I have hunted with my.338 win mag Ruger 77 the last 32 years .
It shoots awesome with factory ammo but I always could not find a good handload.
It shoots 1/2 inch to 1 inch with factory stuff at 100 yards .I.kept trying to make
Hornady bullets of all weights shoot deficient but never shot under 4 inches terrible .
Yesterday I shot a pack of Speer 200 grain bullets with 75 grains of reloader 19 .They hit an
Inch from my Winchester 200 grain factory load which will clover leaf in this rifle at 100 yards .
I need to try other bullets for sure .It didn't shoot nosler 225 grain accubonds either which
I wanted for long range deer hunting.
If I can find a good 225 grain load I will use it for long range.deer
I found three boxes of 225 grain Speer grand slam bullets on here but they quit m
Making them a while back .This rifle is picky for sure but its my favorite
Hunting rifle .I just put a new Nikon monarch 4x16x50 on it and it sure helps my 55 year year old eyes.
I have more big game with this rifle than all my other rifles .Glad I read Elmer Keith and took
His advice awesome cartridge .

Definitely one of the best all around cartridges available! Glad you found something that worked for you! Have you tried some of the Barnes TTSX’s....the 225’s shoot pretty good in my wife’s.338 WM. It won’t win any “bench matches”.... but shoots around an inch at 100 yards! memtb

Finally got to do a zero check this morning. Waiting on temperatures to cool some to somewhat replicate hunting conditions, waiting on no wind, and catching a break between chores. These were shot at 300 yards. The wife’s rifle (.338 WM - 225 TTSX’s) was a little high and left, but groups were about what is to be expected from her rifle. My first 2 shots from mine (375 AI - 250 TTSX’s, where hideous...5” right and about 5” apart. Don’t know if, the rifle needed to settle-in, or I needed to settle-in! mad The photo shows the two-shot groups for each rifle at 300 yards. Left 2 shots....wife’s.338 WM, upper right 2 shots....my rifle! Pretty pleased with the groups, only needed to “tweak” the adjustments a little....and go hunting! memtb

I worked up accuracy loads for three tang safety Ruger 77s. Speer and Hornady 200 gr, IMR-4350, and CCI 250s both gave 1/2" to 3/4" at 100 yds for three shots - in all three rifles.

200 gr .338 bullets tend to get overlooked. There's probably something you can't kill with them, but don't know what that might be.

I used the 200 grain power point factory ammo for 32 years .
I bought about 450 of Winchester power points last year but.have not.loaded any .
I shot.deer from three yards to 425 yards .It will will shoot clover leads at 100 yards
In my.rifle .The hornady looked just like the Winchester bullet but shot four inch patterns at 100 yards .
The 225 grain accubonds shot.like crap too .I think without.The plastic cap and seated further out
They might do better.Those Speer bullets surprised me.
I have three boxes of.The.225 grain Speer grand slam bullets Remington use
To put.them in.their ammo it.shot.awesome.I kept thinking it was
My reloading or something but it hornady bullets .I tried 200 ,225 and 250 grain all shot poorly.
I tried them in My 338-378 weatherby same thing .I like the 200 grain deer.
I.once tried 210 grain nosler partitions on deer up close they
Zipped through no expansion at all .I can't wait to see if I.can match my loads using the
200 grain Winchester power points I wish I had some of the
225 grain Winchester power points heard they were good .When I started shooting my 338 Winchester 200
Grain.ammo.was $17.50 now it's.$60 a box .It's really worth reloading.big time .
I wish I could find a load that shoots r15 good it uses 64 grains and kicks way less than
These 75 grain loads .I.had good luck with the 338 win mag its an awesome all around cartridge .
I.have shot.deer at every angle you can think of too .It's weird it flips them when it's 200 -400 yards
But tears up little meat

I've gotten submoa accuracy in five 338s using the following load which is listed in the Barnes Manual 4: 225 TTSX (I started with the Xbullet in the late 1990s) fueled by 67.5 grains IMR 4350, Winchester cases, and Federal 215 primers.

CCI 250 primers worked well too and since I switched to Norma cases, I found I had to increase the charge weight to 68.5 grains to get the same velocity. My only 24 inch barrelled 338 gave velocities around 2776 fps and my 26 inch barreled rifles produced anywhere from 2825-2860 fps.

Rifles were Browning Abolt, Browning Xbolt, Remington 700, Remington 700 with McGowen barrel, Weatherby Vanguard. Other powders I have tried are RL19, H4350 and Ramshot Hunter. IMR 4350 performed the best. Four of the five rifles shot best right where Barnes recommends you should seat the bullets...50 thousandths from the lands.

I've used this bullet on Sitka Blacktails, Caribou, Goat, Black Bear, Brown Bear and Moose. It has worked well for everything and I'm happy with it. Good luck!

quote:

Originally posted by sep:
I've gotten submoa accuracy in five 338s using the following load which is listed in the Barnes Manual 4: 225 TTSX (I started with the Xbullet in the late 1990s) fueled by 67.5 grains IMR 4350, Winchester cases, and Federal 215 primers.

CCI 250 primers worked well too and since I switched to Norma cases, I found I had to increase the charge weight to 68.5 grains to get the same velocity. My only 24 inch barrelled 338 gave velocities around 2776 fps and my 26 inch barreled rifles produced anywhere from 2825-2860 fps.

Rifles were Browning Abolt, Browning Xbolt, Remington 700, Remington 700 with McGowen barrel, Weatherby Vanguard. Other powders I have tried are RL19, H4350 and Ramshot Hunter. IMR 4350 performed the best. Four of the five rifles shot best right where Barnes recommends you should seat the bullets...50 thousandths from the lands.

I've used this bullet on Sitka Blacktails, Caribou, Goat, Black Bear, Brown Bear and Moose. It has worked well for everything and I'm happy with it. Good luck!

The first 225 TTSX load mentioned is exactly what I use. I load to factory OAL, which is WAY off the lands in my Mod 7O, but it’s a shooting machine. The same goes for my 270. 130 TTSX with a max load of H4350 crimped into the first groove. Good shooting bullets.

To get my Ruger to shoot the best I had to use a Max charge of IMR4831.

Any thing less opened up the groups.

DGR I have an early Ruger 77R in 338 and I had trouble getting it to group. The bullet that shot best was the old Speer 275 semi pointed bullet. Great on moose. The early Rugers had a very long throat. Eventually I tried some 250 gr Sierras with H4831. 3/4 inch groups. Next surprise was 250 partitions. They shoot to the same spot as the Sierras. I'm really puzzled by your comment that 210 gr partitions zipped right through. You must have recovered the deer or how else would you know the bullet did not expand ? Partitions almost always exit but only the rear section. The front section almost always comes apart making a rather large wound.

I am buying a keg of imr 4350 to use in my 338 win mag and my 333 okh.
I have a bunch of the Speer 275 grain bullets I will try them .
I had nosler partitions in both the 338 win mag 210 grain and
The 300 win mag 180'grain zip through both shoulders on deer up close .
I had to shoot them in the head to kill them second shot.The exit hole was the same size
As the entrance hole .It didn't expand on the shoulder bones .They were right under the
Tree .I switched to 200 grain Winchester power points no.problems 3yards to 425 yards .
I shot a ton of deer and big.bucks with.them all one shot kills in their tracks .I tried the inaccurate hornady 200 grain same half dollar sized exit hole as the Winchester but they sucked accuracy wise .
I Didnt trust the nosler partitions any more on deer .It.probably would have opened fine further out .
It's hard to find a bullet that works right up close and out to 500 yards .
I was hoping the accubonds worked but they shot all over the place .
I shoot clover leaf groups at 100 yards all the time with the Winchester factory 200 grain .I shot a bunch.of groups under an inch at 200 yards also .I was happy the Speer 200 grain worked good too .
Our deer range from 80 to 300 pounds live weight so that is another factor .I have shot deer from every angle with 200 grain Winchester loads works perfict .They just got too high priced to shoot for practice any more .Ten boxes at $60 a box is no fun .I am loading all the empty brass I shot deer with now .
I hope that imr 4350 works awesome.I have been using r19 and r22.I.have totally up on hornady bullets and just about the nosler in this gun.I am going make my.old Ruger 77 243 into a 260 rem for the day I can no longer shoot 338 win mag .That will really suck I have 12 338 win mag rifles .

.338 Win Mag is an awesome caliber. I used to have a Ruger 77 and it was nothing to write home about. Bought a Rem 700 SS synthetic, bedded it myself, and it shoots really well - not a target gun, but everything into 1.25 and normally around 3/4. I remember shooting a 1.5 inch group sitting with a sling at 300 yards back when its barrel was newer.

IMO, accurate rifles shoot a variety of loads well. My Savage Lapua shoots anything I feed it into around 1/2 MOA and its best load puts them into 2 inches or less at 500 yards shooting prone off a bipod. Some of my most accurate guns are finicky about OAL, but even those shoot <1 MOA at other than optimum seating depths most of the time.

My 338 is a Ruger Hawkeye African model. Very picky shooter. Really hates nosler partition bullets. But, the Nosler "most accurate load" on their web site for the 200-210 gr. bullets proved very accurate with Barnes 210 TTSX. It's not a hot load: 72 gr. Reloader 19. OAL is based on the throat. About .005 off the lands as others have said.

My go to .338 load has been 75 grs of RL-19 also, but I prefer the 225 gr. Nosler Accubond at near 2900 FPS, and its my go to elk bullet also. Ive shot 4 elk with it, and its my favorite elk cartridge most of the time. this year and in the past I used the 30-06 with H414 and the 200 gr. Nosler Accubond for 2750 to 2800 FPS and it killed as well if not better than my .338, why that is I have no idea, just some assumptions, but the old 30-06 has a habit of surprising me again and again...

Didn't see R-17 up above.

My various 338 WM's use 69-70.5gn R-17 with a 225TTSX bullet for 2835fps. The variation in powder is primarily a factor of the tightness of the chamber. I've got a sloppy chamber in TZ that needs 70.5 grains.

My stainless Ruger 77 mark II Is more.accurate than my older 77 tang rifle but I hate
The swing safety on it.The stainless rifle has shot 3/4 inch groups at 200 yards with
Factory Remington 225 grain with the old Speer grand slam bullets in them .I put a laminated
Boyds stock on the stainless 77 the paddle Ruger stock was terrible to shoot and not
As accurate on it .I will.try some 225 grain accubonds in The stainless rifle also .
I think the 338 win mag is perfict for large game.including moose and brown bears .My best friend in Alaska
Used my 338 win mag stainless model 70 Winchester to.take.7 moose and a grizzly bear loved it.!

The Speer Grand slam is a good bullet. Use those for hunting for now. The A-Frame seems to be pretty forgiving for me as well. Good luck.

I have several boxes of 275 gr. Speer Grandslams for the .338, and a hundred rounds loaded up and I get 2409 FPS average with my load..Its super accurate and I keep them for Moose and big bear..I also have some 300 gr. 338 PP woodleighs, they worked great on one Cape buffalo for a specific shot thru a hole in the thick stuff at 100 yards, buff ran 100 yards leaving a road of blood, I closed on him with my iron sighted 404, but he was finished.

My elk load is the 225 Nosler Accubonds, its about perfect.

Were I limited ( God forbid ) to only one bullet for the .338 to use on everything, it would be the 250 gr. Nosler partition SPT bullet..It works on anything not demanding a solid. but on elephant it would work on a heart shot I betcha..

With 210gr Nosler Partitions you can get over
3000fps with Norma MRP, plus it is very accurate.

My Ruger 77 Hawkeye Stainless 338wm likes 210gr Nosler partition seated .025" off the lands over 73.6grs of R17 for 3023fps. This is a near max load so work up to it should you try it.
Biggest problem I find with Ruger rifles is you have to have them bedded right in a good stable stock.
Mine wouldn't shoot good till I put it in a H&S precision stock with a full metal action block.
Every other stock I had on it it would try to twist out of it and loosen the action screws even when torqued to 60inlbs front and rear with the center screw just snug.
Once I set it in the full metal action block stock it hasn't moved since.

I used the 210 Nosler for years, but had one more of less fail as zo found a thin wedding ring of jacket material and I guess the rest blew up, the only "failure" Ive ever had with a Nosler partition of any caliber..I say a failure, the elk only ran 40 steps and was dead when I got to her, the range was 351 yards ranged by my hunting buddy before I took the shot..I went to the 225 partition and Accubond after that, but for no particular reason other than I felt it was time for a change, Im an unforgiving soul on bullets..I really like those accubonds in most calibers btw, and hold no hard feelings with the partitions, any bullet can fail in a 20 year spand...

My first .338 WM was an early Ruger M-77 with tang safety. I mounted a Leupold Vari-x lll, 1.5x5 scope, and loaded some Nosler 250 gr partitions and went to the range. Three shots at 25yds for scope zero, then five shots at 100yds. I could cover the five shots with a quarter! Plenty good for an out of the box rifle for sure.
My hand loads consisted of Winchester brass, Winchester WLR primers, and 66.5grs of IMR 4350. I had no access to a chronograph, consequently the velocity was not recorded.

With 5 shots under a quarter, I see no need for a chronograph, just go shoot elk or whatever.