What is the best way to minimise the amount of meat damage when hunting with a .338-06?

The animal body weight is circa 112 to 140 pounds

The shooting range is anything from 60 yards out to 130 - 170 yards

I had thought a fairly stout bullet like a 210 grain Nosler partition would keep the meat bruising to a minimum.

Would something like a Barnes 185 grain, being lighter, be better?

At the back of my mind is the relationship between striking velocity and bullet toughness. I seem to remember that using tougher bullets at medium velocity produced less damage, compared to a lighter weight, more expansive bullet at higher velocities.

Thanks.

The best way to not damage any useable meat , no matter what cartridge you are shooting is to make a clean double lung shot, DO NOT hit the shoulders, spine or guts, just lungs, they are DRT and no damaged meat.

Speed is the key. The less speed you have in a bullet the less meatdamage.
Personally I don't consider Nosler partition a stout bullet. Try woodleigh, Barnes tsx or x, GS custom, or trophy bonded. Any of those will cause less meatdamage than most other bullets fired with same V0. But still, I find that, low speed is the key ingredient to a non messy kill.

have a good one

quote:

Originally posted by ELKMAN2:
The best way to not damage any useable meat , no matter what cartridge you are shooting is to make a clean double lung shot, DO NOT hit the shoulders, spine or guts, just lungs, they are DRT and no damaged meat.

yup

Slow, heavy, sturdy bullets. The amount of bloodshot meat in my hunting was always directly related to the weight retention of the bullet used. 100% retention of the X bullets has been the best, but in the 338-06, a stout bullet like a 250 Speer would do just as well.

Yeah, I know, might not open up on a deer. So what? A .338 hole is still bigger than the hole from an expanded .243.......

Lung shots, technically, waste more meat than brain shots. JMO, Dutch.

Use a 250 gr. hornady round nose.

Velocity is usually the culprit on blood shot meat. You are fine w/ just about any bullet in the .338-06. I have made several frontal shots & unless you hit bone, very little meat damage.

Head shot. Accuracy is the key. No reason in the world that an accurate 22/250 with a brain shot at the distances you speak of would not be absolutely applicable. It is the ONLY way I take a doe.

The 338-06 is close enough to the 9.3x62 for me to suggest that a heavy, round nose at 2400fps would do quite well. I shot a 120# white tail doe with a 286gr Woodleigh RNSP, and had a nice, quarter-sized exit wound, very little bruising except at the borders of the actual wound, terrific blood trail, and a dead doe at the end of it-40yds. Range was maybe 75yds. Kudude

Not to be a smart A** but there is only one way that your not going to damage meat.And that is to shoot it in the neck and or head.Still any loss of meat is part of the equation in hunting,and most would sacrafice some meat that way,rather than having none! van

Hey rob

The best bullet for less meat damage and great field performance in your situation would be the 210 gr TSX. Here are some pics of an Elk I shot with the 180 gr TSX out of a 300 win mag

going in



going out (on the inside of the off shoulder)



He was DRT and you could literally "eat right up to the hole".

Thank you all for the information.

Please keep it coming.

I am using Hornady 225 grains.

I had thought of switching across to 225 or 210 grain Nosler Partitions. The lighter weight would give me a flatter trajectory.....Hence my interest in the 185 grain Barnes bullets.

The TSX would allow me to get a good velocity. Barnes bullets, because they are longer etc, tend to run slower than more conventional 'lead core' bullets of the same weight. That is my understanding, comparing the loading manual data.

There is a legal minimum muzzle velocity for deer in the UK (= 2450 fps). I might be +/- this velocity with the 250 grain bullets in the .338-06, so I would probably stick with a max weight of 225 / 230 grains.

As an additional bit of information, I am getting a bit of a mess - "jellyification" using Speer Grand Slam 165 grains in my .30-06. So, all in all, people are not 'happy'.

In my book and in my experience, Nosler partitions and Hornady interlocks work in the animal about equally, The Part. can take more speed, but that is not an issue with your 338-06. is it? TSX works great for me too no speed loss there.

Niels

quote:

Originally posted by 30378:
Head shot. Accuracy is the key. No reason in the world that an accurate 22/250 with a brain shot at the distances you speak of would not be absolutely applicable. It is the ONLY way I take a doe.

I cannot believe this reply is for real! Someone pinch me and wake me up from the nightmare. We are talking hunting here, aren't we? Not culling inside a fenced area, right??

I find the225gr Hornady a little "Soft" at impact speeds above 2700fps, but for your .338-06, you should be fine w/ it as long as you aren't shooting them point blank.

Hey Woods, I like your fridge!

the least amount of bloodshot meat i have ever seen was a 405 gr cast 45-70 @ about 1800.

I know nothing of your skill level, but if you have alot of trigger experience and are very comfortable with your rifle then head/neck shots are the best for minimizing lost meat. Make absolutely sure you know what you're doing. There's nothing worse than losing an animal that got hit but didn't go down with a head/neck shot. It is not the most ethical shot for many hunters. For others, it's the quickest, most humane end to it.

If you're not absolutely sure of yourself, then double lung broadside is the way to go.

quote:

quote:
Originally posted by ELKMAN2:
The best way to not damage any useable meat , no matter what cartridge you are shooting is to make a clean double lung shot, DO NOT hit the shoulders, spine or guts, just lungs, they are DRT and no damaged meat.
yup

X3

If that gives you too much blood shot, you need to start using FMJs

Good Luck

Reloader

There is yet another way to deal with the issue. Just shoot them with the best shot you have and deal with the blood shot afterward. It is very simple to take all of the bloodshot out of the meat and be able to eat right up to the hole.
As soon as possible, get the bloodshot quarter(s) off the body and soak/knead them in cold salt water. It sucks the bloodshot right out and only the shredded meat is lost.
I shot a blacktail buck high through both front shoulders with my 25-06 and a 117gr Sierra Prohunter bullet at about 80 yards. The shoulders looked like jelly and I thought I would be throwing both of them away. After 15-20 minutes of kneading the shoulders in cold salted water they were perfect except for the hole in them.
An old timer told me about that trick once and I happened to remember it for this occasion. He was right, it works great and sure makes butchering much easier.
Joe

quote:

Originally posted by Niels:

quote:

Originally posted by 30378:
Head shot. Accuracy is the key. No reason in the world that an accurate 22/250 with a brain shot at the distances you speak of would not be absolutely applicable. It is the ONLY way I take a doe.

I cannot believe this reply is for real! Someone pinch me and wake me up from the nightmare. We are talking hunting here, aren't we? Not culling inside a fenced area, right??

Niels,

I have to admit... I know people whom can do this on a regular basis.. out hunting...

But I can tell you, that after varmint shooting all summer where you are shooting sage rats that are about the size of a soda can out to 300 yds, from a rest....using a 22.250... when it comes deer season and you are using the exact same caliber.... you would be surprised on how easy it is to do a head shot on deer at 200 yds, it is a chip shot..especially with a 22.250....

at 300 yds, a deer looks like a dump truck thru your scope when you have been shooting at rats at that distance....

It just involves a lot more experience and trigger time than many of the average shooters shoot...

Even in the off season, I handload and shoot over 500 rounds of 223 ammo a month out of my bolt action varmint rifles at the rifle range, practicing at distances from 100 to 300 yds and more at times... our furthest target objects are at 500 meters on that range...

It all involves trigger time and practicing regularly....

I can get out and shoot between 2,000 to 5,000 sage rats easily in season.... 500 in a day is not really all that uncommon... so 2,000 to 5000 can amount to being able to get out there only 4 to 10 days in a season that runs from March to July...

I know guys who shoot strictly 22 long rifles out of 10/22s and they can shoot 20,000 plus sage rats in a season...and yes in agricultural areas, they are that plentiful!

Its all in one's perspective...

My God, sage rat mass murder!

Regarding how to avoid meat damage with a .338, I followed Seafire's recommendation and loaded a 200 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip to about 740 m/s, usinf Blue Dot, Vihta N110 works as well. This usually soft bullet behaves totally different at low speed, just punches a big hole, kills very well and does not destroy any meat. I mostly hunt in the woods so I thought I had found my wonder bullet and tamed at the same time my .338 WM for Central European conditions.

This year however I bought a new barrel for my Blaser B95 in 9.3x74 mm R. The bullet I use is a 193 grain FPSP originally designed for the weak and very old 9.3x72 mm R "Förster Patrone" from blackpowder-driven times long ago. The old guys still tell about how well they killed in their corresponding drillings with that relatively weak cartridge. I load the 9.3x74 R with N110 to similar oerformance levels at measured 640 to 680 m/s. This difference might explain why I can't get under 60 mm groups at 100 meters but it kills those roe deer, pigs and even a Finnish whitetail like Thor's hammer, giving an exit wound on every occasion and resulting in pure pleasure while butchering the beasts. I use this rifle in the woods, most game we shoot there at 50 m so precision is more that sufficient. Iw ill, however give SR4759 a try in order to have a "fuller" cartridge, also oncreased speed might improve accuracy a little more. This is a project when our seasons close in February.

Another buddy uses his bbig African Mausers in .416 and 10.75 at reduced speed, as well and reports similar results. There seems, I am convinced now, to be a rule behind that: If you hunt for the kitchen, go slow and big, makes the ladies just happy!