.0 0 827
400 -15.3 15 2344 2196 60.27 0.430 0.0 0 626
500 -31.9 24 2128 1811 54.73 0.564 0.0 0 469

The 338 is flatter, not by much but it is flatter at 500 yards, but like you and RR both stated wind will play more of a role on the 338 because of B.C.

By the way, who uses a 165gr. 30 cal for elk? Isnt that a deer bullet? I use that bullet in a 308 for deer.

When I make it home I want to check the 200gr. Accubond, not as fast but it does have a better B.C. might be a better choice in the 338.

Fritz,

I guess I am that guy that uses 165 gr bullets for elk. Sure seem to work for me. I guess I must just be a little more accurate in my shot placement. Yeah.

Really? You need to do some more figuring because you dogged the 338 and exagerated the B.C. on the 165 Speer. The real B.C. on the Speer 30 cal 165 SPBT is .477 not .520. And the actual speed of the 338 is 3340fps.The 338 IS flatter with a 180gr than the 300 with a 165gr, I just updated my calculations with the balistics calculater and edited my results so go back to the second page of this thread and have a look at the real results using the corrected velocity and the real B.C.