Loading .338 Cartridges

going to talk about loading various 338 cartridges I'm going to start basically the 3386 or the 3386 actually improved both very good cartridges I happen to prefer the a improved version going to talk about the 300 Winchester 340 weatherbe and the 338 rum anyway one of the major things that I see to do with loading these cartridges is quite often people are using a much too heavier a weight of a bullet bullet that's too heavy for all these cses pretty much a 250 grain bullet all these cartridges are best used on our game anywhere loaded between and some in is 185 grain bullet up to 225 weight bullet now the a improved 338 out6 a improved cartridge is best loaded with 2002 10 225 weight bullets and there's a pretty dog gone good selection of bullets or the 338 start out spear makes a 225 Green Grand Slam Swift makes a 200 grain sraco and a 225 A-frame bullet hor makes 185 and a 225 CX bullet that's their noest latest bu bullet out there the copper jacket you know that's a very good bullet seems to be a very accurate accurate bullet all the calibers that they're making it in O of course makes a 200 grain acon and a 225 acub a 210 partition and a 225 partition now one of the things that you need to understand is that these little bit lighter weight not lightweight but a little bit lighter weight than the heaviest weight they simply perform better they simply give you a better kill effect the 250 grain nozer partition for instance is too much bullet even on a moose a moose are pro moose really have quite a habit of just standing there when they're hit just standing there and really doing nothing well that bullet is just simply too tough too Stout for the animal yeah you can kill the animal with it you're just simply going to have better results based on a long number of years of experience using these 338 calibers about 30 38 39 years experience using various one of these cartridges and the various bullets that we have automatically to start with I used a 250 partition several people that I built rifles we all were shooting a 250 partition we all got poor results we had to shoot the animal numerous times with a proper hit well it should be quite obvious that we need something that actually gave a better kill effect so it registered on the animal that he was that he was dead you know yeah it's they're going to die on their die on their feet with a 250 but you're much better off using a bit lighter weight bit lighter weight bullet the AC improved cartridge I like the two 100 grain acub the two1 partitions and I have loaded in use the 225 partitions and I can get 20 two uh 2700 feet a second out of a 225 partition out of that actly improved 210 somewhere somewhere in the neighborhood of around 3,000 ft a second the 200 grain bullet maybe a little more somewhere between 3, 3100 best Potter for that actually improved one of the best Potters that I have found for the they actually improved as happens to be A's 4350 that's an extreme variety very very good powder there are other powders in about that same burning rate all pows in one thing and another and uh ramshot makes a powder called their Hunter powder and Winchester makes Winchester 760 so for and that seems to be seems to be quite quite good and you know aliot makes the reloader reloader 19 so all those powders and invariably with a standard primer almost invariably I have used nothing but Winchester large rifle primers in that cartridge and just that cartridge alone it'll shoot just as flat loaded properly with a good bullet as a seven Remington Magnum will you know loaded with anything and anyway I've checked the actual drop value with my acum proove for instance cited in 3 in high at 100 yards I've checked the actual drop at 600 yard same thing with the seven Remington Magnum and there's very little difference in the in the drop got to understand that we've got a bigger frontal area and we've got a heavier bullet all the 338 calibers are very good on any of our game elk wise deer wise and so forth anything of that size or a moose these these cartridges really shine there's a vast difference between shooting elk with a seven Remington Magnum and shooting elk with for instance a 338 caliber starting with the AC improved now we go to the 338 Winchester Mag which is an outstanding cartridge a very very good cartridge and always a smart choice if you're going to hunt game the size elk and you want to you know have something that puts the animals down all of us that started using 338s many many years ago one of the first things that we noticed was the kill effect of these 338 calibers whether it was a 200 Grand bullet 2 210 or 225 they all did an outstanding job and you know Hornady makes a 225 grain Interlock in 338 caliber that's also a pretty good a pretty good bullet in those cartridges those two cartridges I failed a few moments ago to mention that bullet and some of the bullets that I I that I mentioned they also make a 200 grain bullet it's a fairly short bullet it doesn't shoot very very flat it doesn't give give the performance as far as I'm concerned that a guy is looking for in 338 caliber now 338 Winchester runs extremely well with re reloader 22 that is the next SL powder and of course they're replacing that with reloader 23 which is supposed to be basically that version that particular version is supposed to be a fairly temperature stable situation and anyway I haven't seen that any available so I have no experience with it but again that cartridge runs outstandingly well with Winchester large rifle primers fedro 210s Remington 9 and a halfs things of that sort and I have never had an opportunity that I felt was necessary to use for instance a Fed 215 primer or reming to 9 and a half Magnum or a CCI 250 primer I've always stuck with with those primers now it go up to the 340 weatherbe you know each one of these cartridges I give you a gain of about 100 ft a second over the over the little bit smaller cartridge 338 Winchester about 100 ft the 340 WEA be about 100 ft more than the 338 Winchester so you go to the 340 weatherbe these all these bullets still perform very very well at the velocities that that cartridge is capable of within reason and in that cartridge I have repeatedly found that Winchester large rifle primers and fedro 215s and cci2 250s work very good in the weather be cartridge now the powder that I have had less luck with in in in that cart has been 7828 reloader 22 and so forth and really there's not much of any advantage to the 340 as I see it over the 338 Winchester the advantage comes in when we jump from there to the 3 338 rum cartridge now the 338 rum cartridge you know it burns a bit more bit more powder give you a bit more velocity for downrange energy still use these same bullets these same bullets in that cartridge always used either the Winchester large rifle primer for the federal 2115 or the CCI 250 and 338 is really a an outstanding cartridge for hunting elk Bears Grizzlies so forth moose anything of that size in this country or in some other countries game the size of those animals now I happen to have a friend that I've known for a long long time and he became acquainted with a fellow that had unlimited resource it seemed like and he killed he killed many many many many Buffalo I'm talking about you know big African big African Buffalo and all that he used to kill all these Buffalo and I'm talking about about 150 of them he killed one hell of a lot of Buffalo folks all he used was a 338 Winchester loaded with nothing but a 210 grain Lazer partition and he shot him where you need to shoot him and invariably invariably he he always tried for a neck shot where he could break the spine and would just drop them in their tracks and he Dro many Buffalo with one shot with a you know right in the armpit also so that bullet hits hard it kills it kills well and if it kills buffalo like that what really more you need you know to be able to hunt those those type of game and that that type of situation so anyway you know if I was if I was ever in an opportunity to to to to do these sort of things you know shoot that shoot shoot Buffalo something of that size i' I'd pick nothing but a 338 Winchester and you know many years ago we had considerably ex highly experienced writer and Hunter Bob Hegel the late Bob Hegel and he wrote for various magazines over the years he lived in Idaho he grew up when we had a lot of game he knew he knew his business and he had a very high preference for the 210 Naz petition in the 338s and anyway you know there's another 338 out there and of course that's the 338 378 weatherbe and You' got to burn 20 some grains more powder in that cartridge to equal what for instance the 338 rum will will give you and I might mention that if you use that cartridge you need to use the Winchester large rifle Magnum primer as you're burning around 120 somi grains of powder the proper proper burning rate ball powder probably us 869 and talking about all these details and talking about all these bullets I'm going to touch on this bullet thing a little bit it appears as though the only manufacturer of bullets for the handloader that that is interested in seeing that the handloader has every bullet that they make and that is Hornady Hornady is went just absolutely above and beyond supplying us with bullets us preloaders hand loaders with bullets to load it appears as though Nosler Spear and Sierra are not interested in selling bullets anymore to the handloader because you cannot find them you can go into almost any sporting good store around the country and they'll have perhaps the entire stock of bullets from the smallest caliber to the largest caliber that that Hornady makes you can't find that with anybody else's bullets and occasionally you can come up with some Barnes Bullets Barnes 188 175 grain 210 grain 225 grain barns Barnes Bullets they triple shock or that light weight bullet that you know those are all good bullets also and there seems to be some some availability spotty from time to time of those bullets I don't know why other than the fact that these companies are concentrated on loading Factory ammunition that they can sell for a real high price and so forth but you cannot get any of these things things that I've used used for a lot of number of years 30 some odd years you just simply can't buy any weight in any caliber anywhere period these bullets are going somewhere I don't know what they're doing to produce bullets but from what I can see there's there's there's no interest anymore that's people that that bought bullets that that reload ever since reloading was was thought of we have built we have built these companies into the huge companies that there that there are and here we are after we've spent all of our hard air money for all these years these companies just don't seem to be interested in supplying us with bullets it's really pretty sad because they make some excellent products but you can't use it if you can't get it so Bullet Company you three Bullet Company spear Sierra and Nosler let's see some bullets let's see some bullets you know and the few bullets that do show up oh my goodness sakes the price that's attached to some of this stuff is just absolutely unbelievable double and triple what was at one one time here just only a few years ago so anyway was obviously a lot of money to be made making bullets but you got to produce them for the consumer to buy them

Channel: The Real Gunsmith

Views: 11,453

Keywords: 338-06, 338-06 ai 300 win, 340 Wby, 338 rum, 250 bullets, 225 gr, rifle loading, reloading, handloading, hornady, cx bullet, sierra bullets, hunting bullets, accubonds, partitions, nosler bullets, big game hunting, moose hunting, elk hunting, deer hunting, the real gunsmith, randy selby, randys custom rifles, wyoming gunmaker, ackley improved, hodgdons 4350, ball powders, 7 rem mag, bear hunt, african game hunt, speer bullets, bob hagel

Id: TDZ1u6doukA

Length: 19min 24sec (1164 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 11 2023