.338 round for deer?

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Grouse_assassin

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Lets just say for ####s and giggles i wanted to take my .338 win mag hunting for deer this year we'll just pretend my .270 is in the shop what would be a good bullet to use to case the least amount of damage theres so much changed about bullets in the last 15 years im finidng myself lost here im just getting into handloading. does anybody know a good site that will list off all the differant types of projectiles and what they do?


thanx
 
.338 on deer.

I killed a couple Muley bucks with a .338 a few years ago. Was using 225 Accubands as we were mainly after Elk. As long as you get a broadside shot and place it behind the shoulder in lung area you wont lose much meat. I had a quartering away shot on one and lost the off-side shoulder unfortunately.
Geoff
 
The heavier bullets will acftually do less damage than the lighter ones in most cases, because they are travelling a bit slower and won't open up as fast. In premium bullets there won't be any real difference.
 
it's velocity and bullet construction that damage meat. 338 projectiles aren't that fast, and are usually built for heavier game, so they won't fragment.

a 338WM with plain-jane 250 grain soft points will do much less meat damage than your 270 with similar bulk soft-points.

There are actually a ton of 'is a 338/375 too big for deer' threads that pop up now and again, and while newbies usually assume that a big powerful cartridge will annihilate smaller animals, those of us who have tried it have found otherwise. I would prefer to use my 338 over a 257 wby or something similar if I was terribly concerned about meat damage... but I'm not. Next year, if my 7mm project rifle isn't ready, I'm packing my 378 weatherby with 270gr SP's - massive velocity with bullets designed for best performance at H&H speeds: should be a recipe for a messy kill if I'm not careful about shot placement.
 
i figured the impact force would be a huge concern i dunno i just bought the .338 havent even put a round down the pipe yet
still waiting for a scope and a limbsaver lol
 
I use 250gr SGK bullets for deer and they work great with little to no meat loss. This past season I shot three deer are less than 100m and hardly lost any meat. Much better than I've seen with 270win and 6.5x55.
 
prosper said:
it's velocity and bullet construction that damage meat. 338 projectiles aren't that fast, and are usually built for heavier game, so they won't fragment.

a 338WM with plain-jane 250 grain soft points will do much less meat damage than your 270 with similar bulk soft-points.

There are actually a ton of 'is a 338/375 too big for deer' threads that pop up now and again, and while newbies usually assume that a big powerful cartridge will annihilate smaller animals, those of us who have tried it have found otherwise. I would prefer to use my 338 over a 257 wby or something similar if I was terribly concerned about meat damage... but I'm not. Next year, if my 7mm project rifle isn't ready, I'm packing my 378 weatherby with 270gr SP's - massive velocity with bullets designed for best performance at H&H speeds: should be a recipe for a messy kill if I'm not careful about shot placement.
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Yeah... what he said! :)
 
I had my 338 RUM on a moose hunting trip and after I got my moose I had some mule deers tags to fill also so I used the 338 on the deer with Hornady 225 gr. Interbonds. I just went for the heart/lung area and it wasn't that bad, just a big hole in the ribs on the far side.
 
I use 250 hornady spire points in a 340weatherby, old boy shoots 250g hornady roundnose in 338winmag and I also use a 200 hornady in 338-06 imp, all on deer and do not notice any difference on them for meat damage or amount of time to be dead.

Keith
 
Whatever you do, in a .338 don't use a light bullet!!! Factory Hornady 180's are rated at over 3200 fps, and has already been said, velocity tends to cause far more meat damage than the size of the bullet, unless you are talking a really small diameter bullet.

It's not the size of the hole as much as it is the shock wave going through the surrounding tissues that causes meat loss. I have been deer hunting for 30+ years and have shot 27 deer in the past 10 years alone with a .450 Marlin and a .444 Marlin. While I do my best for a head/neck shot or a broadside through the ribs, with 350 gr RNFP .45 bullets, I can screw up and punch a hole through a shoulder and almost eat right up to the hole. With Hornady 325 gr. LeverRevolution FTX bullets at the faster speed, hit a shoulder and it is a loss of the whole shoulder. That extra 350 fps out of the muzzle really shocks the muscle mass. The best part about the big slow bullet is that the animal stops and falls over, rarely any chasing of wounded animals.

Most of my hunting partners use their moose rifles for deer - 308's, 30.06's, wm's etc... and they have far more meat loss than I do, and they never have bang-flops unless it's a head/neck shot.

On the other hand, my cousin hunts areas where 300+ yard shots are the norm, and he uses a 7 mm RUM with 140 gr bullets at over 3600 fps. With the tiny bullets he swears that he gets less meat damage during rifle season than he gets with his 45 cal during muzzleloader season. And he's been taking 3-5 deer a year for over 40 years.

Take a slow moving RNFP 170 gr. 30.30 vs a faster 165 gr. .308 and with the same diameter bullet, and the exact same shot, you will typically find that the 30.30 will put the animal down faster, and with less meat waste.

By all means use your .338, but use larger heavier bullets at a slower speed and just be sure of your shot and have fun!
 
33hoffman said:
use a light bullet and get good placement on your shot. potential to lose a LOT of meat is definitely there.
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x2! If you use a light bullet, you better expect a mess. Heavy bullet is the way to go. A stoutly constructed bullet is the way to go so that it won't transfer as much energy to the animal and blood shot all the meat!

Heavy bullet pokes in and pokes out - that's all. Probably do less damage than a .270.
 
I used a 308 NM with 220 sp (about 2,800 fps) and hit my 200lb whitetail straight on. NO meat loss at all, a nice hole through the heart (fluke? maybe :) and carried on through and blew his bag off. Exit wound was not excessive, although the transfer of energy was NOT apparent, as the buck still ran about 30 yards! I would lean towards a faster expanding bullet next time.
 
Don't find an old box of Nosler 200 grain ballistic tips and stoke them over dose of IMR4831 to 2900 f/s and shoot a whitetail high in the shoulders at 75 yards - just sayn'.

That said 225 grain bullets do the trick for me, I find no worse damage then a 30-06 or 308.

Dan
 
A mild load with the 200 gr Speer Hot Cor bullets works fine on deer without a lot of wasted meat. (As noted above, short range shots on deer with my 6.5 Swede produces more bloodshot meat when hitting the shoulder instead of the ribs, than the mild 338 load does)
Just because you are shooting the 338 Win Mag, does not mean that you have to run them hot. And they will still work on fine on moose, bear and elk, just without the flattened curve on longer shots...Oh, and less recoil on the shoulder too!
 
I cant see it happen but If I would hunt Deer with my .338 Win Mag., most likely I would use a 240ish grain cast Lead Gas Checked Bullet traveling according to my Lyman Book at 1904 FPS.

Not sure if I have the right mold for it and right now to lazy to check. Much easier to grab another much more suitable Iron for Deer hunting then the old, heavy like a Mule kicking battered big Game Rifle.

Cheers
 
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