Lets talk .338 bullets
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Yes, there is a trend and that trend is that the TSX are very accurate and kill very effectively
Ron Johnson
Active Member
This wildcat is similar to the one Dan Lilja has, but has a 40 degree shoulder (PO Ackley).
Minimum body taper and a one bullet diameter neck. The action is a Jerry Geske in Superior, Montana. It uses a Remington trigger (Jewel with side safety) and takes a 1 1/8" barrel shank that's about 1 3/4" long. The barrel that Dan Lilja made for me is 34" long 1.350" at breech and 1" at the end. Its fluted 5/16"wide and deep with 6 flutes 27" long and has a George Vias brake. The stock is a McMillan prone with adjustable cheek piece and butt. Bruce Baer made the base with a 25 min. taper. It uses 4 leupold rings, a cant indicator, and cosine indicator. I use 2 bipods on it, a long Harris for sittings and a versa pod for prone. The finished weight is about 23# with the 8-32X56 Nightforce. I have about 1700 rds thru the barrel and have noticed a little decrease in speed. Sooooo... as far as loading data goes I have used the most WC872 at new barrel full power charge of 121 grs. With the 300 gr. Match king moly coated. Speed is about 3075 fps. I have shot up to 123 grs which got a little over 3100 fps. COL is 4.110". IMR 5010 with a starting load of 110 grs started at about 2930fps. 112 grs at about 1000 rds fired is about 3068 fps. I have used also T-5070, T-5050, and T-5020 powders which also gave good speed and accuracy. I have been using Fed. 215 and 215M primers, and have done some shooting recently with the CCI 250 and H-870 (about 114 grs) in a new rifle with the same barrel length, but a slimmer profile to fit a Ruger #1. Its shoots 3029 fps with a non moly coated 300 gr. Sierra. The molyed 250 grs go about 3350 to 3400 fps, and at a John Linebaugh shoot we tested a 250 gr. Hordandy FMJ went 3360 fps and shot thru 62" of wet newsprint straight. as far as the brass life, if you are careful during load development, I have fired some over 7 times. I have lost some to primer pockets getting loose, but the brass does not grow much at all. My 30-378 I had built in '79, brass grew about .020" per shot. The bolt gun shoots 2" groups at 400 to 500 yds prone off a Spec Ops drag bag. I have not really come up with 100 yd load that shoots less than about 5/8" for 5 shots, but it is relativity easy to hit with at long range, with the high BC bullets. I have tested Barnes TSX have good game anchoring ability, but with the lighter bullet weight the wind bucking is not as good. The Nosler Partion 250 gr go about 28" in the wet paper and don't shoot all that well. As we all know different guns shoot different bullets differently, even in similar rifles. These are just things I have done and for sure not rules or an end all in this field. Richard Graves and I were talking about 4 or 5 yrs ago, and I wanted to test some of his 330 Gr bullets. Richard was still having some trouble getting them into the USA, so I never have tested them, but read many good things about them also.
Minimum body taper and a one bullet diameter neck. The action is a Jerry Geske in Superior, Montana. It uses a Remington trigger (Jewel with side safety) and takes a 1 1/8" barrel shank that's about 1 3/4" long. The barrel that Dan Lilja made for me is 34" long 1.350" at breech and 1" at the end. Its fluted 5/16"wide and deep with 6 flutes 27" long and has a George Vias brake. The stock is a McMillan prone with adjustable cheek piece and butt. Bruce Baer made the base with a 25 min. taper. It uses 4 leupold rings, a cant indicator, and cosine indicator. I use 2 bipods on it, a long Harris for sittings and a versa pod for prone. The finished weight is about 23# with the 8-32X56 Nightforce. I have about 1700 rds thru the barrel and have noticed a little decrease in speed. Sooooo... as far as loading data goes I have used the most WC872 at new barrel full power charge of 121 grs. With the 300 gr. Match king moly coated. Speed is about 3075 fps. I have shot up to 123 grs which got a little over 3100 fps. COL is 4.110". IMR 5010 with a starting load of 110 grs started at about 2930fps. 112 grs at about 1000 rds fired is about 3068 fps. I have used also T-5070, T-5050, and T-5020 powders which also gave good speed and accuracy. I have been using Fed. 215 and 215M primers, and have done some shooting recently with the CCI 250 and H-870 (about 114 grs) in a new rifle with the same barrel length, but a slimmer profile to fit a Ruger #1. Its shoots 3029 fps with a non moly coated 300 gr. Sierra. The molyed 250 grs go about 3350 to 3400 fps, and at a John Linebaugh shoot we tested a 250 gr. Hordandy FMJ went 3360 fps and shot thru 62" of wet newsprint straight. as far as the brass life, if you are careful during load development, I have fired some over 7 times. I have lost some to primer pockets getting loose, but the brass does not grow much at all. My 30-378 I had built in '79, brass grew about .020" per shot. The bolt gun shoots 2" groups at 400 to 500 yds prone off a Spec Ops drag bag. I have not really come up with 100 yd load that shoots less than about 5/8" for 5 shots, but it is relativity easy to hit with at long range, with the high BC bullets. I have tested Barnes TSX have good game anchoring ability, but with the lighter bullet weight the wind bucking is not as good. The Nosler Partion 250 gr go about 28" in the wet paper and don't shoot all that well. As we all know different guns shoot different bullets differently, even in similar rifles. These are just things I have done and for sure not rules or an end all in this field. Richard Graves and I were talking about 4 or 5 yrs ago, and I wanted to test some of his 330 Gr bullets. Richard was still having some trouble getting them into the USA, so I never have tested them, but read many good things about them also.
liltank
Well-Known Member
Two questions, 1. what caliber are you talking about? 2. why would it be difficult to get 330grn .338 bullets into the US?
Tank
jmden
Well-Known Member
liltank, It's a .338/.416 Rigby with 40 deg shoulder. It's a huge case and I've always wondered what it was capable of and it's case life. Sound pretty similar to a 338 Lap Imp, but I'm hoping the the Lap brass will last longer. Kirby's building a 338AX for me... Still sounds like the 338/378 Weatherby is a bit more powerful potentially, but from what I've heard, brass life is pretty bad.
Thanks, Ron, giving us the stats on that monster!
Jon
Thanks, Ron, giving us the stats on that monster!
Jon
Could you elaborate on the bullets recovered?
With a bonded core and a thick solid copper base I'd love to know the retained weight of any of those bullets recovered.
Thanks in advance.
edge.
Ron Johnson
Active Member
LilTank,
Sorry for the confusion!! It is just a 338/416 Rigby Imp wildcat. I do have some "control" brass that has been loaded 13 times, with only 1 trimming. I like this case because with 110-112 grs of H-5010 we can hit 3000 to about 3075 fps without pressure in 34" barrels. I called the case the 338 Nemesis. On the other question, when Richard (Wildcat Bullets) was first starting out, he was not sure how to ship internationally. He of course got that small detail worked out shortly. If a guy can stand it 38" of barrel,we canload to about 50000 psi will give about 3150 to maybe 3200 fps with the 300 gr Matchkings. When we run the numbers, its quite a round. Anyway if you don't mind the weight and the lenght,(about 60") its a shooter. The one rifle we built (Dan Coffin) on the Ruger #1 has a 34" Lilja barrel, and if all goes well I will get to watch my good friend harvest a bull this year in December. Anyway Good Hunting.
Sorry for the confusion!! It is just a 338/416 Rigby Imp wildcat. I do have some "control" brass that has been loaded 13 times, with only 1 trimming. I like this case because with 110-112 grs of H-5010 we can hit 3000 to about 3075 fps without pressure in 34" barrels. I called the case the 338 Nemesis. On the other question, when Richard (Wildcat Bullets) was first starting out, he was not sure how to ship internationally. He of course got that small detail worked out shortly. If a guy can stand it 38" of barrel,we canload to about 50000 psi will give about 3150 to maybe 3200 fps with the 300 gr Matchkings. When we run the numbers, its quite a round. Anyway if you don't mind the weight and the lenght,(about 60") its a shooter. The one rifle we built (Dan Coffin) on the Ruger #1 has a 34" Lilja barrel, and if all goes well I will get to watch my good friend harvest a bull this year in December. Anyway Good Hunting.
I know that this is longrangehunting, but has anybody tested the lightest (160gr) TTSX bullet in .338 both for accuracy and on on live targets? I'm not a reloader, but might turn one.
If it does work as intended it should be a very pleasant bullet for deer and elk (moose) to shoot out of a light mountain rifle. With a high relative muzzle velocity and a large diameter coupled with very deep penetration it should do the job if placed well.
Thanks
Kronberg
P.S: If anybody follows the same routine (lightest monolitihic bullet for that caliber) he should PM me. Thanks.
If it does work as intended it should be a very pleasant bullet for deer and elk (moose) to shoot out of a light mountain rifle. With a high relative muzzle velocity and a large diameter coupled with very deep penetration it should do the job if placed well.
Thanks
Kronberg
P.S: If anybody follows the same routine (lightest monolitihic bullet for that caliber) he should PM me. Thanks.
J E Custom
Well-Known Member
It is an odd fenomenon how some bullets act differently. I have had mixed results with the
30 cal Barnes (some expanded,some lost the petals and some didn't expand at all) hit in
the same spot. And some that were heavy bone hits and didn't bring them down for several
hundred yards.
On the other hand the .416 Barnes are great and perform perfectly every time and other than
severe copper fouling (Solved by molly coating) are my bullet of choice for the big bores.
The swift A Frames are the other choice on dangerous game that need .375 or bigger bullets.
I have used many other brands on 338 and down and "my" bullets of choice based on all round
performance (Accuracy,terminal performance,consistant expansion at the recomended velocities,
Wind bucking ability and minimum fouling are :225gr accubond, 250gr accubond,250gr partition,
250gr Swift A frame,225gr Hornady SST and the 225gr Barnes TSX.
This is just on my experiences on game. BCs are important but not the only thing to consider.
J E CUSTOM
new shooter
Well-Known Member
What to you get that 338AX. You woun't belive how far you can shoot and how accurat. I have had mine a year. I put over 500 rounds already and i was gone for 5 month. I am shooting a 2980 right now i was shoot at 3020 when i got it from Kirby. This just does not kick much with his brake. All i yous is 300 gr smk. I mainly shoot from 900 yards to 1760 yds. I would like to shoot longer but the rangefinder just go much more.
4xforfun
Well-Known Member
I may have missed it in the 6 pages of posts, but I have not heard anyone mention the various custom LR bullets I hear about from time to time. I believe there is a picture of one of the aluminum tiped bullets sticking out of a 338 Allen Mag floating around here somewhere. I have a pic of an edge, a 338 Lapua, a 338 Lapua AX and a 338 Allen Mag with the custom bullet lined up together. I'm just not smart enough to figure out how to post it here. The aluminum tipped bullet looked awsome. How do they perform on game? How do they shoot?
liltank
Well-Known Member
This bullet has been up for discussion. I can tell it you will not expand in game. It is a shame because they are very accurate bullets. I have seen this discussion before and a lot of guys will agree with me. They have even done the wet news paper test to see what would happen. They looked like one piece banana's when they pulled them out. Hope that helps.
Tank
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