I have been using NAB's in both my 300 Rum and 338 Rum for quite a few years with outstanding results. One thing I do question however is lot to lot variances of the bullets. While some have reported their bullets punching through, I have noticed the exact opposite. Out of my 300 Rum with a mv of 3250, I have killed 5 antelope between 3 and 4 hundred yards and all DRT. If I was to have a complaint, it would be too fast of expansion. On an antelope two years ago, range was about 350, DRT, quartering shot through the front shoulder and bullet recovered on far side back by ham under the skin. Bullet weight was about 110 grains (180 gr) mushroom was textbook, but bullet blew up on entrance ruining the cape with a 4 inch hole in the hide.
With the 225 AB's in my 338 Rum, I have pushed them between 3300 and now down to 3150 due to primer pockets not holding, I finally recovered my first bullet last fall on a quartering shot on a big muley at only 200 yrds, another DRT, with bullet breaking on side shoulder and recovered under the hide on off side ham. Perfect mushroom, I can't tell you how much it weighed since my wife decided it was garbage and threw it away before I could weigh it, but it appeared to be 60% or more. The year before I shot 3 whitetails and a five point bull without recovering any bullets and all never took a step. I even looked for a whitetail doe to attempt a lenthwise shot on to try and recover a bullet, but it didn't work, 300 yrds straight on but a little too much up hill angle equaled 18 inches of penetration with a baseball sized hole exiting top of back. I have also killed a 6 point bull @572 with the 225 AB out of a different barrel that was giving me problems and the hit was too far back, but the bull was so sick, he couldn't move and allowed for a few more shots to hit the right place a put him down.
In a quest for better bullet performance, I tried 250 grain partitions out of my last barrel on my 338 Rum because the barrel liked them better than the AB's. I shot a 6 point bull elk at 542 yrds breaking the on side shoulder, another hit and the bull went down. When I quartered the bull, I found the shoulder broken , but when I removed the shoulder, all I found was a pencil like hole entering the chest cavity, telling me that the partition had shed it's front half and all that went through the chest cavity was the base of the bullet with very little mushroom. No more partitions for me!
If I could ask for the ultimate hunting bullet, it would be a swift A frame with a polmer tip and a boat tail to get the B.C. up. If swift made a 225 scirroco in 338, I would probably be shooting that and I have given some thought to trying the 210 scirroco, but I hate to give up the higher bc of the AB.
Last fall, I worked up some loads with the Barnes Tipped Tripple shock BT in 225 338 and had good results on paper. The loads generated a bit more pressure than the AB's, but seemed to group slightly better @ 500 yds. I was looking to use these when I hunt elk in griz country but then heard of a local that shot a griz in Alaska last year with the same bullet and after breaking the shoulder of the bear, the bullet lost all of its pedals while traveling into the chest cavity. The bear was laying in wait to ambush the hunter, but the hunter climbed a tree to get a better look and saw the bear laying in wait and used the tree advantage to finish him off.
So, I think I will carry two bullets when hunting in griz country, some swift A frames for up close and personal encounters with bears with attitude, and AB's for the long shots.
