Which long range .338 Bullet to use?

[sp6x6]

Taken the past the 2000 v,but I rarely find bullet. I new a guy that was same set up and they where out to 1200yrs,and said he wasnt seeing the expansion he would like.Now that was 8-10 years ago,and at one point he was using otm.Havent talked with him in some time. This was on antelope? There is a lot to be said on placement.I shot a bedded bull looking at me 1/4 to in timber 225 part. out of 340, I thought man Ill shoot up a bunch of meat ,so I shot just under chin.Bull peeled out,in down slope,no chance for follow up.Tracked that bull 1/2 mile,got in with lots other tracks,lost and found,very little blood.Then it went straight up,the steep stuff,when I caught up he got the shoulder shot,down. You could have put rebar threw his neck,missed bone and main artery.

 

[Mram10us]

300 gr SMK @2730 in the Lapua for longer range work and 225 gr Barnes TSX @ 2900 for 500/under. Pass throughs are the norm.

I would avoid the 300smk. I hit my big elk at 671, 652 and 630. All in the boiler room and it still walked 100 yards into some pines before dying. Did some testing in wet phone books and had very inconsistent results. Some mushroom, some flat as a pancake sideways. Shoot great on steel.

 

[North Idaho Hunter]

@Mram10us that there is why I have liked the 285 eldm so much. I never had issues with expansion.

Will be running them in the near future out of my 338 lapua ai

 

[Mram10us]

@Mram10us that there is why I have liked the 285 eldm so much. I never had issues with expansion.

Will be running them in the near future out of my 338 lapua ai

Building a 338 edge this weekend and going to run 285s or 300 bergers. Only shot one animal with 300 bergers and it did very well. None with the 285

 

[bigngreen]

Running the 300 Berger at 2830 in RUMs we see expansion minimal on antelope by 1100 yards still awesome in elk, made the move to the 250 at 3120 fps and haven't looked back opens on deer out beyond 1400 and elk well beyond that, tacos them inside 300 too but normally the 338s are only pulled for 1000+.

 

[Plinker147]

250 Berger's are absolute hammers on game. I shot elk, Oryx, bears, and deer with them from 100yards to 600yds out of 338 RUM. No animal has taken one step after those. I've taken head on chest shot, boiler room, and front shoulder all same results. They will perform. I've also never had a 250 accubond fail me either, shot less game with them since the Berger's shoot better out of my gun.

 

[whirlwindjml]

I've never been lucky enough to even go on an elk hunt yet much less shoot an elk with my 338 Lapua View attachment 187517but the 250 burgers work great on deer

Look at all them dead deer....your mean....youd make ted nugents lip curl....lol

 

[Winfwt338-06]

At very long range, accuracy is going to become an important factor and then I'm hoping the consistency of the Bergers is good.

I think solids can be equally consistent but not all of them are going to be as accurate.

Finding a solid that balances the consistency, accuracy and terminal effect is the obvious solution but I haven't looked in to the lighter weight solids except Shooter's Pro Shop had cheap Nosler E-tips but I couldn't find load data or accuracy results.

Valid points. Just a note on Berger. A friend of mine co hosted Best of the West in their early years. They switched to nosler accubond lr after Berger's blew up under 400yd shots. They also found with larger caliber Berger bullets if you push them harder than 2800fps, the super thin jacket of front section would deform as the heavier rear section essentially tried to push thru the front. Of course this reduced down range BC and adversely effected accuracy at extreme range. Found this phenomena using doppler.

 

[338 dude]

Well within the legal limit here in Tennessee in my area we can take 2 bucks a season and three does a day Mine and my hunting buddies deer so2 hunters

 

[338 dude]

The deer in the picture above were shot at ranges from 220 to 413 yards with Berger 250 grain elite hunters running 2950 ft./s

 

[Aoudad shooter1975]

While I'll say Bergers do not instill confidence when looking at how they preform--but I will say the game is usually lying dead...so that is kind of contradiction to my point...I have used a ton of 250 elite hunters....and they work...

 

[Farmerbrown32]

Any of the said bullets will work just fine. I can say from personal experience that the 285 eldm hits elk like a sledgehammer at 500 yards. Dead before he hit the ground. Massive internal damage. Killed many deer muley and whitey also and they were all like they got hit by a train.

 

[dxlbaile]

The 250 EOL hasn't let me down out of the ole 33 Nosler so far.. I wouldn't hesitate to use them.

 

[REAL GUNS]

I had 225gr that we shot 2 different elk with and both just blew up on the entrance side of the shoulder blade. They were shot at 100 yds and 500 yds. I'd go Barnes triple shock or step up for the A frame in either 225 or 250.