>338 winmag question
 

Imlooking to buy some ammo for my .338 win mag. I found some Hornady Rifle Ammunition 82234, 338 Winchester Mag, SST, 225 GR online for a good price. Whats everyones input onthis stuff ive never used it before. I go with the Remington Centerfire Rifle Cartridges R338W1, 338 Winchester Mag, Core-Lokt Pointed Soft Point, 225 GR, 2780 fps for a few extra bucks would this be a better choice?? Im going to take this gun deer hunting this fall (yea I know its big) I want to sight it in with one type of ammo that will work for larger game in the future.

....One thing I like about shooting white tail with a .338 is that they are much easier to get out of the woods. They bend in half in any direction and don't hang up on logs on the ground when being dragged.....

Be careful with the SST's. Though I am a huge hornady fan the sst's are a bit fragile on big game (bear, moose, elk) and even mulies up close. So pending what you want to use them for......

I use the 225gr Nosler Accubond in my 338wm. So far bull moose, bull elk and deer have all resulted in bang flops. It may be big in conventional thought but then so is the very popular 300wsm???? If I had a choice of only one rifle for NA the 338wm would certainly top my list. Love mine, the only regret, never realized it sooner...lol! Yet to recover a bullet and on deer sized animals the wound channels are no bigger then that from lesser calibers, in fact in some cases smaller. I agree find which one shoots and go hunting. I wouldn't worry one bit about using the SST in a .338/225gr, especially on deer.

Good Luck

The .338 damages less meat than a .270 on deer..............done lots of autopsies and you can usually eat right up to the bullet hole.Harold

I use my .338 for everything..this year I even used it on antelope. I am so comfrontable with the gun, shooting it onn smaller game does not bother me. I handload the Nosler Accuboonds in 225grains and they work awesome for me. I did shoot some factory loads with the Accubond andf they shoot pretty well too, just not as consistent as my reloads!

Exactly. The amount of tissue damage is much more of a factor of frangibility than diameter. A 150 grain, 30 cal Ballistic Tip impacting at 3200 fps will be a grenade on a deer; while a 400 grain, 416 cal Barnes TSX probably won't even expand.

I think the 30 cal 150 is a more frangible bullet and was built with the 308 and 30-06 in mind. If that is still the case, and 300 Wby/300 RUM velocities it would all but come apart. However, I haven't even considered a NBT for a lot of years so my info could be outdated.

The 338 Winny pushing a 225 Accubond at 2800 fps MV is amazing. I shot a hog in Texas with this combo, and it hit like the Hammer of Thor. I have never seen a hog go down so hard and so fast. It was a shoulder shot, placed a little higher than it should have been.

The most destructive bullet I have ever fired was a 165 grain Swift Scirocco out of a 300 Winny with an MV of 3150 fps. I shot a small Texas whitetail at about 100 yds, and hit it behind the shoulder. The entrance hole was nickle sized, and the exit was a 4" x 6" hole with internal organs pushed though broken ribs. Based on that, perhaps a bullet that expands a lot, impacts at high velocity, but still holds together may actually cause the most damage.

I agree with some of the above.. the .338 with strong built bullets will actually cause less meat damage than most of the high velocity expanding type bullet..I've hit some with 200 grain X-bullets that mushroomed more than likely ZERO..looked like a full metal jacket passed through...any of the ones you mentioned will kill any whitetail on the planet.. cost, accuracy in YOUR RIFLE, cost, cost.. try to get into reloading and try lots of different ones at a fraction of the cost..

For a plough you should see what a 286gr Hornady at 2400fps does from a 9.3x62mm.Always two holes....................or lengthways if needed..........Harold