a question for ATR: what bullet would you recommend for moose hunting?? everybody seems to have an opion, but when questioned why don't seem to have too much experience to back it up. the big ones that seem to come up are Barnes,Nos. Partition, Game King etc. talking about 300 or 338 win mag. your opions would be valued!
I have had great success at closer range (under 800 yards)with Partitions in both calibers you mention, they were dependable everytime in my experience. I have a small collection of recovered Partitions and they do exactly what the maker claims as far as expansion and retention go. Unfortunately they do not have a high BC and at extreme long range do not perform dependably and are not what I consider to be accurate enough for real long range work, which is no surprise, they were not designed to be ubber accurate.
I have had no good experiences with Gamekings on wildlife, ok for targets, but Matchkings are better yet for targets. Both times I used them they failed, as in blew up on impact. Maybe I am driving them too fast I don't know, but I have not had good success with them.
The Hornady accubonds work well but I found they tend to take on a mind of their own after 800 yards so do not consider them accurate enough for real long range. Under 800 yards they work effectively both in expansion and retention of weight.
The 208 Amaxs although specifically NOT recommended for hunting by the maker, I have seen in action and they worked VERY well on game, but at 700 yards plus. None recovered yet, but eveything shot went down NOW!!
I believe Barnes makes a decent bullet but I will never shoot another 1, after the pencilling episode I called Barnes to see if they had any suggestion as to what I may be doing wrong, got some snotty ##### on the phone who basically told me I was an idiot, so won't give them my $$, this is just something personal.
I had Wildcat bullets make up a large batch of the 200 gr bonded bullets I shoot out of my old 300, as well as some 338 cl 325 gr bonded bullets. I am sad that they are no longer available, they were spectacular.
Switching over to my 338 lapua Improved, I shoot 300 gr Matchkings. I would not want to use them at close range but beyond 500 yards they work great.
A herd of donkeys, 1 Impala and a Blesbuck all proved that last year in Africa.
Choosing the right bullet is complicated by distance, some bullets are thin jacketed and if driven at high speed can come apart on impact at closer ranges, bonded 1s at closer range will expand well but may fail to expand at distance. ULDs in thick bush are useless.
I think Berger is on the right track as they are building basicaly a match bullet designed for hunting. I have not used any on game yet, but everyone I know who has used them claims great success.
The Lapua Scenars are also supposed to be pretty good, I guess this fall we will see. I got some 300 grainers from them to try, so I will.
During the BSE crisis when cows were a dime a dozen I had the chance to test several bullets at close and far, on live animals, then necropsy them before they headed for the dog food plant. My conclusions are that there is no magic bullet for all distances, so selecting the bullet closest to what your needs are is about all you can do.
Not sure how much help I am.
