500yrd best bullet

[EastHunter]

Hi guy.

My rifle is a 338win and my shoot wil be 500yrd max. I whant a bullet that wil do the trick from 50yrd up to my top shoot. If posible.

My mind go for the accubond in 225 or 250. May be the sst or interbond of hornady but im lest use to these bullet.

What would be your choice? Any other choie or ideas?

Rifle wil be use for moose and bear.

 

[FEENIX]

IMHO, the NAB is excellent choice. My current load for my Ruger M77 MKII in .338 WM is .225gr NAB, CCI 250, 73.5gr H4831SC, 3.40" COAL (base to tip not ogive).

Good luck!

Ed

 

[Eaglet]

FEENIX hit it where it hurts!

Tables calculated for 5000 ft elevation. Red on the first table means subsonic.

All bullets are Nosler Accubond . 10 mph cross wind.

Track-1 = 180 gr. Track-2 = 200 gr. Track-3 = 225 gr. Track-4 = 250 gr.

Speed goes to 180 gr.
Energy goes bearly to 250 gr.
Wind bucking abilities goes to 225 gr.


Over-all the 225 gr. is the WINNER!!!!!!!!!

 

[winmag]

Hey Eaglet, is there anyway you could P.M. that post to me? Id like to have that data. If not I can copy it down with a pencil like I did with Boss Hoss' wind drift charts in another thread. Some info is just too good to pass up onThanks

 

[Eaglet]

winmag, we don't want you doing all that work!!!

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I agree ballistically the accubond would be the choice. But inside 500 yards the difference between the 225 sst and accubond would be minimal and the sst is an excellent hunting bullet that will hold together. The 225 accubond will not hold together. No need to go up to the 250. The 225 sst with less recoil and flatter trajectory will do anything you want inside of 500 yards. The sst is cheaper and a better quality hunting bullet. My longest shot with the 225 sst is 914 yards on an elk.

 

[EastHunter]

Thank Eaglet for the data, The 225gr is the best choice as i see it.

Will look at the sst with more interest. Have always think the sst closer to the balistique tip but seem i was wrong!!! My fear with sst was that it will broke a part at close range.

Long Tme long Ranger have you use sst on bear? It work on elk so will do great on bear but im just curious.

 

[elkaholic]

I agree ballistically the accubond would be the choice. But inside 500 yards the difference between the 225 sst and accubond would be minimal and the sst is an excellent hunting bullet that will hold together. The 225 accubond will not hold together. No need to go up to the 250. The 225 sst with less recoil and flatter trajectory will do anything you want inside of 500 yards. The sst is cheaper and a better quality hunting bullet. My longest shot with the 225 sst is 914 yards on an elk.

Hi Ranger! are you saying the SST will hold together better than the Accubond?....Rich

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I have not shot bear with the 225 sst but from what I have shot I would be confident shooting anything with it.

Elkaholic, My only experience with the 338 caliber accubonds has been with the 225 grain. The 225 accubond will not hold together and will completely dissentegrate into fragments on many occasions. The 225 SST is a much tougher bullet with better performance on game. That is from my personal experience with both bullets, not heresay.

 

[elkaholic]

I have not shot bear with the 225 sst but from what I have shot I would be confident shooting anything with it.

Elkaholic, My only experience with the 338 caliber accubonds has been with the 225 grain. The 225 accubond will not hold together and will completely dissentegrate into fragments on many occasions. The 225 SST is a much tougher bullet with better performance on game. That is from my personal experience with both bullets, not heresay.

That's interesting and somewhat surprising! I sure wouldn't argue because I haven't shot any .338's. You are talking std SST and not Hornadys innerbond right?

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

Nobody is more surprised than me. The standard 225 grain SST. I spent a lot of money on bullets and working up new loads in several of my 338's retooling to the high BC 225 Accubond. I saw three bullets this year with complete jacket seperation and fragmentation on elk. Basically nothing remaining but fragments through the wound channel. I had to switch from the 200 grain ballistic tip because they quit making it. It was one of the best performing bullets I have ever used. I tried the 225 SST and it performed perfectly on game but the BC listed was well below the Accubond so I retooled again to the Accubond. I can not understand nosler replacing the 200 grain ballistic tip with a much more expensive bullet calling it a premium bullet and it is not near the quality of the 200 ballistic tip. I will never use another and am now retooling again to something else. The SST has great performance on game but the advertised BC is low. I can't understand that because looking at it and the accubond they are so similar. But I had rather have a bullet that performs first and look at BC second. Not that much difference really in shooting it. I took an elk at 914 with the SST and the BC didn't make much difference there. The 225 AB is extremely accurate and has the high BC to go with it, but it does not perform on game worth a flip.

I have at least five boxes of 225 accubonds I will sale at a bargain if anybody wants them. Just give me time to get them unpacked after moving.

 

[elkaholic]

I'm into bullets as you probably have seen noticed. Have you recovered any SST's and if so, at what ranges etc? One of the reasons I was SO surprised is that I've had SST's explode in midair but that was .308 180's at about 3400' and I was also shooting a 3 groover which tends to tear up bullets a little more!

 

[Long Time Long Ranger]

I am rehashing a lot of what I put on Michael Eichelles thread about light 338 bullets. Recovered several and that is how i know what they do. Data is on the other thread. His thread is sst bullets. I am also a bullet nut and have studied them for over 40 years testing them. The hornady interlock bullet is the toughest most reliable controled expansion bullet out there that I have found unless you go to a monometal or partition type bullet. I assumed the sst was just an interlock with a plastic tip on it. I am extremely surprised by your 180 grain 30 caliber sst blowing up. That interlock bullet in particular is one of the toughest bullets I have ever shot and the problem with it is it not opening up enough at slower velocities, not blowing apart. So with the sst it must be a completly different bullet. I have shot many 180 grain flat base interlocks out of my 300 mags, 300 ultramags and 30-378 wby's to over 3500 fps and never had a failure. They are perfect controled expansion every time. Maybe we need to start another thread and discuss this further.

 

[azsugarbear]

The "best 338 bullet" theme of this thread seems to be running along bullet performance rather than "best bullet BC" and rightfully so. To my mind, there isn't an appreciable difference in bullet flight between higher BC 338 (.6-.7) and the slightly lower 338 BC's (.5-.6) out to 500 yds. You can easily compensate for drop and windage isn't too large an impact if we are talking 500 yd. max range.

Ranger touched on the monometal bullets. In my experience, the Barnes line of trippleshock (TSX, TTSX, MRX) are absolutely devasting on game. You don't hear of too many failing to perform, be it 50 yds. or 500 yds.

Barnes bullets don't have the BC for true long distance shooting. Additionally, I have had a dickens of a time getting them to shoot accurately out of my rifles, but others seem to have mastered it. The NAB is my go-to bullet for LRH, but if I am confident my shots will be 50-500 yds, then the TSX wins every time. It flat puts 'em down.