.338 win Mag quesiton.

[bigbore14]

Reloading .338 win Mag.

I have been shooting cheaper - Hornady 225 gn spire point bullets. To get the gun sighted in.
I have found that 74.5 gn ( Max loading) of H4831sc is shooting well.
I am grouping within 2" @ 100 yards with many of the bullets all touching each other.
I am using a cheap 4x scope and am buying a 3x9x40 leupold shortly, as I am having trouble determining if it is the gun or me, that is effecting the grouping at that range as it is difficult to be exact at 100 yards with a 4x scope.

My question is this.

I just bought a box 250 gn Barnes TSX bullets for my grizzly hunt.

I have looked at Barnes website and it recommends the same powder ( H4831sc) I am using currently.
.....However the powder loading they recommend is

H4831SC Min 59.5gn 2350fps Max 65.0gn 2517fps - A bit lower than the hodgson website.

This is what the hodgson manual says.

250 GR. HDY SP Hodgdon H4831 .338" 3.340" Min 64.0gn 2424fps 41,900 CUP 71.5Cgn 2655fps 52,300 CUP

Is there any problems with loading, to the hodgson manual spec's with a barnes bullet if the the bullet weight's are the same? I Have found that my gun likes a little hotter load than the minimum's. And I am willing to experiment around with several different loads starting with say 63.0 grains as the Barnes website suggests and work my way up to the max loading for 71.5 gn as the Hodgson website suggests and see what is the most accurate.

Does the type of bullet ( tsx vs Hornady ) have anything to do with the amount of powder or is it strictly regarding bullet weight ?

Is there any safety issues with loading a barnes tsx bullet with a hornady powder loading? is accuracy that is the compromised?

I understand that every gun shoots a little different so just looking at options.
Brfore I start to load some of these shells.

Thanks alot ...all feed back welcome.

 

[Pathfinder]

Use Barnes data for Barnes bullets...The copper monos develop different pressures. As usual work up carefully.

 

[Spitzer]

That 250gr. Barnes TSX is really long and will intrude your powder capacity. For example the 250gr.Nosler Partition Gold is 1.437" and the Barnes 210gr. TTSX is 1.484".

I'd go with a 210gr. TTSX at 2920fps, or the 250gr. Partition.

 

[superd222]

How is the trigger on your rifle?

This effects accuracy big-time!

I usually upgrade the trigger (aftermarket parts or gunsmith job) before upgrading optics.

Good luck- SD

 

[notenough]

Barnes

Use Barnes bullets with the Barnes data. I have several Barnes bullet types at the moment that I'm waiting on the reloading book to reload for. Any "solid" type of bullet needs to be loaded to mfg suggestions.

SD is also correct on the trigger, a rough trigger will kill your groups.

Once your get new optics and check out the trigger you'll be on to bedding the rifle and free floating the barrel.

La-di-da it can become a make work project. 2" at 100 yards is still good hunting accuracy.

Oh forgot to ask but what is the rifle?

 

[bigbore14]

Rugar M77 Mark 2.
#####en Heavy......to put it nicely.

Thanks for the input.

 

[Ganderite]

Make sure you LocTite the scope base screws, because you can't check tham after the scope is mounted.

The data listed as max in the book is max for their rifle. It could be very dangerous in yours. Start low, work up and find what is accurate and extracts easily with no pressure signs.

Sight in with scope on hi power. Let it cool and confirm zero with low power setting, just to make sure it is the same. You will most likely hunt at low power.